Walter Korn

      Walter Korn, born in 1908, fled Czechoslovakia during World War II, landed in London in 1939 with his wife, Herta Klemperer. Several years later, in Germany, he directed the U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, helping to relocate concentration camp survivors. In 1948, he served as national director of ORT in Geneva.
      He immigrated to the United States in 1950 and lived in Detroit, where he worked as business manager of the Jewish Community Center. From 1960 to 1964, he lived in Israel, working for both the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Jewish Appeal.
      After moving to California in the mid-1970s, he spent his retirement years pursuing his passion for chess. Korn died July 10, 1997 in San Mateo, California at age 89.

      Korn was a lifelong lover of chess and authored several books including "The Brilliant Touch in Chess," "America's Chess Heritage" and "The Art of Chess Competition."  He also wrote an 11-page essay on chess for Encyclopedia Britannica and for more than 50 years was a contributing editor to chess publications including Chess Life and the British Chess Magazine. He is best known for his work on “Modern Chess Openings.”
      Everyone who knew Korn call him a cultured man always impeccably dressed in suit and tie whose interests extended far beyond chess. "He was a brilliant man, but totally loving and warm," says John Burman, a family friend who considers Korn his grandfather. "He was a wonderful, kind-hearted, good person...very rare in today's world."
     There does not seem to be any extant Korn games, probably because the Feb 5, 1959 USCF rating list had him rated at 1997.

Failed Attempt at Becoming a GM

      Back in 2010 a British player named Will Taylor, a 21-year old student, began chronicling his attempts to become a Grandmaster.  Mr. Taylor, at the beginning of his journey, a 21-year old British student rated ‘Class A’ with an ECF grade of 152 which equates to a FIDE rating of roughly 1900. He had a £200 bet at 25:1 that he could achieve his goal.  Unfortunately Mr. Taylor has abandoned his quest for the GM title and lost the bet. Link

 

      A couple of years ago I published a link to Rose’s Rants.  I stated that I believed Rose’s articles are worth reading by any aspiring player. Tom Rose was an English player rated over 2000 who set out at a late age to obtain the master title. He failed but his posts on his attempt offered a lot of valuable insight on improving. 
      Likewise, I think Mr. Taylor’s posts, while they may not make you a GM or even a master, are valuable to the aspiring player because he does present some study methods and writes about his successes and failures and the Blog makes interesting reading.
      A couple of things stand out.  First, he was at the ripe old age of 21 and had a life outside of chess.  Second, in the two years he was blogging he went from 1900 to just a little over 2000 which is not a great improvement.  In the end, Mr. Taylor wrote, “In other words, if you try to improve your chess whilst working full-time, learning the shakuhachi, and playing golf four times a week, you won’t get very far.”  Tom Rose reached similar conclusions.
      There was a forum debate awhile back about whether it was possible for one to vastly improve their chess ability as an adult.  My opinion, mostly shot down by the majority of posters, was that it is not possible for most adult players to reach Master, let alone an international title.  I don’t know of anybody who actually did it though a guy name Rolf Wetzell described in his book, Chess Master at Any Age, how he did it after age 50.  I don’t know Wetzell’s starting rating or how long it took him, but he was an exception.
      Somewhere around puberty seems to be the cut off for learning to do anything really well.  A kid who moves to a foreign country at 8 or 9 years old will eventually speak the new language without a trace of accent but someone who learns it when they are 18 will always have an accent. Generally speaking, of course. I'm sure there are many examples of people that are exceptions to the rule.
      I am not trying to discourage attempts to improve because, as GM Maurice Ashley once observed, getting to your goal is most of the fun.  If nothing else, the attempts these two players made just shows you how hard it is to reach 2200 and even though a master might not compare very well to a GM, a 2200 rating is something to crow about so the next time you meet one, shake his hand and congratulate him on his accomplishment.

 

Ohio Championship Visit

      Last Saturday morning there was nothing to do around the house so because the Ohio State Championship was only 30 minutes away I decided to pay it a visit.  This is the first state championship, or any large tournament really, that I’ve seen since the late 1960s and I have to say, I was a little disappointed.

