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I was born January 19, 1930 and have lived in Boise all my life, except for a four year period from 1949 to 1953, attending college out of town most of the time. I’m not sure when I learned to play chess but my initial interest was no doubt because of C.H. (Charlie) Stewart, who only lived one block from us while I was in elementary school, plus we saw the Stewarts frequently (socially) and Charley shared an office with my father, who was a fruit broker, and the two were part of a bridge foursome that played once a month for 1/20th of a cent per point (big stakes!). Dad sold fruit for about 25 growers who packed their own on their farms in those days, and Charlie was one of them. The two officed together for companionship and to save money, which was always a high priority item with Charlie!

My memory of past events has never been good, but I did go to the chess club in the old YMCA building with Stewart on occasion and, when a senior in high school (1947), went with him to the first state championship tournament in Twin Falls, which he won. After that, I entered Boise Junior College for two years and can remember playing a lot of competitive hearts (and bridge) at school, but have no recollection of playing chess, although I no doubt went to some club meetings.

The next two years were spent at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington where some bridge was played but no chess, except for summers at home. After that, my final two collegiate years were spent at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California during which time I married Jean Hammer (of Boise) and we had our first child. Also, in 1951, while in California I joined Chess Review and The Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA) to play correspondence chess since I was not able to play otherwise and had developed a keen interest in the game. I did go to the Palo Alto Chess Club once and was beaten badly by one of their better players but, more importantly, was not warmly greeted and learned first hand that if you work with the public you have to be friendly and make everyone feel welcome and wanted.

I played correspondence with Chess Review for a time but dropped out because of a perceived lack of friendliness by Jack Straley Battell who ran the organization until it was combined with the U.S. Chess Federation to provide that organization with a correspondence division and improve the membership and magazine, which was then called Chess Life and Review. I remained a member of CCLA and have been very active in that organization. More about CCLA later. Jack Battell was also a CCLA member and during subsequent years, as I became involved with the group’s promotion, I corresponded with him a couple of times and he was quite friendly, providing a different impression than I had earlier. Dick Rees ran CCLA during the late 40s and the 50s, after taking over from Walt James, and Dick, who was handicapped and in a wheel chair, literally gave his life to CCLA and was a fine general manager. Glen Buckendorf was also a member of CCLA in those days and, as I remember, sometimes played over 100 correspondence games at a time, far more than I ever attempted.

Upon returning to Boise in the summer of 1953, I started to play at the chess club regularly and added over-the-board to my correspondence games. Whenever I get involved in any organization I seem to end up helping with promotion and chess has certainly been no exception. Soon, I was directing tournaments and sending announcements and this developed into my "Idaho Chess Bulletin" which was published bi-month1y or quarterly for over 12 years from late 1956 through 1968. After that, with family, business and other activities occupying more of my time, I tried to enroll Idaho players in "Northwest Chess" magazine and contributed Idaho information so our players would received their results regularly but lacking a dues schedule sufficient to pay for the annual subscription rate, we didn’t have everyone subscribing and the effort only lasted a year or two. After that we sent infrequent news bulletins with mostly tournament announcements.

Various people helped with the "Idaho Chess Bulletin" over the years including particularly Eugene Cowan, of Driggs, who edited the games section, as did Glen Buckendorf and George Rasor for shorter periods. Others contributed articles and we included results of important intermountain and northwest events and I always had a close relationship with Northwest Chess and those that published it.

I won my first of six Idaho state chess titles in 1955 on kind of a fluke. It was the last round, playing Ken Jones of Reno, and the game was in a drawn position, but Ken wanted a win and apparently figured his young, fairly inexperienced opponent would make a mistake. As it turned out, he blundered and permitted me to win, providing enough points to win the Idaho title! In those days we had only one state tournament and the highest placing Idaho player won the state championship. Glen Buckendorf and I won most of the state titles during the 1954 to 1970 era and were the dominant players. George Krauss came to Idaho with the military in 1961 and 1962 and at that time could beat all of us. He was transferred out of state after two years. He is a member of CCLA and I correspond with him occasionally.

