country birth_place title fideid birth_date birthname article_title name
united states hazleton , pennsylvania grandmaster -lrb- 1980 -rrb- 2000741 28 may 1947 andrew eden soltis andrew soltis
 andrew soltis
andrew soltis

andrew eden soltis -lrb- born may 28 , 1947 in hazleton , pennsylvania -rrb- is an american chess grandmaster , author and columnist .
soltis learned how the chess pieces move at age 10 when he came upon a how-to-play book in the public library in astoria , queens where he grew up .
he took no further interest in the game until he was 14 , when he joined an astoria chess club , then the marshall chess club and competed in his first tournament , the 1961 new york city junior championship .
he has written a weekly chess column for the new york post since 1972 .
his monthly column `` chess to enjoy '' in chess life , the official publication of the united states chess federation , was begun in 1979 and is the longest running column in that magazine .
he was named `` chess journalist of the year '' in 1988 and 2002 by the chess journalists of america .
soltis was one of the few americans in the 20th century who earned the international grandmaster title but was not a professional chess player .
he worked as a news reporter and editor for the new york post from 1969 until he retired in 2014 .
he began writing a weekly chess column for the post in 1972 and continued it after he retired .
he is considered one of the most prolific chess writers , having authored or coauthored more than 100 books and opening monographs about chess .
his books have been translated into spanish , french , german , italian and polish .
in 2014 his work mikhail botvinnik , the life and games of a world chess champion was named book of the year by the chess journalists of america and the english chess federation .
other honors for his books include the 1994 british chess federation award for frank marshall , united states champion and the cramer award in 2006 for soviet chess 1917-1991 and in 2006 for why lasker matters soltis has been inactive in tournaments since 2002 .
he reached his playing peak as a competitive player when he was rated the 74th best player in the world , in january 1971 .
he was inducted into the united states chess hall of fame in september 2011 .
he tied for first prize in the 1977 and 1982 u.s. open championships .
in 1970 , he played second board on the gold-medal winning us team in the 17th world student team championship and tied for the best overall score , 8-1 .
he was also a member of the silver-medal winning u.s. teams in the 14th and the 18th world student team championships .
soltis won the annual international tournament at reggio emilia , italy in 1972 and was awarded the international master title two years later .
his first place finishes in new york international tournaments in 1977 and 1980 resulted in his being awarded the international grandmaster title in 1980 .
he won the championship of the prestigious marshall chess club a record nine times , in 1967 , 1969 , 1970 , 1971 , 1974 , 1977 , 1979 , 1986 , and 1989 .
he also competed in four u.s. -lrb- closed -rrb- championships , 1974 , 1977 , 1978 and 1983 .
he is credited with the soltis variation of the sicilian defense , characterized by 12 ... h5 , after 1 e4 c5 2 nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 nxd4 nf6 5 nc3 g6 6 be3 bg7 7 f3 0-0 8 qd2 nc6 9 bc4 bd7 10 0-0-0 rc8 11 bb3 ne5 12 h4 .
previous experience showed that black often got mated if he allowed 13 h5 .
he also gave names to chess openings such as the nimzo-larsen attack , the baltic defense and the chameleon sicilian .
several names for pawn structures and moves , such as the marco hop and the boleslavsky hole , were popularized by his book pawn structure chess .
he introduced the russian chess term priyome to english literature in studying chess made easy .
soltis graduated from city college of new york in 1969 .
he has been married to marcy soltis , a fellow journalist and tournament chess player , since 1981 .
