Bill Wall's Chess Blog

  In 1980, John Litvinchuk (1967- ), age 12, became the youngest American chess master ever up to that time.   He won the Laura Aspis Prize for being the number one ranked American under the age of 13.   In 1982, he was National High School co-champion.   In 1986, he won the US Junior Championship.   (source: Chess Life , Mar 1980, p. 3)   In 1978, Arpad Elo (1903-1992) ranked the best chess players in history.   Their ratings were based on a five-year peak performance.   The top players were Fischer (2780), Capablanca (2725), Karpov (2725), Botvinnik (2720), Lasker ( 2720), and Tal (2700).   (source: Chess Life , Mar 1980, p. 10) In 1980, the World Open had a $52,000 prize fund.   In 1981, the prize fund was $53,000.   It had only 702 players, the smallest World Open ever.   There was a 5-way tie and none of the winners were grandmasters.   This was the first time that a grandmaster failed to win the tournament or tie for first place (this also happened in 1982).   (source: Ches

  In 1970, the top USCF players were Fischer (2755), Reshevsky (2634), Benko (2575), Evans (2561), Kavalek (2535), and Lombardy (2523), and Robert Byrne (2505).   Top Junior was Ken Rogoff (2328).    (source: Chess Life & Review , Mar 1970, p. 160 and June 1970, p. 336) In 1969, there were 636 students that competed in the Third Annual Los Angeles Scholastic Open Chess Tournament.   This was the largest assemblage of chess players ever to participate in a single chess event outside of New York City.   Over 150 trophies were presented by Mrs. Gregor Piatigorsky.     (source: Chess Life & Review , April 1970, p. 234) On May 6, 1970, Bobby Fischer won at Rovinj-Zagreb, scoring 13 out of 17.   Fischer was playing White against  Vlatko   Kovacevic  at Zagreb.   On his 18 th  move, Fischer had a chance to win if Black made the obvious move.   Petrosian  and  Korchnoi , who were watching the game, spotted Fischer ’ s deadly intention and were analyzing the position in a diffe

  On June 1, 1960, a visiting seaman, Michael I. George, lost a chess game to free-lance writer Loren Disney at Chumley’s Greenwich Village restaurant.   George then argued the game with free-lancer Clinton Curtis, who was watching the game.   Curtis struck George.   George struck back but had a beer glass in his hand.   The glass shattered, cutting Curtis’ throat, and Curtis died.   He was 43.   (source: Chess Review , July 1960, p. 197)   In 1960, Anthony Quinn (1915-2001) brought a chess set on location while the film, “Guns of Navarone,” was being shot in Greece.   He played chess against Gregory Peck, David Niven, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quail, and James Darren.   He said that James Darren was the best player of all the stars he played chess with.   (source: Chess Review , July 1960, p. 199) In 1960, there were 1,281 entries in the Liverpool Junior Congress, the largest number of players ever gathered in England up to that time.   Over 300 prizes were distributed.   (source:

  Robin Ault (1941-1994) was the first person to win the U.S. Junior Championship three times in a row (1959, 1960, 1961).   After the 1958 U.S. Junior Championship, the USCF decided to allow the U.S. Junior Champion seeded in the U.S. Championship.   He was invited to the 1959-1960 U.S. Championship but lost all 11 games.   Bobby Fischer won the event for the 3 rd time in a row.   Ault also took last place in the blitz championship, won by Benko.   Fischer took 3 rd place.   The USCF never seeded a junior champion again.    His older brother, Leslie, won the 1960 U.S. National Intercollegiate Chess Championship.   Robin earned a PhD and was a college professor and computer software engineer. In the 1959-60 U.S. Chess Championship, Reshevsky took 3 rd place, behind Fischer and Robert Byrne.   This was the first time since 1936 that Reshevsky finished lower than second.   He had played in 9 U.S. Chess Championships, winning 5 times.   (source: Chess Life , Feb 5, 1960, p. 1)