      I got there about a half hour before the start of the first round and wanted to have lunch, but the “restaurant” turned out to be nothing but a dark bar with a few booths around the perimeter and I chose not to try the food.  Instead I figured to just get a cup of coffee but after standing at the bar a couple of minutes I left because, other than two guys sitting at the bar, I did not see anybody…don’t know where the bartender was and the coffee was probably bad any way. The only restaurant I saw nearby was across a double lane highway about a half mile down the street and it didn’t look like any place I’d want to eat. I finally got around to eating lunch at the turnpike rest area on the way back home.

      I didn’t see a skittles room and the tournament was split up into two small meeting rooms with the pairings posted around the corner in a hallway.  The TD had a table set up outside the door to the tournament room.  There was only water for the players…no coffee.  No book and equipment dealers either.  All in all things weren’t like I remember the state championships being. But I guess that these days when organizers do it for the money and not for the love of it they have to cut corners.

      I am guessing that with the location being in Cleveland, instead of centrally located in Columbus, that a lot of players from places like Toledo and Cincinnati didn’t play. Of course I didn’t know anybody playing except a few by reputation.  Well, there were two guys who played back when I did and I think I may have played them, but that was all. I noticed that in addition to the two titled players there were a lot of Masters...about a dozen of them.  Back in the days of yesteryear masters were rare.  And titled players?  You never saw one and GMs were mythical people who lived in far away lands.  There were a lot of kids, too; about a million of them, or so it seemed.

      The winner was 2555 IM Goran Vojinovic whom I had never heard of.  Before the start of the first round I was looking at the pairing charts and IM Calvin Blocker wandered over and when I asked him who Vojinovic was he said he was a pretty good player out of Columbus, Ohio.  According to one website Vojinovic has a pretty impressive resume.

      Vojinovic is a former resident of Serbia, a graduate of Forest Faculty at the University of Belgrade with an engineering degree, and an International Master with two Grandmaster norms.  He is a professional player and coach. He teaches both over-the-board and online and has taught students from all over the world.

Vojinovic (right) at start of rd. 1

Some of his better students include:

GM Milos Perunovic - Fide Rating, 2600, GM Borki Predojevic - Fide Rating, 2600+, GM Boban Bogosavljevic Fide Rating, 2540 and WGM Jovana Vojinovic 2332 (his daughter).

      As for IM Calvin Blocker, he stated that he really did not want to play in this tournament and was forcing himself to do so. The final results confirm that because Blocker result was +2 -0 =4.  Vojinovic was held to a draw in the first round by a local Expert and drew with Blocker in round 5 to finish tied for first with a local master, both receiving $850 in prize money.


IM Calvin Blocker (left) chatting before start of rd. 1

     IM Blocker ended up tied for 3-14 and places 3-12 collected a measly $45.  The 14-15 placed players were Experts who got $196.20.  The only other money winner got $50 for an upset.

     Something is wrong, and has been for a long time, when the two players who tied for first in the U-2000 and the U-1700 section received $613.60 and $566.40 respectively.  Personally, I don’t like class sections.  It’s old fashioned, but I liked it better when there was one big section with the bulk of the prize money going to the good players, not the mediocre ones.

     My wife tried to talk me in to registering and playing before I left the house but I had absolutely no desire to spend 8-10 hours a day playing chess for three days.  When I got there I realized there was a reason why I gave up tournament chess for correspondence. 

 

Washington International

      The nine-round open Washington International event was  sponsored by the Maryland Chess Federation was played from July 28 – August 1 and was won by former U.S. champion Gata Kamsky who triumphed over a strong field. Kamsky was undefeated at 7-2 and won $5,000.

