Judge Leighton was an active tournament player, as well as a frequent participant in the non-rated 10-minute blitz tournaments every Tuesday night at the No Exit Café in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. His presence at rated tournaments generated an atmosphere of respect on the part of all who participated. At the No Exit, his friendly jabbing and trash talk of his own games was refreshing.
In one of those blitz games, in the late opening or early middlegame I had managed to get my queen to b7 and capture his rook at a8. Little did I realize that this was part of his plan. A couple of moves later he played …Rh7-b7, trapping (but not winning) my queen. I hollered “Yikes!” as he cackled and laughed uncontrollably. Eventually, I would have to give up my queen for his second rook. I had completely overlooked that he had totally cleared the 7th rank of all his pieces and pawns (except for his a-pawn), and had maneuvered his rook up from h8 to h7 without my realizing what he was up to. Generated some laughs from the spectators, too.
Bill Smythe
Back in the late 60’s or early 70’s Judge Leighton was a regular at the Chicago Chess Club when it was located on Wabash Ave in downtown Chicago. Although he was a strong player, he liked to hang out with the C players.
I remember his ‘screwing’ pawns into the board to indicate they were staying put.
Don’t forget that the judge helped create [although it may not have lasted for a long time] a chess club in the financial district [LaSalle Street] for those [legal & financial professionals] who worked in that area. He was also help raise funds (& likely contributed himself) to pay off a chess tournament that for months was unable to pay out the guaranteed prize fund. A strong Class A player even late into his 90s, he did so much for chess in the city of Chicago that it will be hard for someone to compile a list of all he did for the game (of chess) that he clearly loved so much.
Larry S. Cohen
He beat Leonid Kaushansky (who was Chicago’s top player for a year or two in the early 1980s, and who would later share a US Open title) in the following game. Judge Leighton was not quite 70 when this game was played; he was spotting his opponent 48 years.
view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2018 … 23546.html
And he beat me when he was 78 (not a very impressive game by either player, but hey, he had a good excuse):
view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2018 … 30171.html
His life speaks for itself. It was a pleasure to play against him.