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== Early life == Chess was born to [[History of the Jews in Poland|Polish-Jewish]] parents in [[Motal]], now in [[Belarus]].<ref name="bluestogold">Cohodas, Nadine (2000). ''Spinning Blues into Gold: The Chess Brothers and the Legendary Chess Records''. New York: St. Martins. [http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html Bluestogold.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204194237/http://www.bluestogold.com/index2.html |date=February 4, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|first=Nate |last=Bloom |author-link=Nate Bloom|title=Jewish Stars|publisher=[[Cleveland Jewish News]]|date=December 5, 2008|url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/archives/jewish-stars/article_267bed47-31ea-5941-8a06-f04ecc105ae1.html}}</ref><ref name=CTObit>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-phil-chess-dead-20161019-story.html|title=Phil Chess, co-founder of blues label Chess Records, dies|first=Tribune news|last=services|date=October 20, 2016 |publisher=chicagotribune.com|access-date=July 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=keJvCQAAQBAJ&q=observant%20jew|first=Rich |last=Cohen|title=The Record Men: The Chess Brothers and the Birth of Rock & Roll|publisher=[[W. W. Norton]]|date=October 17, 2005|isbn=9780393352504}}</ref> He and his brother, [[Phil Chess|Fiszel]], sister, Malka, and mother arrived in New York in 1928 from Poland. They quickly went to [[Chicago]] to join their father, Joseph, who was already engaged in the liquor business, which was illegal at the height of [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] and controlled in Chicago by [[Al Capone]].<ref>Gordon, Robert, 2003, ''Can't Be Satisfied: The Life and Works of Muddy Waters'', pp. 89β90</ref> The family name was changed to Chess, with Lejzor becoming Leonard and Fiszel becoming [[Phil Chess|Philip]].
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