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I was born in Boise, Idaho on July 23, 1962. As a child, I was very gifted in music. At the age of five, I played the accordion, and soon afterward played the organ. In the fifth grade, I was given an old trumpet, which I played all the way throughout high school. In the East Junior High School band, I met Paul Johnson. We quickly became best friends. We hung out, mowed lawns, worked at a little sandwich shop downtown called the Red Apple, and during the summer of 1978, we played tennis.

After the summer was over, we had to find something else to do, so Paul had this old Renaissance chess set and he knew how to play. I had seen my oldest brother, Tony play chess with his friends when he was in the Chess Club at East Junior High, so I rather knew how the pieces moved.

Our early games were very serious, and very bad. The level of competition between Paul Johnson and me was very high, almost as if our lives depended on the outcome. Yet, we still made some of the most horrible blunders, even after long periods of thought. Our very first chess game, which was played November 23, 1978, was recorded, and still exists to this day. In January 1979, Paul Johnson and I began playing a series of chess matches. In fact, a total of seven (!) matches in 1979 alone! Toward the end of 1979, I began to find other opponents to play, but none was any serious competition.

In February, 1980, Barbara Vandenburg, a clarinetist in the Boise High School band, told me that her father, Dick, was really into chess and she gave me a flyer talking about a scholastic chess tournament. This was actually the first scholastic chess tournament. My friend, Paul and I debated many hours on whether or not to play, but I decided to do it, even though I did not feel ready. Paul did not play in this tournament. I remember that this "preliminary" tournament was held at Borah High School in their library. There was this really old man who directed the tournament, George Razor. He would watch the games us kids were doing and just smile. He looked very wise and genuinely interested in our play. We were all so nervous at that tournament, no score sheets were provided, so I used a paper towel to record my games. The library was so quiet, that I remember actually being afraid to say, "Check!" I made some bad moves that cost me points in this qualifying tournament, but fortunately, for me, they let me play in the final because Steve Flock could not play. Dick Vandenburg came down to the tournament toward the end of the day and was showing us kids how you could not win with a bishop and pawn if the pawn was a rook pawn that queened on the opposite color as the bishop. Something I actually used in my next tournament!

My first day going to the Boise Chess Club was March 5, 1980. Paul Johnson and I went to the Boise Chess Club that met Wednesdays and was free. We were outsiders and so nobody wanted to play us, except for one Hugh S. Myers! He wanted fresh meat, and we were there to give it to him. Paul Johnson and I believed that Hugh Myers was the most brilliant player we had ever seen, even with Larry Parsons, Richard Burchett, Bill Whitacre, Steve Ryals, and Dick Vandenburg in the room. This impression lasted through most of the summer in spite of Richard Burchett telling us that he could beat Hugh Myers. We simply did not believe him.

On March 29, 1980, the first Idaho Scholastic Finals were held. I believe there was sixteen players in the final - from allover the state. David Brizzee won the tournament, I took ninth place. However, I took part in a simultaneous exhibition given by Larry Parsons and Dick Vandenburg. Each of them had to alternate moves. That was a good idea because they made some silly mistakes just because each of them had a different approach and idea as to what they wanted to accomplish. I almost won that game, which really encouraged me.

On April 19, 1980, I played in the Idaho Open. There were around 80 players in this tournament, which made it the biggest tournament in Idaho History up to that point (which was only beaten in 1997 at the Scholastics when there were 87 players). This tournament was held at Boise State University and I remember the odor of pipe tobacco in the air. There were also many chess books and equipment for sale here - this is unusual for an Idaho tournament. This gave me a chance to see many more chess books than I was accustomed to seeing. I was most impressed with the books on minor piece endings. It was just so inspiring to see so many players that were adults. I realized that playing adults was where it was. They had so much to show me. I took this tournament very seriously, dressing up nicely and wearing a tie. I did not own a suit at that time. In my first round, I had to play Richard S. Brooks. I was black, playing a Sicilian Defense. I ended up losing a piece and pawn, but thanks to Dick Vandenburg showing us at the Idaho Scholastic preliminary tournament how to draw a game against a bishop and rook pawn, I had no trouble at all heading into that ending and drawing the game. In the second round, I played Barney Graff and was white playing a Slav Defense. I played some very original ideas and was able to win his queen and the game too. In the third round, I had to play Larry Parsons. This felt good to me because after he beat me for developing my bishop on e2 in a King's Indian, he thanked me for the game. I realize this gets to be commonplace, but for me this was unusual and really made me feel good at the time.

The next game I played Thomas K. Martin who won the game and I did not know how he did it, which was a little bit discouraging. Moreover, in the final round, I played Ted Hartwell and missed a win, which I could not see until 1993 when I was going over the game again!

The 1980 Idaho Open was very important to me because it got me "hooked" on chess. I was able to meet new players, some of which were around my own age, and many were older than I was. In addition, I felt a big sense of accomplishment in that I was able to get through the two-day event and record every move. I could not wait until the next tournament.

In the summer of 1980, one week after St. Helens exploded, I was destined to go to Spokane, Washington to play in the Renaissance Drum and Bugle Corps. I found some chess players in the Corps but had to wait until August when I was back in Boise to play in my next tournament, the Boise Open. This tournament was different from any other I have ever witnessed in Idaho in that Round 1 was on Monday, Round 2 was on Tuesday, Round 3 was on Wednesday, Round 4 was on Thursday, and Round 5 and 6 were on Saturday. This is such a good idea that I cannot believe it has not been repeated. It allows one to give their "all" in each game, be well rested for the next game, and not let the event drag on for weeks.