      The purpose of the tournament was to provide an opportunity for players to earn GM and IM norms. A minimum FIDE rating of 2100 was required to play. One nice touch was that breakfast was provided for the players each morning.
      Despite his top-seeded ranking, Kamsky entered the final round in a three-way tie with GMs Alex Onischuk and Timur Gareev but Onischuk and Gareev were only able to draw their games while Kamsky ground down GM Joel Benjamin in a complex 86-move minor-piece ending.   GM Alex Shabalov, whose hopes were hurt by a Round 6 loss to Gareev, defeated GM Mikheil Kekelidze of Georgia in the final round to grab a share of second at 6.5-2.5 along with Onischuk and Gareev.  Kamsky demonstrated a typical professional approach by drawing with some of his chief rivals while grinding out wins against lesser players using his experience and technique.
     I often enjoy playing over games where the heavyweights pummel the lesser lights.  While we all appreciate the achievement of those who reach 2200, when you compare their skill to guys like Kamsky…well, there is no comparison and it can be instructive to watch the technique GMs use to defeat an ordinary master. These games usually do not make it into print because the quality of play on the part of the loser is too low, but that is often what makes them instructive.
      In the following game from the first round Black chooses a lesser known side variation in the Winawer and from all appearances just handed Kamsky the game.

Chess, Physical Fitness and Nutrition

 

      Studies have shown a link between physical fitness and chess.  One study even recommended organizers of tournaments for children should make it possible for players to participate in some form of recreation in their free time and parents and coaches need to be made aware of the significance of regular physical exercises for health and high achievements.

       I can remember playing on one tournament in the mid-sixties at a venue without air conditioning on a day when it was 90 degrees and the humidity was at least as high.  Right after my game started my opponent pulled out a corncob pipe and lit up.  Between the heat and humidity and the awful pipe smoke I was lucky I didn’t puke.  Cigarettes, coffee and soda were the norm for players to use during games in those days.  Between rounds everybody choked down greasy hamburgers and milkshakes at the drug store lunch counter down the street because it was the only place close. Even today it’s not unusual to see GMs heading for the local bar after their games.  In fact one site where I played in a few tournaments had a bar downstairs and one master always drank an awful lot of beer between rounds and occasionally even during his games.  Of course the lunch counter did a booming business between rounds selling hamburgers (greasy ones, of course), soda, beer and coffee.  Fortunately one thing changed: smoking at the board wasn’t allowed so smokers had to step outside.
       More on the study. It advised attention should be paid to children’s fitness preparation, particularly to the exercises developing their strength. The study was supported by the University of Physical Education in Warsaw and European Chess Union which stated appropriate nutrition and physical activity are important factors which have crucial influence on growing kids and health maintenance in adults.  They also pointed out numerous studies have proven the strong relationship between an athletes’ dietary patterns and their physical fitness. No kidding.  Can you imagine Usain Bolt pigging out on ice cream?
      Obviously chess players do not demand high intensity muscle effort.  But whether you play chess or not, a sedentary lifestyle and improper eating may provoke the development of various diseases.  That’s all well known and common sense, but that’s what the study said.  However, the main purpose of the study was to assess effects of elements of lifestyle including physical activity and the dietary behaviors in young players.
       Like kids everywhere the young Polish players showed a lot of unhealthy eating practices, ate at irregular intervals and skipped breakfast.  Their diets were also low in intake of vegetables, fruits and milk.  They also ate a lot of sweets and fried food. As proof of the consequences of their habits, the study noticed that the older the kids got, the fatter they got.  Personally, I don’t think a study is required to determine all this.  The study also observed that most players spent their leisure time using a computer or watching TV.   
       The conclusion was that chess players make many nutritional mistakes, particularly during tournaments. Of course they do.  A weekend Swiss doesn’t allow much time for eating and most of eat poorly anyway.    
       One conclusion I found amusing was the fact that players’ food choices depended on texture, taste and appearance more than on nutritional value.  At the risk of repeating myself, no kidding.
       The research concluded that children must be taught how to eat properly because it will help them to enjoy a better quality of life. Doesn’t that apply to all of us?
       Some of the world’s best players have long recognized that good physical health and conditioning are critical to maximizing one’s results
       During his training for his 1972 match with Spassky Bobby Fischer trained with a gut named Harry Sneider who said of Fischer, “He really believed in a good preparation. He loved power-training with weights, he swam 45 minutes a day and he was a ‘world-champion’ walker. . . . He also drank pints of carrot juice and ate a lot of salads. He took a sauna every day and a massage. That was his daily routine.”
       Fischer said, “Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can’t separate body from mind.” In fact when Fischer appeared on the talk-show hosted by Dick Cavett he was asked what he would have liked to become had he not excelled in chess. Fischer replied, “Something in sports.”
       I don’t enjoy swimming, don’t have a sauna and can’t talk the wife into a massage, but how many pints of carrot juice, and how many salads would it take to add a 100 points to my rating?  It’s getting close to my nap time so I’m going to go have that last piece of lemon meringue pie and a cup of coffee and think about this.

