Isaac Rice

Isaac Leopold Rice ( born February 22, 1850 in Home Guard on the wine route, † November 2, 1915 in New York City ) was an American lawyer, businessman and chess player of German origin.

The family emigrated from Rice in the second half of the 19th century from Germany to the U.S., where Isaac Rice studied in Philadelphia. Rice specializing in the railway law and was the founder of railway companies in different cities in the United States.

He organized in 1888 the Electric Storage Battery Company (ESB ) and invested in the development of more powerful batteries. He developed the company through acquisitions of competitors and patents by the end of 1894 the market leader for stationary batteries and began to expand into other markets.

So it was in 1897 establishing the Electric Vehicle Company (EVC ) which was for a short time the largest automobile manufacturers in the United States. Rice sold the company in 1899 to a consortium led by William Collins Whitney. After he was forced to watch a series of financial scandals and legal wrangling with investors to Pope withdrew and EVC recently served only to use the acquired Whitney Selden patent.

The designer and submarine pioneer John Philip Holland joined in 1898 Rice zoom to get him to invest in his company. The result was the 1899 1899 Electric Boat Company which still exists today.

Through his work as an entrepreneur Rice was very wealthy before the turn of the century.

His passion was chess, which he played as an amateur and promoted as a patron. According to him, the incorrect from today's perspective Rice Gambit is named in King Knight 's Gambit. Rice committed many top players, including world champion Emanuel Lasker, to analyze it and prove its playability. 1904 doppelrundiges masters tournament with six participants took place in Monte Carlo, where the Rice Gambit was prescribed as the opening. The first place was shared by Frank Marshall and Rudolf Swiderski, the total prize fund amounted to 2500 francs. According to Oxford Companion to Chess the gambit is a " grotesque monument to the vanity of a rich man ."

Isaac Rice was married to Julia Hyneman Barnett and had six children.