Harkness Kenneth (12.11.1898 – 04.10.1972)

American chess amateur and writer born in Scotland who was inducted into the Chess Hall of Fame in 1997.

He made key contributions to the development of numerical rating systems for chess players and was a key figure in developing and proving the viability of the Swiss System chess tournament pairing system.
He coauthored one of the most successful chess books ever written, An Invitation to Chess in 1945 with Irving Chernev.

First United Chess Federation Business Manager ( 1952, a position now called Executive Director). Invented the “Median System” for computing tiebreaks in Swiss System tournaments. Wrote or co-wrote key

The author or  co-author of: The Official Blue Book and Encyclopedia of Chess (1956), The Official Chess Handbook (1967), Official Chess Rulebook (1970, Co-author).