Horace Bigelow

Who was Horace Bigelow?

Horace Ransom Bigelow was an American chess master and organizer.

He learned the moves from a Swiss governess in Lucerne, Switzerland, at the age of ten. Several years later, he played chess with Count Antonio Sacconi in a Jesuit boarding school at Villa Mondragone, Frascati, a few miles outside of Rome, and became an Oxford University Champion. He took 3rd, behind Edward Guthlac Sergeant and Max Euwe, at Bromley 1920, and took 3rd at Malvern 1921. Then he moved to the United States.

He divided the third prize with Jacob Bernstein, Dawid Janowski, and ten-year-old Samuel Reshevsky at New York 1922, tied for 13-14th at Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey 1923, took 6th at New York 1924, took 10th at Bradley Beach 1929, and tied for 6-8th at New York 1929.

He was, as a prominent member of the Manhattan Chess Club, one of organizers of the New York 1924 chess tournament won by Emanuel Lasker ahead of José Raúl Capablanca. He edited a chess column in the New York Evening Post, and the Liberty magazine.