Larry Parsons came to Idaho in the early 70s on a tennis scholarship to Boise State University and has been the dominant player since tying with me for the title in 1977. For over 20 years until then we had only one champion and this was decided on tie breaks when two players had the same score, a procedure which no doubt limited the number of times players could win the championship previously. When that 1977 event was over someone asked if Larry could also be declared champion so I and the others thought why not, as it would provide the thrill of a championship to more players in the future and be better for Idaho chess in general. (This procedure of declaring tying players co-champions continues today).

I won the Idaho title five more times after 1955 including three in a row, 1963-1965. I also won the Idaho Open in 1965, as we had both Open and Closed tournaments since 1958. There was one period during those years when I played 23 tournament games without a loss, but of course some were drawn. My rating peaked then at 2117 over-the-board and 2165 postal. Now I am not playing over-the-board games, but some postal, and both ratings are in the 1900s although I think I’ll be back in the Expert category in CCLA shortly where I was for almost 40 years until two or three years ago.

Everyone has work and family obligations and, with four children and a fruit growing and packing business in which I work with over 30 growers, I am no exception. However, all my adult life it seems I have had several different things going on at the same time, as opposed to someone like Charlie Stewart who had only one hobby, and one of my interests was a 20 year stint as head coach of the Bogus Basin Mitey Mite Ski Racing Team. This started in 1957 and by 1977 I had about 15 coaches working for me coaching up to 180 kids 12 years of age and under. We had alot of fun but this activity took time away from chess, and included race weekends which sometimes conflicted with chess tournament weekends. For this reason, I didn’t attend all our state championships but tried to attend most during my "active" period.

From the mid-50s until the late 70s or early 80s I directed and during the earlier years played at the same time in a great many Idaho events and rose to my present level of Senior TD with USCF. I was also a USCF Regional Vice President for three years in the 1960s. For over 10 years we had a sponsor in Bill Langroise, President of Continental Life and Accident Co., and he donated to our Idaho Opens until he died, permitting us to offer from $1200 to $1500 in prizes, attracting many strong players from throughout the northwest and intermountain areas. We had Yasser Seirawan twice and our largest event as I remember had 72 entrants, but the most thrilling Open tournament was in 1958 when we had Viktors Pupo1s, Viesturs Seg1ins and Jim McCormick from Seattle, Dr. Peter Lapiken from Missoula, Montana, and Ben Greenwald from Salt Lake City. They each heard the others were coming and wanted to play because the five were among the best known and highest rated in the region. The tournament was really something with Peter Lapiken placing first, winning three (including a win over Pupo1s) and drawing two (Greenwald and Seglins). Actually, Lapiken, Seglins and McCormick tied with 4-1 but Lapiken won on tie break. Pupo1s was 4th, Dr. David Groenig, of Spokane, was 5th (both with 3½-1½) and Ben Greenwald was 6th, 3-2. I was 8th, the highest placing Idaho resident (and tournament director), 2½-2½, losing to McCormick and in the last round to our friend (and Idahoan for awhile), Groenig. Glen Buckendorf and A.B. Ellis also scored 2½-2½, placing 9th and 10th. C.H. Stewart, at age 80, was 12th, 2-3, losing to both Seg1ins and McCormick while dropping another to a very strong Salt Lake City player, Don Benge. We have a picture of Seg1ins and Greenwald playing to a draw with Lapiken and Pupo1s looking on.

During these early years we also had team tournaments between Idaho chess clubs which variously included Boise, Canyon County, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls Pocate110 and Teton Valley, the latter organized by Eugene Cowan. Sometimes Boise and Canyon County would play in the first round with Twin Falls playing an eastern Idaho club, then the winners would play in the finals. Boise played Twin Falls at least twice in Glenns Ferry, located about half way between the two cities. One fun year (1960) we beat Canyon County and Twin Falls while Cowan’s Teton Valley team managed to win over Idaho Falls. We arranged a match in Gooding (!) between Boise and Teton Valley (hoping this might help start a Gooding chess club and I believe Max Wennstrom was still living there before moving to Boise, or he at least helped with the arrangements). This was really interesting as we came from opposite ends of the southern part of the state. Boise won this memorable event but a real key was Eugene being able to recruit a competitive team from an eastern Idaho valley area with a very low population base!