 

 

 

How Bobby Fischer (Briefly) Changed America

       This summer marks the anniversary of an extraordinary moment in U.S. history: the 1972 match in which the American genius Bobby Fischer defeated the Soviet wizard Boris Spassky for the chess championship of the world.

       The battle probably should have been just one more headline in an eventful three months that saw the Watergate burglary, the expulsion of the Soviet military from Egypt and the humiliating dismissal of vice presidential nominee ThomasEagleton from the Democratic ticket. Somehow the story of Fischer and Spassky and their epic match, which ended 40 years ago this month, captured our attention in a way that no struggle of intellect has since. Read more…

Related Article: GM Yuri Averbach on the match

Newell Banks

       Newell William Banks (October 10, 1887 – February 17, 1977) was noted primarily as a checker player, but he was also a chess master of some ability. Banks learned chess from his father.  Banks played his first game of blindfold checkers at five years and six months at the Detroit Chess and Checker Club.
      In 1909 he defeated Hugh Henderson for the national checker championship. In 1947, at age 60, for 45 consecutive days (4 hours per day) Banks played 1387 blindfold checker games finishing with a record of +1331 -2 =54. He also set a new blindfold speed record playing 62 games in four hours, scoring +61 -0 =1. He averaged about one second per move.  By 1933, Banks held all speed records at blindfold and simultaneous checkers.

       In the Master's Invitational Tournament held in Chicago in 1926 Banks defeated Isaac Kashdan and Frank Marshall (reigning US Champion) and drew with former champion Jackson W. Showalter, the strong Chicago master Samuel Factor and Oscar Chajes. Chicago was won by Frank Marshall with 8.5 ahead of Maroczy and Torre at 8.0, and Jaffe and Kupchik on 7.5. The remainder of the field was Kashdan, Factor, Edward Lasker, A.J.Fink, Newell Banks, Oscar Chajes, Jackson Showalter, and Lewis J. Isaacs. Chicago was a watershed for Marshall; aside from Olympiads, he never again won a significant tournament.
       How did Banks think chess compared to checkers? In one of Banks comments appearing in A Chess Omnibus he stated that checkers is 80% memory and 20% intuition while chess is the opposite.
      Of the two games, which do I prefer? This is a question not to be answered lightly. Although as a checkers player I held the American championship for 25 years, whereas my best achievements at chess were probably my isolated victories over Marshall and Kashdan in one tournament, I have to admit that I get more enjoyment out of my chess. Mainly for its greater variety.

In 1947 Banks expressed more of his thoughts in Banks’ Blindfold Checker Masterpieces:
      In the course of 50 years of checkers and 45 years of chess, after a careful study of both games, I have reached the following conclusions…The end play in checkers is more subtle than chess, for while the moves are more restricted, the timing is, nevertheless, more profound. ... The overwhelming beauty in chess lies in the opening and the middle game, both of which fields, in my opinion, are unquestionably far superior to those in checkers.

