Kenneth Harkness

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Kenneth Harkness (b. November 12, 1896 in Glasgow, Scotland, d. October 4, 1972 in Yugoslavia) was a chess organizer. He was Business Manager of the United States Chess Federation from about 1952 to about 1960. He was also the editor of Chess Review, which merged into Chess Life.

Kenneth Harkness died in Yugoslavia, where he was an arbiter at the Chess Olympiad. He lived in Boca Raton, Florida. He became an International Arbiter in 1972. He was a member of the FIDE Permanent Rules Commission.

Harkness was responsible for bringing Swiss system tournaments to the United States, and also introduced the Harkness rating system, which was a precursor to the Elo rating system. One method of tiebreaks in Swiss systems, where players tied on points are ranked by the sum of the opponents scores minus the top score and the bottom score, is named after him. For his services, Harkness is in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

Harkness co-authored a book, An Invitation to Chess with Irving Chernev, as well as being responsible for a number of the first American chess rulebooks.

Kenneth Harkness was a pseudonym. His real name was Stanley Edgar.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Books

• Harkness, Kenneth (1956), The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess, McKay

• Harkness, Kenneth (1967), Official Chess Handbook, McKay

• Harkness, Kenneth (1970), Official Chess Rulebook, McKay, ISBN 0-679-13028-4

[edit] References

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[edit] External links

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