On November 22, 1980, I began playing a chess match against Craig M. Moore. This proved to be very beneficial to me. He was a much stronger player than I was which made me work harder to win. In 1981, I played in every chess event I could find. I played in the Boise Chess (Club Championship, ACU-I Qualifying Tournament, ACU-I in Tacoma, WA, Idaho Closed, Idaho Open, Idaho Class Championship, Match #9 against Paul Johnson, BSU Chess Club Invitational, Boise Fall Rating Tournament, Boise Open, Western Idaho Open, and many club and social games. At one time, I had as many as four events overlapping. It was important for me to gain experience and this is how I did it. I lost so many games, but learned how to win too. Excitement was high at this time because of the 1981 World Championship match between Karpov and Korchnoi. I studied every game as they were published in the Idaho Statesman, and I listened to the radio and was able to get reports of the games as they were completed. There was something about hearing about the results of the games on the national radio news that made me feel like the world was taking chess more seriously.

In 1982, I decided to go out of state for the first time at the Oregon Open. This was hard because I did not have much money and had to do it on my money from my paper route. Transportation was a Greyhound bus. To make matters worse, I left my checkbook at home!

However, this was such a great experience for me and the fact that I had so many obstacles to overcome has made me so much better for it. I look back on the Oregon Open as absolutely one of the best chess experiences of my life. I was able to witness tournament directing at a level I had not seen before and, of course, the quality of play was far better than I had ever seen in Idaho. I continued to play in as many chess events as I could find from 1982 to 1993.

In 1982, when I got back from the Oregon Open tournament, John Letterman was coming up with an idea for a chess magazine called "Idaho Chess News". John called a meeting between T. W. Robinson, John and me, which was held at the Burger and Brew on Broadway. That is where it all came together. We discussed ideas and ways to accomplish the creation and continuation of a quarterly magazine. I held no office in club or state politics. I believe I was asked to be on the project because I had shown John Letterman that I had a knack for this type of work by compiling and publishing two tournament bulletins, the 1981 BSU Chess Club Invitational and the 1981 Boise Open in which ALL of the chess games from these events were preserved.

The first few issues of the magazine were inconsistent in layout and typed on several different typewriters. We were given "assignments" and these were compiled into one magazine. In 1984 when I would take over complete control of the magazine, I would concentrate on including many games, articles and results and rating charts. I would change the layout to be more like a magazine than a report. I worked very hard on the Idaho Chess News and did it for about seven years. There was one point when I began putting the magazine on my mother's Apple IIe computer. I had worked solid and hard for almost 3 months and Joe Kennedy was coming over to play chess. I saw him pull up in front of the house. I quickly hit something that told the computer to format the diskette and I lost everything in 20 seconds! I had no backup at all and the three months work was gone. I worked harder than ever to make up for lost time and the next magazine was one of the best issues anyway in spite of the complete disaster that only Joe Kennedy and I knew had happened.

In 1984, I was to become president of the Idaho Chess Association, which I held for six terms. One of my first tasks was to come up with a constitution. This was not easy to do from scratch. I wrote to different state organizations and got some examples but nobody else treated chess the way we needed to do it in Idaho. I am not exactly sure when I did it, but I wrote the constitution that we still use to this day, I think it was 1985. There are from time to time amendments made to it, but I am very proud of this accomplishment.

This brings me to a point I would like to make. When I was President, I was a "hands on" type of President. I believed that to get the job done, I had to do it. Therefore, I did my own correspondence, typing of tournament announcements, phone calling, arranging for events, brain storming for ideas - all by myself. I would talk things over with friends and family, but when it came time to do the actual work, I did most of it by myself. I would get help sometimes, but it was not the norm. If I were to be elected President now, I would do it differently.

Now I would include as many people as I could find in the process. I would encourage everyone to get involved and because more people would become involved, what could happen would be even more spectacular.

Lately, I have seen many people who really want to get involved in the process, but nobody wants to be stuck with the huge responsibility of all of it, and no help. I would actively search out other people's ideas. I would let people see how things happen. I no longer believe that everything should be done behind closed doors. When I direct a tournament, I want the kids to see how I do the pairings and how I resolve problems. I want to treat the players of a tournament with the highest respect and not like some hindrance to me directing the tournament. I want them to see so that they will be encouraged to see that they could do it too. By including more people in the process, I would discourage people from being dissatisfied in the process. Complaints would go down because the History of Idaho Chess would be what all of us want it to be. I have taken a few years off from the political side so that I could reflect upon what I did right and what I did wrong. I believe I have learned a great deal and would welcome the opportunity to serve again.

I feel like my History is just beginning. Lately, I have found young and old people alike who just love to play chess. My goals change over the years, my experience grows, my passion for the game keeps me going. It is so good to be part of this process.

There has been so much happen to me in chess over the years. It would really require an entire book to put it all down. Nevertheless, for right now, I would like to say that I have really enjoyed serving as President and Vice President of the Idaho Chess Association. I enjoyed the work I did as President of the Boise Chess Club too. I am very proud of the Constitution.

My most memorable work will probably be my Idaho Chess News and the tournament bulletins. I still believe that it is important to preserve ALL the games of a tournament to capture the "History" so that others can grow and so that what we do today matters even more. Players like to feel that by simply participating in a tournament, they will become a part of OUR history. Now that there are computer programs out that make recording chess games easy, tournament bulletins now would be a snap.

People have been what have made it all worthwhile for me. When I am able to encourage other players to get excited about the game, I win. I enjoy it when they find a good combination or winning plan. I especially like it when a player can LOSE a game and GAIN from it. I do not in any way think they have lost if they can do that.

Lately, I have found that playing chess on the street and in coffee shops brings chess to people who do not know about the chess club, and who want to play chess more often than once a week. Now I plan to stay active and improve my game. I plan to be a part of Idaho Chess for a long time to come.

© 2006 The Idaho Chess History Project