I traveled to only a few out of state events, probably because of conflicting activities, and for some reason no tournaments in Utah or Nevada but only in the northwest. My only other traveling was mostly confined to Twin Falls when we had the Idaho Closed there every other year. While in transit, it was my custom to play "blindfold" chess games vs. a passenger who used a peg-in or magnetic set, such as Nick Skirmants or George Rasor. I can testify that if you ever want the miles to slip quickly by, try this as the driver! One game, thinking all the while, and possibly another, and you were in Twin Falls with NO boring travel time! One weekend, Dr. David Groenig, who lived in the Boise area for a time but moved to Spokane, and I attended a tournament in Montana and he also could play blindfolded. On the way up we played a couple of games and, after the tournament while driving back, he said he had always wanted to play more than one game at the same time blindfolded so I said O.K. and we started three games. We struggled and on occasion had to ask about a position of a particular piece, but in the end we finished all three games, the last in the middle of the Mountain Home desert, only 20 miles from Boise. We were mentally exhausted but had fun and hardly noticed the nine hour drive!

I used to plan an occasional simultaneous exhibition and remember two in particular. The largest was a 21 game session vs. the Canyon County Chess Club during the three consecutive years I was state champion. I believe I lost a couple, drew two or three and won the rest. The other occurred in Driggs since my friend, Eugene Cowan, arranged the match when I visited him from Idaho Falls where Jean and I were staying a few days with her sister and husband. Eugene and I saw quite a little of each other for a few years and he always supported our tournaments even though he had to take the bus from Driggs to Idaho Falls to Boise (or Twin Falls). We did some hiking together including Table Mountain on the Idaho side of the Tetons, plus Middle Teton Mountain and, along with my Boy Scout troop, when I was a Scoutmaster and my son was working towards his Eagle badge, five of us made it to the top of Idaho’s highest peak, Mt. Borah. Those successful were Eugene and I plus my son and two other older Scouts. (Later, my son and I climbed Grand Teton which was an experience I’ll never forget and he and his wife are now doing some more serious climbing of their own.)

In the Teton Valley simultaneous, I played about six men which, except for Eugene and maybe one other, wasn’t really difficult as some were inexperienced, but after the others lost and I was playing only Eugene, another player showed up late so I played him blindfolded at the same time and ended up winning all games!

During the years when I played some out of state tournaments there were events in Tacoma, The Dalles, Oregon, and two in Montana that I can remember. I was too busy to travel very often and had mixed results, but Harold Hughart and I went to Montana together once with my placing 2nd and he 3rd, both 3½-1½, but neither of us had to play Dr. Peter Lapiken as we lost to others. Lapiken, of course, placed 1st.

Perhaps I didn’t win more out of state because I often ended up playing Viktors Pupols (or Jim McCormick) neither of whom I could beat. One memorable event was in Montana where I had no idea Vik would be attending (and vice-versa). He is a very tenacious and durable player and you had to want to win very badly to beat him! To demonstrate his toughness and skill, he and another player decided to play in Butte on a weekend but both had to work until 5:00 pm. Friday. Viktors drove and they left Seattle about 6:00 or 6:30 pm. They drove all night, arriving in Butte about 5:00 am. After resting for a couple of hours, they arrived at the tournament with Vik and I winning our first two games. We were paired Saturday evening in round three and played about five hours until they closed the building. I had an excellent game and should have adjourned it until sometime the next day, but Vik suggested we retire to his motel room to continue play and I agreed.

I finally lost about 2:30 am the next morning after which, during the day, we played the final two games with him winning the tournament while I was exhausted. Vik and his friend then drove back to Seattle Sunday evening, starting about 5:30 pm. so they could go to work Monday morning. Now, that’s one tough customer!

