Isaac Rice

Isaac Leopold Rice (February 22, 1850 in Wachenheim, Bavaria – November 2, 1915) was a U.S. inventor and a chess patron and author.

Biography

Born in Germany, Rice's mother emigrated to the United States in the second half of the 19th century to the USA when he was nearly six years of age. He was educated at the Central High School in Philadelphia and later, at nineteen he was sent to Paris where he studied music for three years. While in Paris he sent stories to the Philadelphia newspapers for printing. On his return to America, he moved to New York city and practiced music before going back to school to become a lawyer. After graduating from Columbia College of Law in 1880 he practiced law for the rest of the decade.

During the practice of law he became more aware of and busy in the transportation business, mainly at the recently expanding Railroads empires, and its multiplying legal imbroglios. He was invited to start a publishing company by some associates from the Music printing societies. In the 1890's he was looking to move and diversify and possibly investing early in the new emerging companies with a potential for growth. He became first president of the "Forum" publishing and then later on, of the Electric Storage Battery Co. in 1897.

At that time and position, he became aware of the attempts since 1896 to keep afloat the costly operations and deliver the first efficient submergible boats for the US Military, running mainly on electrical power while underwater. A year after the launching afloat of their first vessel, the Holland VI when the management of John Philip Holland and Lewis Nixon became short to finish making its last details operable, running out of gas and effective cash, Isaac Rice moved in taking over and renaming the company officially as the Electric Boat co. on 7 February 1899. A few months after negotiations and multiple testings, the United States Government purchased it, renamed it, and awarded to the new trasppassed company a contract to build its first fleet of Plunger class Navy submarines. During World War I, Rice's new company (Electric Boat) and its subsidiaries built 85 Navy submarines and 722 submarine chasers. Electric Boat is the parent company to General Dynamics Corporation and this one is the company's "Cold War" progeny.

In 1902 he received from Bates College the honorary degree of LL.D.

The books published by Rice include: "What Is Music?" (New York, 1875), which was supplemented by "How the Geometrical Lines Have Their Counterparts in Music" (ib. 1880). The latter work was subsequently made part of the "Humboldt Library of Science." He also contributed a large number of articles to the "Century," "Forum," and "North American Review" publications.

Rice married Julia Hyneman Barnett in 1885. They had six children: Muriel, Dorothy, Isaac Leopold Jr., Marion, Marjorie and Julian.

Chess

Rice was a prominent figure in the American chess world. He became president of the Manhattan Chess Club, and presented for competition several trophies, including the one that was competed for annually by cable by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, representing England, and those of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Columbia, representing the United States.

In 1895 he discovered a variation of the Kieseritzky gambit, which then became known as the Rice Gambit and sponsored tournaments where the opening became the starting point of each game. Emanuel Lasker and Mikhail Chigorin were two of many players who contested these tournaments, with bonus prizes for white wins. In 1904 he formed the Rice Gambit Association which published a detailed analysis of the effects of the move.

Notable chess game

Rice played White in this game against Wordsworth Donisthorpe, played in London in 1892. 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7 4.Bc4 Bh4+ 5.g3 fxg3 6.O-O d5 7.exd5 gxh2+ 8.Kh1 Bh3 9.Qe2+ Kf8 10.Rd1 Bg4 11.d4 Nf6 12.Nc3 Nh5 13.Ne4 f5 14.Rf1 "Fine repartee. If Black now take the knight, White recovers with advantage by 15 Nxh4+." Nd7 15.Qg2 Bf6 16.Neg5 Qe7 17.Ne6+ Kf7 18.Nfg5+ Bxg5 "A beautiful termination is here avoided if 18...Kg6 19 Qxg4 fxg4 20 Bd3+ Kh6 21 Nf7 mate." 19.Qxg4 Bxc1 20.Qxh5+ g6 21.Rxf5+ "White’s conduct of the attack is of high scientific order. This involves a well devised sacrifice of the exchange which we find sound in various intricate complications." Nf6 22.d6 "White’s play in the main deserves special marks of distinction." cxd6 23.Rxf6+ "Quite in keeping with the fine quality of the preceding train of moves on White’s part." Qxf6 24.Qd5 "White administers the quietus with this very clever stroke." b5 25.Qb7+ Qe7 26.Ng5+ Kf6 27.Ne4+ Qxe4+ 28.Qxe4 1-0 Annotations by World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz in the New York Tribune.

References

• Adler, Cyrus; Porter, A. (1901–1906), "Rice, Isaac Leopold", in Singer, Isidore, Jewish Encyclopedia, 10, pp. 405–6, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=275&letter=R 

External links

• Short biography
• Morris view of Holland more widely accepted in our era at www.gdeb.com Isaac Leopold Rice is acknowledged at this site as a key player instrumental in the founding of John Philip Holland's company. Others who played key roles include:Elihu B. Frost, Frank Taylor Cable, Lawrence York Spear, and naval constructor, Arthur Leopold Busch.
• CorpWatch : General Dynamics at www.corpwatch.org Site covering the history of General Dynamics beginning with Electric Boat Company.
• Dutch Submarines: Bill of Complaint Electric Boat Company - J.P. Holland Ironic lawsuit filed by Isaac L. Rice and Electric Boat against John Philip Holland in October 1905.
• Isaac Rice player profile at ChessGames.com