Israel Albert Horowitz (often known as Al Horowitz or I. A. Horowitz) was born on November 15, 1907, in Brooklyn, New York. He was one of the strongest players in the world. He won the prize for best score in the World Chess Olympics in Warsaw Poland. He defeated Soviet Grandmaster Salo Flohr in the 1946 USA-USSR match. He was the New York Times chess columnist for ten years. He died on January 18, 1973. Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1902–1960) was the World's Leading Authority on Games. He was conversant with nearly 500 different intellectual games and was generally considered the principal authority on the subject. He knew more intellectual games than anybody else in the world. He wrote books about many of them. He also wrote books on mathematics, puzzles and lexicography. He was a member of the National Lexicographic Board, of which he was vice president until 1956. He previously was executive editor of the New American Webster Dictionaries and the Wonder Book Cyclopedia, editor of synonyms for the Funk and Wagnalls' dictionaries and author of or collaborator on more than twenty books on card, board and mathematical games. During World War II he was the chief instructor for the Office of Strategic Services, which trained cryptographers and cryptanalysts. He authored or co-authored more than 29 books on games and served as games consultant for the Association of American Playing Card Manufacturers. His books include books on mathematics, card games including especially solitaire and hobbies such as his book, “Guide to popular hobbies: Photography, stamp collecting, model-making, and other fascinating pursuits”. He revised and updated several editions of the classic work “According to Hoyle”. Three of his books were compendiums of mathematical games and Puzzles. The Mott-Smith Trophy was donated by friends in memory of Geoffrey Mott-Smith in 1961 and made retroactive to 1958 to include all the winners. It is awarded to the player who wins who wins the most master points at the spring American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). Point Count Chess was his last book. He died on August 19, 1960, just after this book had been published. Geoffrey Mott-Smith was born in 1902 in Paris, where his father was United States Consul. His later books include most of the "Hoyle" books that give rules of card and other games. He was chairman of the Problem Committee of the United States Chess Federation. He is famous for the quote, “In the realm of play, chess stands alone in dignity.”