I would like to discuss the Boise Chess Club as I remember it during the 1950s and 1960s. Some old timers from the 50s were James Latimer Bothwell, a big man who said he had recurring problems from a bout with malaria and was supposed to have been, at one time, the strongest man in Africa. He also did a sketch of George Koltanowski once while he was staying in Boise at Stewart’s for a simultaneous, so he must have been some kind of an artist too. There was Albert Harle who was very quiet and withdrawn and was said to have been shell shocked in World War II. John Cosho was a very good player and fine fellow that competed with Stewart and I in every city championship, I believe winning the title once (?). He was always a gentleman and unfortunately died in his 60s some years ago. Cecil Spangenberg, George Rasor and Nick Skirmants came along in the late 1950s or early 1960s and were stalwart opponents for many years. Nick immigrated here from Latvia after being in a German concentration camp (leaving his native country before the Russians came in!). He and George played happily against each other for a long time and both are in their 80s and still living. Cecil had relatives in the Tacoma, Washington area and he and I played in the Tacoma Open once and were paired in the first round! Walter Young was a fine fellow, a stockbroker and our original contact with Bill Langroise, the Idaho Open supporter.

Over the years I won the Boise City Championship about 20 times until I ceased active playing, including 13 in a row from 1961 through 1973. Towards the end of this era time was short and we played round robins with 15+ entrants so I used to play 3, 4, or 5 players simultaneously to be able to get all my games in. Of course, I never played the top club members in this fashion, except maybe two games at once. ft is possible I played almost as well using this method, as I didn’t over-analyze the positions and, perhaps, this is why I was able to play and direct at the same time for so many years?!

As mentioned previously, I joined the Correspondence Chess League of America in 1951 and have therefore belonged to that organization for 46 years. It was founded in 1909, is the oldest chess group in the U.S. and has a simple rating system/ideal for clubs/that has formed the basis for many others, including the original Elo system now used by the USCF. I have held every office possible in CCLA and began to help more with its management as time went along and the need arose. I was president for a total of 10 years and have been on the Board of Directors to date for well over 15. (It wasn’t mentioned earlier, but I was also president of both the Idaho Chess Association and the Boise Chess Club several times each and was awarded a lifetime membership in the Idaho Chess Association about 15 years ago). I’m currently in charge of foreign matches for CCLA and we have one currently with Germany, along with some other clubs, and are starting a match this fall with the National Correspondence Chess League of England.

To help finance promotion, a dozen years ago or so I started the CCLA Knights where members can donate money in various donor classifications from $5.00 to $100.00 (Friend to President’s Circle) and the funds are used for advertising CCLA and special projects. We have raised thousands of dollars and now I am starting an endowment fund so anyone contributing $1000.00 or more becomes a Lifetime Knight and those contributing $250.00 per year are Lifetime Candidates and after four years are Lifetime Knights. We have already paid for a new computer system costing $4500.00 and the push for computer funds is what helped bring out the idea for the endowment fund. "Members" of the Knights are listed in their various categories in each issue of our magazine. The $100.00 or less money has been used for current expenses while those working towards being Lifetime Knights put money in the endowment fund where we use only the dividends, keeping the principle intact.

CCLA has a national team championship every other year. I have captained several Idaho teams and our players have done extremely well! We just won Division III of the latest tournament (divisions are broken down by average team ratings) and are entering a strong team/in Division II of the just starting new event/called the Idaho-Montana Mountaineers. Idaho players involved are myself, Mike Henderson (Boise), Cliff Rawson (Lewiston), Richard Mundee (Genessee), Randy Smolensky (San Pedro, Calif. and a former Boisean), John Downes (Spokane and formerly of Boise) and Donald Evans (Ontario, Oregon but only a river away from Idaho!). Go Mountaineers!!

Back in the 1970s and earlier, CCLA was the sole representative in the United States for the International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) but there were problems with other U.S. clubs (principally USCF) not wishing to have to go through CCLA to reach ICCF tournaments and the world championship cycle. Therefore, in the early 1980s I set up a meeting in San Francisco, including several key people in North American chess/that coincided with a USCF Policy Board meeting and we hammered out a constitution for the U.S. Postal Chess Federation (USPCF) and the North American Federation of Postal Chess. USPCF now handles all ICCF programs in this country and is comprised of four member clubs including CCLA, USCF, APCT, and NOST. Max Zavanelli is the director of USPCF, which is involved with matches, world "class" tournaments and other activities.

