The 2,000,000th post game

Chloe Dorsey, Take 2.

It's nice to come across well-meaning, life-affirming people like this every so often ...

Grizzly Adams

Best. Idea. Ever!

They say humans pick up on the infrared spectrum.

In 1962, Theodore Smith was arrested for murder after stabbing to death chess master Abe Turner (1924-1962) at the office of Chess Review magazine. Turner worked as a clerk for Chess Review magazine. Smith stabbed Turner 9 times in the back, then stuffed his 280 pound body in a safe. Smith had been recently released from an insane asylum and claimed that Turner was a Communist spy and had to be killed on orders from the U.S. Secret Service.

In 1964, International Master Raymond Weinstein (1941- ) attacked International Master Johan Barendregt (1924-1982) while in the Netherlands. Soon after the incident, he was deported back to the United States. There, he was detained in a half-way house, then arrested for murder after he killed his 83-year old roommate with a razor after an argument. Weinstein was judged mentally ill and was confined to the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Ward’s Island for the mentally ill.

In 1966, grandmaster Mikhail Tal was beaten up and hit on the head with a beer bottle during the chess Olympiad in Havana. He missed the first five rounds because of his injuries.

In August 1969, Grandmaster Ludek Pachman (1924-2003) was arrested and imprisoned for his political activities in Czechoslovakia. He was charged of defaming a representative of the Republic and supporting Dubcek. He was sent to Ruzyn Prison on the outskirts of Prague. He was later charged with subversion and up to 10 years imprisonment. He was released in December, 1970, but was banned from chess in Czechoslovakia. In 1972 he moved to Germany so he could play chess.

In 1970, chess player and organizer Claude Bloodgood (1937-2001) was arrested and sentenced to death for killing his stepmother. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1972.

In August 1971, Trevor Stowe, a chess antique dealer, was charged in court in London for indecent exhibition on display in his window. Each of the 32 pieces showed couples in sexual positions. Stowe had to pay $132 in fines and court costs.

In 1973, the police raided a chess tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. They arrested the tournament director and confiscated the chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the chess sets). Later, the charges were dropped.

In 1978, grandmaster William Lombardy was attacked in New York City by a mugger who had a knife. Tendons in two fingers were severed and he underwent a long operation to repair the severed tendons.

In January 1979, Patrick McKenna, a prisoner in Nevada, strangled his Las Vegas cellmate, Jack J. Nobles, after an argument over a chess game in which he lost. At age 63, he has been on death row for over 30 years. He was denied the latest in a long line of appeals.

In May 1981, Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) was arrested in Pasadena, California because he matched the description of a man who had just committed a bank robbery in that area. He was held for two days, and then released on $1,000 bail.

In 1982, Boris Gulko and his wife were arrested for protesting at the Moscow Interzonal in Moscow. They were trying to immigrate to Israel.

In 1986, grandmaster Aleksander Wojtkiewicz (1963-2006) was arrested and sent to prison in Latvia for dodging the Soviet Army draft. While in prison, he studied chess and found a novelty in the Sicilian Defense, Accelerated Dragon variation. The new move was coined the “Prison Novelty.”

In 1987, Grandmaster Tony Miles (1955-2001) was arrested at 10 Downing Street in London after trying to get in after midnight to talk to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about payments owed to him by the British Chess Federation. He was eventually hospitalized for two months from a mental breakdown.

In 1988, undercover police arrested a chess player at a park in New York City after he won a marked $5 bill against a police officer posing as a construction worker during a blitz game. The chess player was jailed for 3 days, his medication was confiscated, and he had a heart attack. The arrest was finally tossed out by a judge. Five years later, the city settled the wrongful arrest lawsuit out of court for $100,000.

In 1988, International Master James Sherwin, vice chairman of the GAF Corporation and president of the American Chess Foundation, was arrested on stock manipulation charges. He was found guilty in December, 1989. The appeals court overturned the guilty verdict in 1991 and he was released. The U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Sherwin was Rudi Giuliani, who spent over a million dollars prosecuting the case.

In 1989, the police raided a chess tournament in Los Angeles. The L.A.P.D. vice officers raided a nightly chess tournament held at Dad’s Donuts. They cited three men for gambling after finding $1.50 on the table. The police staged the raid after an undercover detective tried unsuccessfully to join a blitz chess game. The detective then pulled out his badge and said “all of you are under arrest,” as the L.A.P.D. swooped in.