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I first remember noticing chess in a movie while living in Salt Lake City, my home town. I was about 12 or 13 years old. It had Humphrey Bogart with a big fancy chess set. Later, I bought a 39 cent small wooden set with black and red squares along with a paper showing the moves. It took me several years to understand fully en passant and about the same time I went to the library and began reading chess books.

We had a chess hour in junior high (Lincoln) when I was 14 and in senior high school (South) we had a chess club which met every day after school. When I reached 16, in Utah you 'could get a work permit and go to school half day and then to work. No over-the-board chess was played then but I took up postal chess and subscribed to "Chess Review."

I played a little at the Salt Lake City chess club, meeting in the city/county building. All the state champions played there - Dittman, Page, Morgan, etc. I was the only kid playing. Later, I was drafted in the service in February, 1944 and took my postal chess books, but soon it became too much so I quit playing until the summer of 1945 when I was discharged and in Los Angeles and read of the Herman Steiner/Hollywood Chess Club. He was a friend of several stars and his picture was in the paper with some, including Humphrey Bogart. The two were on the cover of an old "Chess Review"!

I started over and played in the Pan American International in 1945, the reserve section. Reshevsky and Fine were co-winners of the top section. Horowitz, Adams and Pilnick were other entrants and they would come down to be photographed with Marlene Dietrich, Linda Darnell, and others. The finale was a living chess game with a lot of starlets and actors.

Back to Salt Lake in November and a job with Western Electric, and was with them for 42½ years which meant a lot of traveling and no chess on a regular basis.

My memory of chess events is in and out. I played in the Tucson chess championship in 1948 at the YMCA and won it. Also played in the Phoenix YMCA in 1949 and won that too.

Then was transferred to Twin Falls in 1950 and was married in 1952. I played some chess at the Rogerson Hotel with Lloyd Kimpton and his brother LaVerl. I was traveling again in 1957 or 1958 and dropped out again but ran into Lloyd in a store and he said they were playing the state championship in Rupert (1958) so I began playing again and won the Class B.

After that it was the same pattern, play chess some and travel some. During those years I purchased quite a few chess books but there were no computers or other chess players to practice against. I remember playing in a couple of Utah Opens because I was visiting my mother was still living in Salt Lake.

I ran the chess club in Twin Falls during the 1960s and 1970s and we held many tournaments including our club championship. Then I would be on the road again and, upon returning, the club was almost dead and we would start over again.

My 15 minutes of fame (almost) was playing Bobby Fischer in Ogden, Utah in 1964, in a simultaneous exhibition. I was working at Clearfield, Utah and read of the match in the paper. I drove to Ogden but the only set I could find was a cheap, hollow one with a red and black paper board. I was surprised Bobby would play on such a small set! Eugene Cowan sat next to me. I had not played in several months and was extremely excited when Bobby was down to only a couple of boards (including mine) and now we, were playing speed chess with the result being my blunder.

Well, now I still like to play at an age when most seniors have long since stopped, possibly because their egos can't stand the pounding! I lose more than I win but think the mental activity involved slows aging. A few of us old diehards spot our opponents 40 plus years, but it is fun.

© 2006 The Idaho Chess History Project