      Banks also believed a beginner could learn to play a fairly competent amateur game of chess in one-third the time it would take to learn checkers. He went on to explain that this didn’t mean checkers is the more difficult game but that since checkers has been analyzed at least five times more thoroughly than chess, the beginner at checkers is called upon to absorb a formidable amount of material. It also means that checkers is a game of memory.
       As a youngster Banks claimed he learned more about chess looking over Morphy’s games during about a six month period than he ever learned from any book he studied and recommended the study of Morphy’s game to beginners.  He felt Morphy’s games exposed the student to the principal of mobility and how to play open games.
       Banks never stressed endings because he felt most games were decided in the opening and middle game, and it was a rare occasion when a game is won by superlative endgame play.  He also believed checkers was of great value in improving a chess player’s sense of timing in the endgame. For that reason Banks advised serious students of either game to study both chess and checkers.
       He pointed out that in checkers you must move forward at all times and the slightest mistake is usually being fatal. In chess, on the other hand, if a minor error is made you can, in many cases, avoid disaster. Another point he stressed was that in checkers if you are one piece down in any normal position will lose but that is not always the case in chess.
       In 1953, his book, World’s Championship Checker Match American Style, was published and the biographical notes stated Banks traveled over 1,000,000 miles and played about 600,000 checkers and chess games. During this time he played over 80,000 blindfold checker games.
       Banks died in 1977 at age ninety.

Bobby Fischer’s Correspondence Career

      If you didn’t know he had one, neither did I until I came into possession of the out of print The Unknown Bobby Fischer by Donaldson and Tangborn.  I love this book! Published in 1999 the book chapters describe his career: The Early Years, 1956-The Big One, 1957-The Big Breakthrough, 1960-1965, Fischer’s 1965 Transcontinental Tour, Articles 70s Simuls-Blitz, Fischer’s Originality-Analysis-Suggestions-Interviews plus 24 photos.  If you can find this book used don't hesitate...buy it!

      Bobby's career as a correspondence player is a bit of a mystery. His mentor, John W. Collins, who was a strong postal master and wrote a correspondence chess column for Chess Review, writes in My Seven Chess Prodigies: Bobby never played correspondence chess. Probably the pace was too slow and the dramatic personal confrontation, which is such a large part of the excitement of the game, was lacking. Consulting books while the game was in progress would not be his idea of legitimate chess either. In fact, very few grandmasters, and potential grandmasters, with the notable exception of Paul Keres in his formative years, have cottoned to correspondence chess. This is in contrast to its popularity with experts and lower-rated players who delight in it. Possibly the difference of appeal is due to the reasons just mentioned, to preference for public or private competition, or to causes which are psychological in nature.

Here’s the real story from The Unknown Bobby Fischer:

      Actually, Bobby did play in at least one correspondence tournament. The reason Collins didn't know about it is because he first met Bobby on Memorial Day Weekend in 1 956.  By then Bobby's short-lived postal career appears to have either finished or been winding down.

      The first indication that Bobby played correspondence chess appears in Legend on the Road. There, on page 12, Donald P. Reithel, who played Bobby during his 1964 simul tour, writes: In 1955 I played Bobby in postal chess - a prize tourney in Chess Review. I remember him as a typical American kid: Brooklyn Dodger fan, somewhat opinionated about school and somewhat desirous to exchange ideas and thoughts. He printed his name in lower case letters, "bobby fischer." He didn't finish the event because he was starting to play over-the-board tournaments.

In a later communication, Reithal added:  A. W. Conger was one of my opponents in [a] Chess Review Prize Tourney . . . [a player named Fisher played in 54-P 38-100] . . . That is the event Bobby Fischer competed in . .
      For myself, I discarded many of my early tournament results and no longer have my scorepads covering that period of time. I did have several of Bobby's cards, but they too were tossed out in Spring cleanups. What was interesting about them was that Bobby had notes on all of them covering various subjects.
       Our individual game was a King's Indian Defense (I was White) and the game lasted 1 2- 1 5 moves when he wrote me that he was withdrawing from the tourney to pursue a lengthy cross-country trip and series of over-the-board tournaments, which, he said, was his entry toward capturing the world chess title - build skills, gain exposure, make results and earn a reputation. A year or two later he won the U.S. Championship for the first time and he was true to his word.
       I did not find his comments to be egotistic, but rather showing youthful optimism and self confidence as to his talent and ability. We shared considerable note exchanges, as I was only a teen myself and I think he related to that, as we had similar interests outside of just chess. I recall responding to his direct statement that he intended to win the world championship and return it to the USA, advising him to complete his education which he would need to handle his affairs during his adulthood.
      His response was that I sounded just like his sister and teachers. His follow-up card listed only the moves. But then he responded in a more friendly way to my comments about his note . . .
       In all, I found him to be a rather lonesome kid who was trying to find himself and purpose. He no doubt caught the chess bug early and it was a burning fire inside him. Who exactly contributed toward his maturity, I cannot say.
       He told me he studying the Bible and I wrote that he might find Rev. Rice and Herbert W. Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong's religious broadcasts informative, which he apparently checked out, as he later became interested in the latter's Worldwide Church of God.
       . . . I found him to be a nice, normal kid with a lot of dedication to chess, but also having interests that all kids seem to share. He was a Dodger fan and I a Yankee fan. Maybe that it is why we hit it off. Anyway, I followed his career and was most pleased that his youthful dream was fulfilled.

