Kenneth Harkness (1898-1972) was a chess organizer and a manager of the United States Chess Federation. From left, a white king, black rook and queen, white pawn, black knight, and white bishop in Staunton chess pieces. ... The United States Chess Federation (USCF) is the governing chess organization within the United States and is one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 and grew gradually until 1972, when membership doubled due to interest in Bobby Fischers rise to the World Championship. ...
He 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 US Chess hall of fame. A Swiss system tournament is a commonly used type of tournament in chess and other games where players or teams need to be paired to face each other. ... The ELO rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess and Go. ... Various fields of endeavour have established Halls of Fame that honour individuals of noteworthy achievement in their respective fields. ...
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. Irving Chernev was a prolific Russian-American chess author whose most famous book is Logical Chess: Move by Move (1957). ...
He 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.
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.
Sarah Hawkins *(sic Harkness) was born July 2, 1829, at Catskill, N. [Baptised at Gilchrist Memorial Church in Kortright, Delaware Co., NY Sep 18, 1831; that record shows her birth as 2 July 1831] departed this life Nov. 20, 1917, age 88 years, 4 months and 18 days.
Harkness was born December 9, 1913, in Davenport, daughter of Mrs.
Harkness, after the death of her husband, Rev. George Harkness, March 10, 1915, andwith her son George came to Newton from Wichita and resided at the home of Mr.
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