CHESS PREVENTS ALZHEIMER”S DISEASE
FOUNTAIN of YOUTH CHESS FESTIVAL
FEATURING
United States Over-Eighty Match Championship
and
QUAD FOR OVER 70 YOUNGSTERS
_________________________________________
United States Over-Eighty Match Championship
A few years back, Grandmaster Arnold Denker shocked the chess world by pointing out, in a letter to the editor of Chess Life, that over his entire lifetime he knew of no tournament chess player who succumbed to Alzheimer’s – an amazing all encompassing observation. More recently, the 1996 English Senior Champion Dan Mayers’ had a letter to the editor of Chess Life stressing hard work at the chess board wards off Alzheimer’s. It is fitting that these two shining examples of youth over 80 have been selected to play for the first ever Official US Over-80 Match Championship.
When: Sunday, July 14, 2002 to Wednesday, July 17, 2002 (All Games begin at 1:00 pm)
Where: World Chess Museum and Sid Samole Hall of Fame
13755 S.W. 119th Ave.
Miami, Florida 33186
Tournament Director: USCF Executive Director Frank Niro
Format: Four Round Match, 40 moves per player in first two hours then 20 moves per hour thereafter.
Grandmaster Arnold Denker: Arnold was the US Chess Champion from 1944 to 1946. He holds the distinction of being the only American who never lost a match to a human being, having defeated Fine, Reshevsky, Steiner, Kevitz but lost to a computer. In the decisive game of the computer match, Arnold saw that it was a dead draw and kept offering the computer the draw. But the computer failed to see the draw and continued to decline the offer. Arnold became frustrated and impatient and tried an unclear line that lost the match for him. There are so many great games he contributed to the lore of chess among which were three famous drawn games against World Champions Mikhail Botvinnik, Groningen 1946, Vassily Smyslov, Lone Pine 1976 and Bobby Fischer in New York (1958 US Championships). Arnold has written three books: “My Best Games 1929 to 1976” and “The Bobby Fischer I Knew” and “If you Must Play Chess.” He represented the US to FIDE (the World Chess Federation) as President of the US Zone from 1983 to 1991. Arnold is the founder and sponsor of the US Annual Tournament of High School Champions. He was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame in 1992. As a youth Arnold was a golden gloves boxer and a promising young baseball player.
Dan E. Mayers: Over the last six decades Dan has put together an impressive record of chess accomplishments. In 1938, one year after defeating the famous chess master Jack Collins in the Marshall Chess Club Preliminaries, he won the New York City High School Championship. In 1948 he became the New England State Champion defeating Master Weaver Adams in the decisive game. At the Lloyds Bank tournament in London he crushed the highly respected Polish International Master Andrei Filipowicz in 14 moves! At the 2000 National Open in Las Vegas, he defeated Dmitry Gurevich, one of Americas strongest Grandmasters. Over this Fourth of July weekend, Dan will be warming up for this match by playing in the World Open in Philadelphia. Dan is currently the Proprietor of Geriatric Associates in Sun Valley, Idaho. He is a former senior scientist who worked on the development of the first atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. He was a consultant to the CIA aiding in the transferring of scientists from East to West Germany. Dan is a Zen Master, holds a black belt in judo and is a former National Junior Field Archery Champion. Now eighty years young, he continues to play chess, ski, and tend to his much-admired arboretum.
CHESS PREVENTS ALZHEIMER”S DISEASE
2002 Futurity Quad for the Youngsters
Too young to qualify for the OVER-80 US Championship, four young men will play in a specially arranged “Fountain of Youth” round robin for the youngsters.
When: Sunday, July 14, 2002 to Wednesday, July 17, 2002 (All Games begin at 1:00 pm)
Where: World Chess Museum and Sid Samole Hall of Fame
13755 S.W. 119th Ave.
Miami, Florida 33186
Tournament Director: USCF Executive Director Frank Niro
Format: Four Round Match, 40 moves per player in first two hours then 20 moves per hour thereafter.
John A. Curdo: born Nov 14, 1931, Chess Master, living in Auburn, Massachusetts, know as the “Dean of New England Chess”, John has been an active player since 1946. He is 17-time Massachusetts state chess champion and has won a world record 674 tournaments (that’s correct: tournaments, not games) in his illustrious career. Among these was the first U.S. Senior Open, held in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1986.
Harold B. Dondis: age 78, Award winning Chess Columnist for the Boston Globe for nearly 40 years, co-founder of the U.S. Chess Trust, lives in Belmont, Mass., is still a practicing attorney in a prominent Boston law firm. One of his famous quotes is (referring to Alzheimer’s Disease), “If you can spell it, you probably don’t have it.” He beat Bobby Fischer in a simultaneous chess exhibition in 1964. While he is the lowest rated player in the event at this stage of his career, he has beaten Mr. Curdo and drawn with GM Arthur Bisguier over the years in tournament play. Harold currently writes a chess column for the Boston Globe, which last year won the prestigious Cramer Award as being the nation’s best chess column.
Grandmaster Arthur B. Bisguier: born October 8, 1929, Chess Grandmaster, A former US Invitational Champion (1954 to 1957), Arthur won the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1950, 1956 and 1957, losing his title to then 13-year old Bobby Fischer, and was co-champion again in 1959 & 1969. Arthur won the National Open in 1970, 1974 and 1978. He is a three time winner of the US Senior Open winning the championship in 1989, 1997 and 1998. He lives in Rock Hill, NY, and presently serves as the USCF “Grandmaster-on-Call”. He is an inductee into the U.S. Chess Hall of fame.
Nirio Basallo: born July 12, 1932. Nirio played in the Cuban Championship in 1954. As a result of Fidel Castro’s repressive regime, in 1962 Nirio moved from Cuba to Miami. In need of money to support his family, he gave up chess and pursued a career as an real estate broker a profession in which he is still actively engaged. In 1978, sixteen years later he again returned to the chess board and quickly achieved the level of US Master. In 1999 he won the US Senior Championship.