In 1980, with no programs in Idaho for students, I organized the Idaho Scholastic Championships and helped set up regional tournaments throughout the state as well as holding several Boise area tournaments per year/in addition to the championship regional events, which were held in cities such as Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Boise, Lewiston and Sandpoint. Sandpoint already had a large, local tournament for area students and we helped them advertise their event. This was truly a statewide championship. Those placing highest in their region were brought to Boise with help from First Security Bank for the State Finals. Usually, 16 to 18 players competed in the finals and we operated in this manner for 16 years through 1995, when the Idaho Chess Assn. took over the program, trying to increase the number of scholastic players competing in rated events.

At that time, in the fall of 1995, Craig Barrett, of Boise, wanted to get involved with scholastic chess for his kids and others, so we organized the Gem State Chess Assn., the primary purpose of which is to provide chess tournaments for elementary and secondary students and we now hold several rated, and nonrated beginner type competitions, per year. These have been held as one day, five round events which normally attract from 50 to 75 players. Because of ICA and GSCA tournaments, scholastic chess is booming, especially in southwestern and south-central Idaho. Rated tournaments now often have 1/3 or more of the entrants who are students! The Idaho State Scholastic Championships held by the ICA recently in Sun Valley, and directed by Tom Keelan, included 87 students and set a new record for players attending an Idaho event. Craig and I plan to continue our own GSCA efforts and will hold our first weekend competition this winter. Our one day rated sections (most of the time we simultaneously have unrated tournaments for the more inexperienced students to bring them along) have been open to adults the past l½ years and have helped improving scholastics obtain expanded competition and become more involved in ICA and other USCF rated tournaments. Many adults have also played in our one day sessions and they provide additional tournament games above those available elsewhere in the state. We just held a one day "Boise River Festival" 100% USCF rated event with 60 adults and students signed up, including for the first time some from out of state. Chess is a fine outlet for students and with adult tournament participation somewhat slowed due to so many conflicting opportunities available in other activities, young players will make up an increasingly large proportion of Idaho chess competitors in the future.

Another of my "spare time" interests is bridge and specifically duplicate bridge. Time does not permit playing both bridge and chess due mostly to the evenings involved. live played bridge almost as long as chess but not nearly as much at the competitive level and my bridge skills are at least staying even while in chess as you get older you lose some of the drive, sharpness and durability one has at a younger age. Since, other than some correspondence/I am not playing chess regularly/my skills won’t remain at the level they might otherwise, but even taking this into account, no one possesses the chess skills they may have had in their 20s and 30s when in their 50s, 60s and older.

I believe the games of bridge and chess are equally difficult but there is a big difference. Bridge is somewhat more abstract, even a little like poker where you can try to fool the opponents by your play. Also, you are working with a partner rather than going completely solo. Possibly the biggest difference is that in a 3½ hour chess game you are involved in only one competition during which every move is crucial to one outcome. (Of course, that is one of the beauties of chess!). That creates a lot more pressure compared to bridge where in 3½ hours you might blunder two or three hands and still win because there are up to 28 different chances. Also, bridge is somewhat more social even at the competitive level. For these reasons bridge seems to me to fit well as you get older and lose some of the durability and sharpness present at a younger age. Perhaps the differences between the two games explain why in bridge 60% of participants are female whereas in chess less than 5%. An interesting side note is that Larry Parsons, who has won the Idaho title 10-times and is current co-champion, is now playing duplicate bridge, often over the internet with his cousin. Larry and I have started playing bridge regularly together and this coming weekend will enter our first sectional tournament together. We’re having fun and Larry is a good friend.

I have decided for the most part to promote the game of chess by working with the kids (and adults) directing and organizing competitions and continuing my long association with CCLA. In these areas there are never e nough helpers! It has been my pleasure to be involved with the great game for over 50 years and I look forward to many more in the future.

© 2006 The Idaho Chess History Project