The headline in the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser proclaims that 86 year old Clarence Kalenian recently won the “World Chess Title.” Upon reading the article I learned Mr. Kalenian, “…boarded a Greyhound bus in Dothan bound for Philadelphia and the World Senior Open Amateur Chess Championships.” There, “…Kalenian won three matches and tied three others in Philadelphia, earning him 4 ½ points and a tie with five others for the championship. He took home $166.67.”
The thing is that Bill Goichberg’s “World Senior Open Amateur Chess Championships” INTENTIONALLY EXCLUDES players rated over 2010! This man is being called some kind of “World Chess Champion” in a tournament in which not even all Senior players could participate! There has been an exponential explosion of players winning so-called “World Chess Titles” recently, which only serves to cheapen the real title. There are a number of Junior “World Champions” and now the media has added another bogus “World Chess Title” to the list with the addition of this Senior “champion.”
Wouldn’t be the first time a news outlet got things wrong. Ah, let the old guy have his moment in the sun. There are so few precious moments like that in life. He is probably embarrassed by the attention and that the newspaper got the real details mixed up.
Perhaps this tournament is more accurately titled “World Open Senior Amateur”. Even though some Alabama papers picked up this “story”, I don’t think that anyone in the chess world would take it seriously. No chess reporter would say “He tied three matches” in this context. In any event, this title is less meaningful than any of Paul Truong’s national championships, and the chess world will treat it as such.
