The Amazing Shipiro Brothers

     Harry Shapiro (1914-2014) accompanied his father, a freelance French horn player, to gigs across Boston, carrying his father’s instrument and sitting in the pit next to him. That was the start of his musical career that included more than six decades of involvement with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 
     From 1937 to 1976, he was a horn player. When his performing days ended he began working backstage as the orchestra's assistant personnel manager, transportation manager and later in other roles. Shipiro also was responsible for hiring players and helping to build the orchestras of the Boston Ballet and the Opera Company of Boston and later the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. Well into his 70s, in the 1990s, he began traveling in the winter season to Miami, where he consulted for another professional training orchestra, the New World Symphony. 
     His brother, Oscar, didn't quite make it to the century mark, dying of cancer on New Year's Day, 2002, at the age of 92. He had one of the longest careers in the history of American chess. Known for his sharp attacking style and courteous manner away from it, his career spanned eight decades. 
     The amazing thing about Shipiro was that he was active tournament player until just a few months before his death and he had the record for being the oldest player ever to attain a Master's rating which he did in 1983 at the age of 74. 
     Born in Boston in 1909, the son of a recent Russian immigrant, Shapiro developed an early love of chess and music and played the violin. In 1939, Shipiro won the Massachusetts state championship and went on to win many local tournaments. Throughout his career and he was a fixture at area tournaments and even played in Europe and the Caribbean. 
     During the Great Depression he took a job as a technician with Western Union and went to Washington D.C. a month after Pearl Harbor for what was supposed to be a three month assignment but remained there for the rest of his life. 
     Shipiro first won the Washington, D.C. championship in 1946, repeated in 1948 and 48 years later he scored 3-1 in the 1994 D.C. Open in 1994, and as the highest scoring resident he once again won the city title. 
     In the 1950s, Shapiro began dealing in antiquarian music scores and manuscripts as a sideline, eventually building a separate career as a dealer of antique chess- and music-related material. He became a noted expert on Niccolo Paganini and was a guest of the city of Genoa, Italy, at the 1982 bicentennial of the famed violinist's birth. Never married, Oscar was survived by his brother. 
     The following game from the 1949 U.S. Open is interesting for its interesting finish. His opponent finished 5.0-7.0. The top scores were: 

1) Weaver Adams 9.5-2.5 
2-4) Isaac Kashdan, George Kramer and Olaf Ulvestad 9.0-3.0 
5-8) Arthur Bisguier, Max Pavey, Albert Pinkus and Robert Steinmeyer 8.5-3.5
9-11) Edgar McCormick, Oscar Shapiro and Glenn E Hartleb 8.0-4.0