      AI Horowitz's Chess Review was one of the major organizers of correspondence tournaments in the 1950s. The record is spotty, but it appears Bobby played in a Prize Tourney section during 1955 and 1 956. The May 1955 issue of Chess Review, on page
159, lists an R. Fischer under new postalites, assigning him a Class B (1200) rating. The piece mentions that newcomers to postal chess are "rated" on their estimated ability with Class A running from 1300 on up.  Class B was from 1000-1298. Note that the postal ratings were about 500-600 points lower than over-the-board USCF ratings at the time.
       Postal ratings appeared in Chess Review approximately twice a year. The August 1955 issue (p. 252) lists a B. Fischer at 1198. Later he drops to 1082 in March 1 956. The August 1956 issue again lists him at 1082 which suggests that he was no longer active.
       The following game is the only correspondence effort of Bobby's that we have discovered.  A.W Conger of Pennsylvania was rated 1274 in the August 1955 issue of Chess Review. It first appeared in Zugzwang, the newsletter of the King of Prussia Chess Club which is located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia.
       Fischer resigned on move 12 after dropping a Pawn, but engine analysis shows his game was still playable but despite what the engine says, it would have been difficult and we know Fischer did not like passive positions.  It’s just a guess, but I suspect he resigned in disgust, being ruled by his emotions rather than hard analysis.

Richard Ling

      I recently bemoaned the fact that there is a paucity of information available about Ohio Chess players but in the process discovered a Blog that gave a tribute to this great Ohio player of the past.  I found it, of all places, on a sports Blog maintained by Expert David Friedman who is an eight-time champion of the Dayton Chess Club. In addition to blogging about the sports world Friedman has a large collection of interesting blogs on Fischer and chess in general.  Please check it out!  Mr. Friedman’s post about Ling can be read in its entirety HERE.

       Ling won the championship of the Dayton Chess Club the most times: Five titles between 1961 and 1973, including three straight from 1965-67. Ling claimed his final DCC title by beating Robert Lytle in a playoff match after they tied for first place in the tournament.
       Ling, who was the Ohio co-champion in 1962 and was known for three things: 1) A remarkable ability to rattle off moves quickly during severe time pressure; 2) an uncanny knack for saving bad positions (often while rattling off moves quickly during severe time pressure); 3) being a gentleman at all times.
       Friedman wrote of Ling, “I very much enjoyed competing against Ling and then analyzing with him after the games. He never once acted like my questions were stupid or bothersome. At first I was no match for him but eventually I was able to give him a decent game; inevitably, he would get into time pressure, I would move too fast and he would win.”
       “Ling never talked about why he always got into time pressure or how he so frequently managed to completely outplay his opponents once he got there. Several players frankly told me that the likelihood of ever running Ling out of time was very remote—and this was before the days of Chronos clocks and five second time delay. If you have a good position, don’t even look at the clock, they implored; play the best move that you can find and let him worry about your move and his dwindling time. Of course, they were right but this kind of advice falls into the “easier said than done” category, particularly for a young player who tended to play too fast anyway.”
       “Sadly, on December 11, 1989, he and his wife were killed in a car accident. The DCC Championship trophy was renamed the Richard Ling Memorial Trophy in his honor.”  
      In 1961 I played in my first tournament, the Ohio Junior Championship, which was being held at the same time as the Region 5 Championship in Dayton and I well-remember Ling.  At some point in the tournament Ling, who seemed very mannerly and polite, actually spoke to me when he said hello.  OK, so it wasn't a big deal, but at that time I had never met any real chessplayers and to actually have an Expert acknowledge my presence by saying, "Hello, how are you?" was a pretty big deal!  The fact that I still remember the incident 50 years later just shows you that sometimes a smile and a friendly word will go a long way.

