Julius du Mont

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} '''Julius du Mont''' (15 December 1881, in Paris – 7 April 1956, in Hastings) was a French-born pianist, piano teacher, chess player, journalist, editor and writer. He studied music at the Frankfurt Conservatoire and at Heidelberg, and became a concert pianist. He emigrated to England as a young man and became a successful piano teacher. Amongst his pupils was Edna Iles. He settled in London and also gained a reputation as a strong chess player. He won club and county chess championships in the period leading up to World War I, and showed his mastery of the English language by writing a manual on the Lewis gun. After the war, chess writing took up more and more of his time. Perhaps his most famous work was ''500 Master Games of Chess'' (1952), written in collaboration with Savielly Tartakower.

For some years, du Mont was chess columnist of ''The Field'' and of the ''Manchester Guardian''. From 1940 to 1949, he was general editor of ''British Chess Magazine''.

In 1955 du Mont suffered a stroke.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ingle |first=Sean |date=2025-09-06 |title=Record-breaker: Leonard Barden’s chess column celebrates 70 years and a place in history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/sep/06/record-breaker-leonard-barden-chess-column-celebrates-70-years |access-date=2026-05-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> He died 7 April 1956.

==Bibliography== *''Chess Openings Illustrated'' *''I Centre Counter Defence'' (1919) *''II Centre and Danish Gambit'' (1920) *''The Elements of Chess'' (1925) *''The Basis of Combination in Chess'' (1938) *''200 Miniature Games'' (1941) *''More Miniature Games'' (1953) *''500 Master Games of Chess'' (with Savielly Tartakower), two volumes (1952) *''100 Master Games of Modern Chess'' (with Savielly Tartakower), (1954)

==Translations== *Edward Lasker’s ''Chess Strategy'' *Alekhine’s two volumes of ''My Best Games of Chess'' (the first with M. E. Goldstein) *Rudolf Spielmann’s ''Art of Sacrifice in Chess''

==References== *''British Chess Magazine'', May 1956, p119 (Obituary)

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.bcmchess.co.uk British Chess Magazine]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mont, Julius du}} Category:1881 births Category:1956 deaths Category:20th-century French chess players Category:20th-century British chess players Category:British writers Category:French chess writers Category:French male non-fiction writers Category:20th-century French male writers Category:French emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts alumni Category:Chess theoreticians Category:British magazine editors Category:German–English translators Category:British columnists Category:The Guardian journalists Category:20th-century French male pianists Category:British male pianists Category:British piano educators Category:French music educators Category:Musicians from Paris Category:Gun writers