{{Short description|American chess coach and author (1912–2001)}} {{other people||John Collins (disambiguation){{!}}John Collins}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Infobox chess biography |name = John W. Collins |image = File:JWC Lombardy Fischer.jpg |caption = Jack Collins (center) with William Lombardy and Bobby Fischer |birth_name = John William Collins |country = United States |birth_date = {{Birth date|1912|9|23|mf=yes}} |birth_place = Newburgh, New York, U.S. |death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|12|2|1912|9|23|mf=yes}} |death_place = |title = US Corr. Chess Champion (1943) <br />NY State Chess Champion (1952) |rating = |peakrating = |ranking = |peakranking = |FideID = }} '''John "Jack" William Collins''' (September 23, 1912 – December 2, 2001) was an American chess master, author, and teacher.
== Early life == Collins was born in Newburgh, New York. "His father, John Thomas Collins, was a flutist and piccolo player who was frequently in John Philip Sousa's orchestra. His mother, Carolyn LaSears Collins, was a homemaker."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/04/nyregion/john-w-collins-89-dies-was-fischer-s-chess-tutor.html|title=John W. Collins, 89, Dies; Was Fischer's Chess Tutor|last=Mcclain|first=Dylan Loeb|date=2001-12-04|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-06-01}}</ref> Collins used a wheelchair due to "a birth injury".<ref>Collins 1974, p. 19.</ref>{{failed verification|reason=Source does not mention a wheelchair|date=December 2025}}
When he was in his teens, Collins met Frederick Huhn, the family's 80-year-old German landlord of their home at 69 Hawthorne Street in Brooklyn, NY. Frederick taught Collins how to play chess.<ref>Collins 1974, p. 20.</ref> From there, Collins started reading chess books, eventually amassing "a library of over six hundred."<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 22">Collins 1974, p. 22.</ref>
== The Hawthorne Chess Club == Collins tried to join the Marshall Chess Club, but found the players to be too strong, and the location too far away for him to travel to. Hence, he started teaching "the other boys on the block"<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 22"/> and the Hawthorne Chess Club was founded.<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 23">Collins 1974, p. 23.</ref>
Collins wrote to the local newspapers and "obtained the names and addresses of several high-school teams in the metropolitan area." This led to inter-club matches between Collins' team and the high-school teams, mostly played out of Collins' living room.<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 23"/>
Eventually Collins founded the Brooklyn Chess League.<ref>Collins 1974, p. 27.</ref> He later moved to 91 Lenox Road where the club gradually changed from a chess league to a casual meeting place for chess celebrities to meet. Guests and visitors included Irving Chernev, Hermann Helms, and Irving Riskie.<ref>Collins 1974, p. 29.</ref>
== Chess achievements == Collins won the 1943 United States Correspondence Championship, defeating Dr. Erich W. Marchand in a final playoff match.<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 30">Collins 1974, p. 30.</ref> Collins won the 1952 New York State Championship, ahead of Max Pavey, Anthony Santasiere, James Sherwin, and Frank Anderson.<ref name="Collins 1974, p. 30"/> He won the Marshall Chess Club championship in 1953 and was soon thereafter ranked number 17 in the country.<ref>Collins 1974, p. 31.</ref> Collins was a renowned chess teacher.<ref>Brady (2011), p. 5.</ref>
== Teaching and mentorship == There has been a long-held belief that Collins was Fischer's teacher and coach, as well as a teacher and coach for William Lombardy, Robert Byrne, Donald Byrne, Raymond Weinstein, Salvatore Matera, and Lewis Cohen.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Brady 1973, p. 12.</ref><ref>Brady, 2011, p. 50</ref><ref>{{"'}}He taught Bobby Fischer to play chess{{'"}} is the way I am sometimes publicly and privately introduced.Collins 1974, p. 47.</ref> Some have gone as far as to call Collins "the Yoda of American chess",<ref>Brady 2011, p. 249.</ref> while others refer to Collins as Fischer's "mentor", not his teacher or coach.<ref>Collins was Bobby Fischer's "mentor". Edmonds & Eidinow 2004, pp. 6, 30, and 221.