Abraham Kupchik was an American chess

Chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 master.

Abraham Kupchik was born into a Jewish family in Brest

Brest, Belarus

Brest , formerly also Brest-on-the-Bug and Brest-Litovsk , is a city in Belarus at the border with Poland opposite the city of Terespol, where the Bug River and Mukhavets rivers meet...

 (then Russian Empire

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, later Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, now Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

). His family emigrated to the USA in 1903.

He was an accountant by profession.

He won the Manhattan Chess Club

Manhattan Chess Club

The Manhattan Chess Club in Manhattan was the second-oldest chess club in the United States . The club was founded in 1877 and started with three dozen players; membership later reached into the hundreds before the club ended its existence in 2002...

 Championship ten times outright and once shared. In 1915, he tied for third/fourth place with Oscar Chajes

Oscar Chajes

Oscar Chajes was an Austrian, then American chess player.-Biography:Chajes was Jewish and was born in Brody, Galicia, in what is now Ukraine. In 1909, he won in Excelsior, Minnesota . In 1910, he took 2nd in Chicago. In January/February 1911, he tied for 3rd-4th in New York...

, behind José Raúl Capablanca

José Raúl Capablanca

José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. One of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play...

 and Frank James Marshall in New York. In 1916, he tied for 2nd-4th with Dawid Janowski

Dawid Janowski

Dawid Markelowicz Janowski was a leading Polish chess master and subsequent French citizen....

 and Borislav Kostić

Borislav Kostic

Borislav Kostić was a Serbian professional chess grandmaster from Vršac , then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire ....

, behind Capablanca, in New York. In 1918, he won at Rye Beach, N.Y.

After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he won at Troy

Troy, New York

Troy is a city in the US State of New York and the seat of Rensselaer County. Troy is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany and Schenectady, forming a region popularly called the Capital...

 1919 (New York State-ch). He was equal first with Marshall at Lake Hopatcong

Lake Hopatcong

Lake Hopatcong is the largest freshwater body in the state of New Jersey, USA, approximately 4 square miles in area. The lake is located in the mountains of northern New Jersey, north of Netcong and along the border between Sussex and Morris counties.The lake is within the borders of four...

 1923 (the Ninth American Chess Congress

American Chess Congress

The American Chess Congress was a series of chess tournaments held in the United States, a predecessor to the current U.S. Chess Championship. It had nine editions, the first played in 1857 and the last in 1923.-First American Chess Congress :...

). In 1924, he lost a match to Efim Bogoljubow

Efim Bogoljubow

Efim Dmitriyevich Bogolyubov was a Russo-German chess grandmaster who won numerous events and played two matches with Alexander Alekhine for the world championship.-Early career:...

 (+1 -3 =2) in New York. In 1925 he drew a match with Carlos Torre Repetto

Carlos Torre Repetto

Carlos Torre Repetto was a chess grandmaster from Mexico.Torre won the Louisiana championship at New Orleans 1923. He was first at Detroit 1924, followed by Samuel Factor, Herman H. Hahlbohm, Norman Whitaker, Samuel Reshevsky, etc., and at Rochester 1924...

 (+1 -1 =4) in New York. In 1926, he finished 2nd, behind Capablanca, in Lake Hopatcong.

Kupchik played for the US team in the 6th Chess Olympiad

6th Chess Olympiad

The 6th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between August 16 and August 31, 1935, in Warsaw, Poland...

 at Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 1935. He scored (+6 -0 =8) on third board, and won the individual bronze medal and team gold medal. He played on Board 9 in the 1945 USSR-USA radio match

USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945

The USA vs. USSR radio chess match 1945 was a chess match between the USA and the USSR that was conducted over the radio from September 1 to September 4, 1945. The ten leading masters of the United States played the ten leading masters of the Soviet Union for chess supremacy. The match was played...

, losing ½-1½ to Vladimir Makogonov

Vladimir Makogonov

Vladimir Andreevich Makogonov was a chess player from Azerbaijan. He was born in Nakhchivan but lived in Baku for most of his life. He became an International Master in 1950 and was awarded an honorary Grandmaster title in 1987. Makogonov never became well known outside the Soviet Union, but was...

.

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