Hermann Helms

Helms was born in Brooklyn, but spent much of his childhood in Hamburg, Germany and in Halifax, Canada, where a schoolmate taught him chess.

As a player, Helms twice won the New York State Championship, in 1906 and 1925,[1] and was of national Master strength, with an emphasis on sharp attacking play.

Helms also organized and promoted national chess tours for top players such as Capablanca, Alekhine, Lasker, Géza Maróczy, and Frank Marshall.

Helms was called "the most important journalist in American chess history" by Arnold Denker and Larry Parr, in their well-respected 1995 book The Bobby Fischer I Knew And Other Stories (p. 329), which is the major source for this article.

Helms encouraged and stimulated the young Fischer, who would develop very rapidly, and become U.S. Champion by age 14 in 1957, later going on to win the World Chess Championship in 1972.