</ref><ref>Collins was Fischer's "mentor". Donaldson & Tangborn 1999, p. 27.</ref><ref>"Collins was my friend and mentor but not my teacher". Lombardy 2011, p. 24.</ref><ref>"Fischer was also extremely fortunate in having John W. (Jack) Collins, a chess master, who was a friend, guide, and mentor to him during his early formative years". Bisguier in Wade & O'Connell 1973, p. 44.</ref> Collins himself states he did not teach Bobby Fischer,<ref>"Collins, for his part, said that he never "taught" Bobby in the strictest sense," and that Fischer "knew before instructed." Collins 1974, pp. 48–49. Quoted in Brady 2011, p. 52.</ref> Robert Byrne,<ref>"I did not give Bob any formal lessons." Collins 1974, p. 102.</ref> William Lombardy,<ref>"I never actually gave Bill any lessons." Collins 1974, p. 137.</ref> or Donald Byrne,<ref>"Don never had any lessons from me or anybody else." Collins 1974, p. 171.</ref> yet taught Raymond Weinstein,<ref>Collins 1974, p. 201.</ref> Sal Matera,<ref>Collins 1974, p. 243.</ref> and Lewis Cohen.<ref>Collins 1974, p. 282.</ref>
Lombardy says of Collins as a chess teacher and coach:<ref>Lombardy 2011, p. 219, and 28.</ref><blockquote>Jack Collins was not in any way capable of teaching me, the Byrne Brothers, Raymond Weinstein, let alone Bobby Fischer. All had entered his home in friendship and were already superior masters, far past the ability of Collins to impart anything but trivial knowledge...I cannot imagine even today that anyone could consider that Collins had the strength of knowledge to coach the champion that Bobby already was by the time he reached Collins apartment! Somehow the myth of Collins' professional skills persists. Back then because Collins was in a wheelchair, I did not desire to burst his bubble... [but that] with my misplaced sympathy for Collins gone, I attempt to correct and inform.</blockquote>
==Books== * {{cite book | title=My Seven Chess Prodigies | date=December 4, 2019| publisher=Ishi Press International| isbn=978-4871879620}} (1975) * {{cite book | title=Maxims of Chess | isbn=0-679-14403-X| last1=Collins| first1=John W.| date=January 12, 1981| publisher=Crown Publishing}} (1978) * {{cite book | title=Modern Chess Openings | id=ASIN B000LF0NMO}} Ninth Edition, Edited by Walter Korn and John W. Collins (1957)
==Notes== {{reflist|30em}}
==References== * {{cite book |last=Brady|first=Frank|authorlink=Frank Brady (writer) |title=Profile of a Prodigy |year=1965 |edition=1st |publisher=David McKay |id=OCLC 2574422 }} * {{cite book |last=Brady|first=Frank |title=Profile of a Prodigy |year=1973 |edition=2nd |publisher=David McKay |id=OCLC 724113 }} * {{cite book |last=Brady |first=Frank |title=Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall – from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness |publisher=Crown |year=2011 |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-307-46390-6}} * {{cite book |last=Collins|first=John W. |title=My Seven Chess Prodigies |year=1974 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0-671-21941-3 }} * {{cite book |last1=Donaldson|first1=John|authorlink=John Donaldson (chess player) |last2=Tangborn|first2=Eric |title=The Unknown Bobby Fischer |url=https://archive.org/details/The_Unknown_Bobby_Fischer|year=1999 |publisher=International Chess Enterprises |isbn=1-879479-85-0 }} * {{cite book |last1=Edmonds|first1=David|authorlink=David Edmonds (philosopher) |last2=Eidinow|first2=John |title=Bobby Fischer Goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time |year=2004 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-051025-1 }} * {{cite book |last=Lombardy|first=William|authorlink=William Lombardy |title=Understanding Chess: My System, My Games, My Life |year=2011 |publisher=Russell Enterprises |isbn=978-1-93649-022-6 }} * {{cite book |last1=Wade|first1=Robert G.|authorlink=Robert Wade (chess player) |last2=O'Connell|first2=Kevin J.|authorlink2=Kevin O'Connell (chess player) |title=The Games of Robert J. Fischer |year=1972 |edition=1st |publisher=Batsford }}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, John W.}} Category:American chess writers Category:American male non-fiction writers Category:Chess coaches Category:1912 births Category:2001 deaths Category:20th-century American chess players Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Sportspeople from Newburgh, New York