LCCC will NOT be happening on October 30 due to the Detroit Lions are playing on Monday Night Football on television and our location will be swamped with Lions fans. The Club decided to take the week off and free up more tables for the band wagon crowd. But normally;
The Livingston County Chess
Club meets every Monday night between
4pm and 10pm
at the Buffalo Wild Wings in
the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI.
Stop in for some friendly chess, good food
and 'refreshments'.
Everyone of all ages and playing strength are
welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!
In Club news, we have been playing our Action Tournament. After
four exciting rounds we had four players all tied for 1st with 3
points!
Ken T, Mike N, Pete B and Vince V. Instead of having a 4 way tie
for first, it was decided to have this go to an Armageddon final.
When the dust cleared, Pete B be taking on Vince V in the
Armageddon final on November 6!
Now, meet IM John Donaldson
To make a career in chess in this country, you have to be lucky,
and you have to be good. John Donaldson has been both. He grew up in
Washington, somewhat in the shadow of GM Yasser Seirawan. That had one advantage
for Donaldson as he learned his limitations at an early age. “After losing my
twentieth game in a row to Seirawan, I realized that I was never going to be
the world champion,” Donaldson says.
Nevertheless, he had a career that virtually anyone else could
truly envy. With a starting rating of 1243 in 1972, John achieved the master
level in five years and achieved an IM title in 1983. He has two GM norms (in 2002 and 2003) to his credit and in 2009
returned to top level chess and gave an effort to earn the last one. It was not
to be as too much time had passed. It is not very common for 50-year-old IM’s
to earn GM norms.
Even without a GM title, Donaldson has made a steady living off
of chess. In 1987 he moved to North Carolina to teach chess in Charlotte area
schools. Then he moved to Inside Chess Magazine, owned by Yasser Seirawan, and
wrote chess articles for 10 years. He now is the Chess Director at the prestigious
Mechanics Institute in San Francisco.
The Mechanics Institute is a unique place. It is primarily a
private library, which survives on memberships. It has housed a chess club
since 1854, which makes it the oldest chess club west of the Mississippi. You
can see pictures in the halls of the former world champions who have visited
the club — including Boris Spassky, who showed up just two years ago. The building
practically oozes tradition.
But you have to wonder about the long-term viability of the MI
and the chess club that depends on it. The library has lost a few thousand members
in the past years. “People check out fewer books than they used to,” he says.
The chess club too, even though it is a historic treasure, looks just a bit too
historic. The chess tables date from the 1920s. Some of the newspaper clippings
on the walls are old and yellowing. The whole place could really profit from a
make-over, but where would the money ever come from?
Exactly, the downfall of all chess clubs.
John has captained the US National Team twenty-five times,
including six Olympiads and has written over forty books!
On the personal side, he has a BA in History from the University
of Washington. He married Elena Akhmilovskaya, a member of the Russian women’s
chess team in 1988, but they divorced a year later.
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