Remembering Richard Part II
Chellstorp, and Andrew Karklins. The Club, and Richard, were prospering, however. Richard had previously moved from a dark studio apartment in a run-down apartment building to a nice room at Hyde Park ' s Del Prado Hotel, on the lake. On December 1, 1972, the Chicago Chess Club moved to beautiful if smaller quarters at the LaSalle Hotel at 10 North LaSalle Street downtown; Richard later moved to a large room at the LaSalle. Officers at the time: Richard, President; myself, Vice-President; Dave Oshana, Treasurer; Bertha Roberson, Secretary. J. Wiley Clements, a CNA insurance executive who had been Richard ' s predecessor as Chicago Chess Club President, resumed his position on the Board of Trustees, along with George Leighton, attorney Aaron Meyers, and Dennis Keen.
On December 12, one of the coldest, snowbound days that winter, Richard organized a simultaneous exhibition by Karpov, Keres, and Petrosian, on their way back home from playing in the Church ' s Fried Chicken International in San Antonio. Hundreds of Chicago players braved the weather to attend the event, filling the Grand Ballroom on the 19th floor of the LaSalle. Richard, microphone in hand, introduced them from the podium, and they received an uproarious and lengthy standing ovation from the crowd. Recalling that event, Petrosian told me at dinner a decade later: " For the first time, I believed that chess in America was being promoted properly."
As Chair of the Organizing Committee Richard had presented a successful bid for the U. S. Open for August of 1973, to be held at the LaSalle. February 3- 11, he organized the U. S. Championship Zonal Playoffs between Byrne, Reshevsky, and Kavalek, at the LaSalle. He introduced Bill Goichberg to Phil Levant, Sales Manager of the LaSalle and a former big-band leader. Phil took them to the luxurious hotel restaurant for dinner, where he and Richard ordered their favorite surf and turf-- filet mignon and lobster tail. Bill studied the menu, frowning, studied it some more, frowned some more, and finally said, " They don ' t have tunafish sandwiches." Ever gracious, Phil instructed the waiter to have the chef prepare one. On May 4-6 Bill ' s Continental Chess Association sponsored a record-breaking National High School Championship with 1074 entrants at the LaSalle.
The 1973 U. S. Open broke all previous records with 778 players competing. Pearle Mann and I, along with a lot of others, directed the event, held August 12-24 at the LaSalle. Harold Winston was Publicity Director, working with the tireless Evelyn Nelson, PR person for the hotel. Bertha Roberson was in charge of entertainment. Lots of others helped out, among them Colleen Sen, Shizuko and Sparky Fulk, Alfred Kalnajs, Robertson Sillars, Irving Rosenfeld.
The event was a triumph, establishing Richard as one of the nation ' s leading organizers. He followed it by organizing the 1974 U. S. Championship held July 13- August 2 at the Chicago Chess Club at the LaSalle; we co-directed the event which saw Browne, Reshevsky, Benko, Bisguier, John Grefe, Rogoff, Norman Weinstein, Soltis, Saidy, Bernard Zuckerman, Larry Gildent, and Chicago ' s Andrew Karklins compete. No one was surprised when the USCF Policy Board designated Chicago as " Chess City of the Year 1974 " at its meeting of December 7.
Richard was also a prominent and skilled tournament director, and he quickly became an NTD. When his friend Lynne Babcock sponsored the 1974 Houston International, she invited him down to assist Pearle Mann. One night she took Richard and some of the players to a local Mexican restaurant. There was a bowl of jalapeno peppers on the table for anyone who cared or dared to eat them. Lynne and the others looked on in amazement as Richard ate them one by one and then asked for another bowl.
Chess Politician
It came as no surprise that Richard decided to run for the office of USCF Vice-President in 1975. His successes in Chicago along with burgeoning friendships with USCF leaders like Executive Director Ed Edmondson, Past President Leroy Dubeck, presidential candidate George Koltanowski, and Frank Skoff meant solid old guard support from around the country. At the USCF Delegates ' Meeting in New York in August 1974, Richard held dozens of proxies. I was young and new to national chess politics, but I was in the Policy Board suite when Ed, Kolty, Leroy, Frank, and Richard all announced how many proxies they had( a majority) and then decided on a dues raise, before the Delegates had even met! The 1974 meeting saw the legality of proxies challenged by Judge Lackland Bloom of Missouri; in 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska, the Bylaws were changed to disallow them. 1974 marked the peak of Richard ' s political influence within the Federation. He didn ' t recognize until too late the seriousness of the challenge to the old guard mounted by relative newcomers, and Fred Townsend of Connecticut won election to the USCF Vice-Presidency in 1975. One of allies, Doris Thackrey of Michigan also won a seat on the Board, defeating Pearle Mann. Richard and I had dinner with Doris shortly after her election, outlining what we expected from the USCF for Chicago. " Kind of like a good cop / bad cop routine," Richard joked. " Which one of you is the good cop?" Doris rejoindered. After his defeat, although Richard counseled a number of USCF leaders through phone calls, he did not run again for national Federation office. Don Schultz later praised him for helping various factions within the Federation communicate.
Illinois Chess Bulletin 29