Does anyone know who the competitors were? Also who won the peach state open in GA. , in 1972? They do not have records back that far.
Regards ,Scott
Here is the August 1961 Chess Life article on the US Junior (scanned and OCR’d without proofing). It is not clear from the context if it is the Open, Closed, or if there were both events in 1961.
Ault Wins U.S. Junior
Third Straight Year
There is no question that the Junior Championship of the United States belongs to Robin Ault. For the third straight year this talented 19-year-old of Cranford, N.J. has topped the best junior players in the country to take the much coveted national title.
His first win was in Omaha in 1959 where he placed ahead of such stars as Raymond Weinstein and Larry Gilden. At West Orange, New Jersey last year he finished first again over a 63 player field. This year competing in the Biltmore Hotel in Toledo, Ohio, Ault topped the largest field of juniors yet to assemble for the annual contest- 66- with a fine score of 7-2. He defeated Acers, Formanek, McKinney, Fasano, and Palciouskas and drew with Verber, Irwin, Burgar and Zuckerman. Ault’s score of 7-2 was
tied with Bernard Zuckerman of Brooklyn, KY. an up-and-coming Master Gould of Providence, R.I., but he was ahead on tie-breaking points.
Zuckerman placed second under the tie-break while Gould was awarded the third place prize. The highest “under 16” scorer was Raymond Fasano of Red Bank, N.J . Fasano also took the “highest Expert” prize. Guy Forsee of Lou is- ville. Ky., was 2nd “high Expert” and Wesley Burger 3rd. George Sendecky j of New York City was the highest A player and Arnold Berstein of Woodhaven, N.Y., the NYC High School Champion, took the second A pr i.ze. The following add itional prizes were awarded: Top B-Daniel Boyk, Toledo, Ohio, 2nd B- Thomas Mazuchowski, Toledo, Ohio, 3rd B-John Townsend, Chickerin p; Falls, Ohio, Top C- Jon Van Doren, Livingston, N.J., 2nd C-Josepb Deeken, Dayton, Ohio. 3rd C- Seaborn Brown, Atlanta, Georgia, Top Unrated-George Gnade, Chickering Falls, Ohio, 2nd Un rated- Jerry Hunt, Bristol, Conn., 3rd. Unra ted- Joh n Bryan, Summit, N.Y. Every player in the tournament received a pocket chess set and more valuable gifts ranging from radios to electric shavers to sets of Dictionaries were awarded to the top placers. A lament that was heard throughout the nine
round event was that there were no girls competing. Following are a few quotes compiled by the able tournament director James Schroeder:
· ·
Michael Hornwood- “I live to play chess but not at 8:00 in the morning.” Robin Ault-“That first prize radio was destined to be mine . . . its name, Columbia-Triumph ITI.”
Bernard Zuckerman- “This is chess?” and “But is it good?” sanl.ey Gregory-“fm hungry!”
Richard Verber- “You’ve feeble-ized your game.”.
San Tomchin- (while rook-shadowing his opponent)-“Draw Game?”
Tim Martin-(explaining his squint)- “Contact lenses.”
Tournament Director Jim Schroeder- “!couldn’t have made it without the
help of Vincent Zukaitis.” (Vince was on vacation and spent every day at the event.)
The site for next year’s U.S. Junior has been set for Tucson, Arizona.
I looked through CL&R 1972 and early 1973 and found no report for the Peach State Open in “Here and There” although I found many other Georgia events. It doesn’t have a second name, does it?
Thanks Keven! Nice work. I will research more on the name of the Peach state open.
Best Regards ,
Scott
Thanks Kevin. That was interesting to read about several players mentioned that I know personally. Ray Fasano, Jude Acers, Jim Schoeder. Jim now lives in Vancouver Washington where I do. Chess history is a favorite subject of mine.
Does USCF have Regional V-Ps these days?
Do you mean in 2012, the answer is NO. They stopped having regional V-Ps many
years ago.
James Schroeder told me this evening when I mentioned the 1961 event to him that the article in CL was wrong about the location of the event. He says it was
in Dayton Ohio.
Then the above article probably refers to a U.S. Junior Open, and there was a separate invitational. Can you tell me what month the event was in by any chance? I’ll see if I can find additional reference.
Interesting article and a stroll down memory lane (although, truth be told, I was 1 or 2 years old at the time). I assume the reference to Zuckerman as being from ‘Brooklyn, KY’ is a typo and should have been Brooklyn, NY.
Or an OCR misstep.
Bill Smythe
There was no US Junior Closed in 1961. The first closed version was won by Walter Browne, despite forfeiting a game, in 1965.
There was a New York City Junior Championship, unrelated to the US Junior (Open) in 1961 and it was won by Bernard Zuckerman.