Here is Ling’s game against GM Larry Christiansen from a 1980 simul in Dayton.

Chess Cafe Needs Your Donation

      The really excellent site Chess Café which includes NM Dan Heisman’s Novice Nook (some of the best instruction around) plus tons of other fascinating and useful chess material is asking for donations to, well…let them explain:

      To create a freely accessible online chess curriculum that focuses on using chess as a tool for teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. A curriculum that can be used in classrooms, home-schooling, libraries, institutions, etc. with complete course work, exercises, and activities available to print out as worksheets and lessons. One that gives someone with little or no chess knowledge the means and materials to run a successful chess program. Along with a freely accessible online playing interface that offers real-time play, correspondence play, and various training features. Be sure to checkout our contributor rewards!  View request.

      They are accepting donations in the amount of $25, $65, $150, $300, $500 and $1000 in an effort to raise $65,000 to accomplish the task. They will also supply you with a gift of set and board, etc. depending on the size of your gift. I’m not sure why they need $65,000 for this project unless they are planning on paying GMs et al to put together the material and/or need to pay for a website and/or server.

      This is a great site that has been around a long time and I am sure their request for donations for this project is legitimate but what if I donated $1000 and they end up short of their goal?  Have I ended up paying $1000 for a folding chess table, wooden set w/box for a project that’s stillborn, or what? 

      One thing I have always noticed about requests for donations relating to chess for any reason…I have rarely, if ever, seen any masters or GMs donating anything.  It always seems to be us average players.  Why is that?

Albert Sandrin

Albert Sandrin (1923-2004)


      Probably Sandrin’s best tournament results were first prize ($35) at the Illinois State Tournament in 1944 and winning the U.S. Open in Omaha in 1949.
      Sandrin learned chess from his uncle who taught him and his brother, Angelo, how to play. Well, they were “sort of” taught how to play. Sandrin told how they made up their own rules and it wasn’t until a few years that he and his brother got serious and borrowed some books from the library and learned how chess was really played. Shortly after that they both began playing in local tournaments where both Sandrins became regulars on the Chicago chess scene for many years. Throughout most of his career Sandrin maintained a solid master rating.
      Sandrin’s vision was damaged in August, 1929 when, while playing outside the family home on Chicago's south side, the bored six year old stared directly into the sun for a long period of time. His eyesight deteriorated very slowly over the following years. In 1952 he entered the Marshall School for the Blind and studied piano tuning. After learning how to tune pianos, he advertised in the telephone book for customers and soon found himself tuning pianos all over the Chicago area. He was totally blind by 1968. Sandrin played a small part in US airline history when he was a passenger aboard the first PanAm 747 flight from Chicago to London on April 26, 1970.
      In the US Open in 1965, one player described how Sandrin would sit at the board with a female companion sitting beside him and when it was time to make his move, he would announce it and then move the piece. His companion would then write down the move.
      Another player described his meeting with Sandrin in another US Open during the 1980s and was surprised to see that Sandrin did not use a special set designed for blind players but used their regular set. He was shocked at the beginning of the game to see Sandrin use his little fingers to locate the edge of the board then pick up a Pawn and move it right where he wanted it. This guy explained that he thought that because Sandrin was blind, a good plan would be to complicate the game as much as possible, figuring Sandrin was bound to make a mistake. It turned out Sandrin avoided all the traps and simplified into a won ending.

A good collection of his games can be found HERE  and a nice photo HERE.