Sportsמשה צ'רניאק

Moshe Czerniak

Moshe Czerniak was a Polish-Israeli chess player, writer and journalist who held the title of International Master from 1952.

1910 to 1984Israeli Chess Championship titlesRepresenting Israel at Chess OlympiadsChess column in HaaretzFounding 64 Squares magazine

Born: 3 February 1910, Warsaw
Died: 31 August 1984, Tel Aviv
Occupation: chess player, non-fiction writer, journalist

Moshe Czerniak was born in 1910 in Warsaw

Czerniak was born in Warsaw in 1910 to a wealthy family. His parents sent him to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he met chess players such as Alexander Alekhine and Savielly Tartakower.

In 1934 he moved to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. He won the national chess championship in 1936 and 1938. In 1939 he traveled to the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires and stayed in Argentina when World War II began.

In Argentina he competed in many tournaments and won in Buenos Aires in 1944 and 1948. He returned to Israel in 1950. He later won tournaments in Vienna, Reggio Emilia, Amsterdam and Netanya, and won the Israeli Championship again in 1955.

He wrote chess books in three languages and founded the first Israeli chess magazine, 64 Squares, in 1956. For many years he edited the chess column of the daily Haaretz. He also founded a chess club in Tel Aviv and taught chess.

In 1976 the Ministry of Education gave him a special lifetime award for chess education. He died in Tel Aviv in 1984. The annual Tel Aviv chess festival is named after him.