Emory Tate (December 27, 1958 – October 17, 2015), an Air Force Staff Sergeant, won the championship five times (1983, 1984, 1987, 1988 and 1989) and in 2018, Larry Larkins (an Electronics Technician in the Navy) won his sixth Championship.
In 1960 during Armed Forces Week, from May 15 to May 21, the first Armed Forces Championship was held at the American Legion Hall of Flags in Washington, DC.
Final results:
1-2) Air Force Captain John A. Hudson and Army SP4 Arthur W. Feuerstein tied for first with a +9 -0 =2.
3-5) Czapski, Krauss, and Grande
6-7) Giertych and Robinson
8) Mott
9) Moran
10) Sobczyk
11-12) Walker and Leuthold
Hudson and Feuerstein split the $1,500 prize money place. The money was put up by Thomas Emery, a New York businessman who had served in the Marine Corps during World War I.
Emery was a fascinating character, a man of many accomplishments. He was a good friend of Al Horowitz and Frank Marshall. Emery and Marshall spent many hours together talking and analyzing.
Emery’s main areas of interest were the military, his medical career and chess. He was from New York and attended school in England and sometime around 1910 he took an interest in chess and progressed rapidly.
Shortly after the US entered World War I, Emery found himself in Plattsburg, New York training to be an Army officer. An outstanding student there, at the age of 21 he was offered a commission as a Captain in the Quartermaster Corps which he turned down. Instead, he enlisted in the Marines. I have no idea why he turned down the commission, but as a 19-year old Navy Hospital Corpsman serving with the Marines, when I was promoted to Petty Officer (petty meaning small and insignificant) it came with an offer of a commission as an Ensign in the Medical Service Corps. I turned the commission down because I was young and foolish. Time brought about a change...I am no longer young.
Emery had a good knowledge of French and acted as interpreter. Somehow he was wounded in 1918 and was recommended for an award for bravery. Germany had formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all nations had agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated. On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war. Emery was discharged in August of 1919.
During World War II he pursued medical studies, but never became a doctor. He did have a connection to medicine through his grandfather, Brigadier General Charles T. Alexander, a surgeon under Custer and under Sherman. Emery lectured on hematology, served as a Senior First Aid Instructor on Long Island.
Emery was a strong amateur player and is best remembered for his support of both master chess and armed forces chess. He sponsored the first Armed Forces Championship in 1960 and continued to sponsor it during his lifetime.
John A. Hudson (February 8, 1930 - October 9, 2012) was an accomplished player; by his twenties he held a Master rating...quite a feat in those days. He won the 1952 Louisiana State Championship, the US Amateur Championship in 1956, the Armed Forces Champion in 1960, 1961 and 1970, and in 1965, he won the California State Open.
Born in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, he passed away at the age of 82 on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at Whatcom Hospice House in Bellingham, Washington following complications from a stroke he had suffered two weeks earlier.
His father was a career naval officer and most of Hudson’s early years were spent on the family farm in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania where his father had retired. He and his brother attended South Philadelphia High School where he was an exceptionally gifted student and graduated early. A cello player, he had a life-long love of classical music. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Botany.
In 1951, following the outbreak of the Korean War, he enlisted in the Air Force and made it a 20 year career as a navigator in the Air Rescue Service and later in the Strategic Air Command as a B-47 navigator-bombardier. He was also a navigation-training instructor and served as the editor of The Navigator magazine. He retired from the Air Force in 1971, with the rank of Major.
Chess, cello and classical music weren’t his only interest. He was an excellent carpenter and electrician who enjoyed making home repairs and improvements. He was also an avid reader who especially enjoyed visiting book stores. He also enjoyed the movies (Peter Sellers films were particular favorites) and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of movie trivia.
After retiring from the Air Force he returned to school to pursue graduate courses in English literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.
No comments:
Post a Comment