Remembering Richard Part II
The Fischer Bust
Richard continued to organize national events, most notably the U. S. Open in Chicago in 1979, but over the rest of the decade his attention was increasingly focused on efforts to save the Chicago Chess Club and revitalize the Illinois Chess Association. The ICA had existed intermittently for a long time, but the modern ICA dates to its rebirth in 1961 by a group that included Frank Skoff, Pete Wolf, Helen Hendricks( later Warren), Jim Brotsos, and Eva Aronson. Publication of the ICB stopped in 1973 due to lack of funds. An ICA meeting was called on January 26, 1975, to reorganize, with new bylaws effective April 1. The Chicago Chess Foundation contributed money to send the reestablished ICB to all 2400 USCF members in Illinois. New ICA President Richard Verber was quoted in the ICB for May-June 1975 announcing that the Fischer boom was over; it officially ended when Bobby refused to defend his title that year.
Declining Chicago Chess Club membership forced the Chicago Chess Club to leave the Loop for the first time since its founding in 1870 as the Chicago Chess and Checkers Club. It moved to the basement of the Gaslight Lounge at 2860 North Halsted. Richard later told me that it was the biggest mistake he ever made as Club President. He didn ' t realize how many businessmen wanted the Club to remain in the Loop and were willing to support it if it stayed downtown. One immediate problem with the new location: Judge Leighton could not attend since the entrance was through a bar. " Members of the judiciary should never be seen in a bar," he told me. " Well, I never wanted to be a judge anyway," I responded.
The Chicago Chess Club moved to the St. Clair Hotel at 162 East Ohio in early 1975. The St. Clair was also home to the Chicago Press Club, and the move was sponsored by wealthy members. Richard replace Dennis Keen as the club ' s full-time business manager. Another sign of the times: the Club announced that effective January 1, 1976, there would be no smoking at its tournaments. I left for Rome in June 1976 after passing my doctoral qualifying exams in Italian literature, to teach and do research on my dissertation, and didn ' t return to the States until December 1977, at which point I moved to New Haven for six months to do work in the archives of Yale ' s Beinecke Library. Thus I was not in close touch with Chicago chess for those two years. During that time, the Chicago Chess Club moved again, to 25 North Franklin. Helen Warren became Editor of the ICB, producing the best magazine since the days of Skoff ' s editorship. The June 1978 issue reported that Richard was elected as President of the Chicago Chess Club and that the Club would co-sponsor the U. S. Class with the USCF July 21-23. Richard supported the Policy Board slate that won election that
year. He had talked me into running for USCF Vice President in 1978; other members of that ticket were Gary Sperling, USCF President; George Cunningham, USCF Treasurer; Myron Lieberman, USCF Secretary; and Susan Benoit and Jerry Hanken, Members-at- Large along with a continuing Tony Cottell and Past President George Koltanowski. The Federation was in serious financial difficulty as a consequence of the Fischer bust and we had our hands full.
Richard resumed active play in 1979. He had declined invitations to play in the 1974 and 1975 U. S. Championship. He told me at the time that he wasn ' t in peak playing form and that his opening repertoire was outdated. Since that represented pretty much the permanent state of my own game, I urged him to play anyway, but he understood that at that level, his results would be disappointing. His work organizing chess events, running the Chicago Chess Club, as well as his personal life, had kept him from the game. I believe Richard to have been the most gifted of that generation of Chicago Senior Masters, but he lacked the drive of Greg DeFotis and the discipline of Andrew Karklins and Ed Formanek( Ed became an International Master in 1976). He enjoyed the game, but no longer worked at it. I agree with John Tomas ' s assessment in the June 1985 issue of the ICB: although he would enjoy further successes, Richard " had basically given up serious chess by 1973." In 1979 the Chicago Chess Club moved again, to No Exit, a coffeehouse in Rogers Park.
Richard teaches his grandniece and grandnephew [ more details later ]
Fred Gruenberg
In October 1979, Fred Gruenberg showed up at a Koltanowski " Knight ' s Tour " at the Oak Park Chess Club and challenged George to a game for $ 100. Fred quickly became a force in Chicago and national chess, and he and Richard became good friends. Fred owned a successful commercial paint business that he ran with his wife, Donna, and son Guy, and he was a longtime chessplayer. Doing one
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Illinois Chess Bulletin