I posted this link in another forum, but a poster in that forum said to post the link here. So here you go: http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-former-chess-champ-who-tackled-the-president
Great story!
Who are the highest-rated attorneys in the US? (Current? All-time? Should we count Gata Kamsky?)
Just in Illinois:
My Chicago Industrial Chess League teammate David Franklin is the current Solicitor General of Illinois. https://en.chessbase.com/post/jon-speelman-s-agony-column-3
The late David Mote was a National Master: ca7.uscourts.gov/benchv34.pdf
Judge George Leighton (who beat me when I was rated over 2150 and he was 77 or so…) recently celebrated his 104th birthday! http://chicagochess.blogspot.com/2010/07/honorable-george-neves-leighton.html
The late Bill Martz was a highly accomplished chess player, including attaining the International Master title, winning the US Open and, IIRC, a member of the US Olympiad team. He was also a lawyer - and died far too young, at the age of 37, in 1983. I played him once, as a 13 or 14 year old, in a tournament in Minnesota (needless to say, he won easily).
Interesting about Leighton. An African-American from New Bedford, MA and listed as an active US Chess member until 2011. Appointed to the Federal bench by Gerald Ford. Might I suggest that Chess Life interview him for his chess recollections if that hasn’t already been done. He apparently lives in a VA home in Boston.
Here’s an interesting article about him. He presided over a terrorism trial involving Puerto Rican separatists who threatened to kill him, most likely while he was playing chess at the North Avenue Beach chess pavilion.
chicagotribune.com/news/ct-g … story.html
The second photo in the scrolling photos at https://new.uschess.org/home/ is of Dr. Tim Redman shaking hands with George Leighton. That photo was part of Redman’s article about Leighton for Chess Life.
I did not know that Martz was an attorney. He was very popular: the Warrens and Norbert Leopoldi put together the 1982 Cloverline tournament (won by Hübner ahead of Korchnoi, Browne, Dzindzi, Lein) to give Martz one last chance to play elite GMs.