I basically learned chess by playing correspondence chess. My family moved to Lynchburg Virginia when I was ten. The club there met once a week at the Virginian Hotel. Most of the players were elderly men, the main one being Captain Robert Abernathy. When Captain Abernathy and the others all died within a few years, the club folded. There was a strong player in Lynchburg, John L. Buck, who had been Southern Open Champion, but he never played and I never even got to meet him.
Unlike today when there are chess tournaments every weekend, back then there were only three tournaments per year, the Virginia Closed, the North Carolina Open and the Eastern Open in Washington DC. So those were the only chess games I got to play all year!
So, I played postal chess. I bought a lot of opening books from Buschke in New York. My parents were shocked when I started receiving books in Hungarian and Russian and seemed even to be able to read them.
I have just found a box of old postcards with the moves of some of my postal games. The best player I ever beat was Louis Petithory. He later became an International Postal Master. We were playing in the 1960 CCLA US Junior Championship. I played in two sections and won both of him. There were only three sections and he won the third. We were supposed to play a match for the Championship but I went off to College at the University of California at Berkeley and lost interest in postal chess the match was never played. I suppose that the CCLA just did not have a junior champion that year.
Here is my game against Petithory. As you will see it was a poison-pawn type variation of the Najdorf Sicilian and I won because he got his queen trapped.
[Event “CCLA US Junior Championship”]
[Site “Correspondence”]
[Date “1960.10.25”]
[White “Sloan,Sam”]
[Black “Petithory,Louis”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “B96”]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 h6
8.Bh4 Qb6 9.a3 Bd7 10.Bf2 Qxb2 11.Nde2 Bb5 12.Bd4 Nc6
13.Ra2 Qxa2 14.Nxa2 Be7 15.Nac3 Bc4 16.Ng3 Bxf1
17.Nxf1 b5 18.Ne3 O-O 19.e5 dxe5 20.Bxe5 Bxa3 21.Bxf6 gxf6
22.Qh5 Kg7 23.O-O Rh8 24.Ne4 f5 25.Nd2 Bc5 26.Qf3 Nd4
27.Qg3+ Kh7 28.Kh1 Rad8 29.Rd1 Rhg8 30.Qe1 Bb4
31.Qf1 Nxc2 32.Nxc2 Bxd2 33.Ra1 b4 1-0
The only other strong player I remember beating was Jerry Milburn. It was a King’s Gambit. I had white and won in about 12 moves.
I defeated David E. Burris who died a few years ago but I only have one postcard from that game.
The box of postcards I found seem to include other games from the same tournament. None of the other players were strong and I beat them all easily. In case anybody is interested or in case any of them became strong players later, here are the names:
Ernest L. Boehm
Anthony L. Abrescia
Charles E. Daniels
Frank W. Pratt
Edwin Pelton
Joseph E. Martin
George D. Conwell
B. E. Therrell
Jim Jackson
Ronald A. Dodge
Mark Tavel
J. M. Burns
Urban C. Lehner
Forrest Blum
William Kietzman
Eugene Bryant
Mike Hayes of Niagra University NY
A strong player remember losing to was Sydney L. Thompson of Keene NH. I do not know anything about him other than that he had a high rating and was an old-time player.
He wrote in one of his postcards, “I got a draw from Reshevsky 30-35 years ago”.
As this game was played in 1960, that would have been in 1925-1930, when Reshevsky was 15-20.
Can anybody find a game like that? I do believe that this player had been a master at one time.
Anyway, he won both games against me. These games were played in an organization called the CCC. I do not know what that was. I think he died right after these games. Here are the games:
[Event “Postal”]
[Site “CCC”]
[Date “1960.02.12”]
[White “Thompson,Sydney L.”]
[Black “Sloan,Sam”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A09”]
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.e3 c5 4.exd4 cxd4 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 g6
7.d3 Bg7 8.O-O f5 9.Re1 Qd6 10.Bf4 Qc5 11.Nbd2 Qb6
12.Qb3 Qc5 13.Qc2 Nf6 14.Nb3 Qb6 15.c5 Qd8 16.Qc4 Nh5
17.Bd6 Bf6 18.Nfxd4 Bd7 19.Nb5 Kf8 20.Bc7 Qc8 21.Bf4 g5
22.Bd2 Ne5 23.Rxe5 Bxe5 24.Bxg5 Bxb2
25.Re1 Bf6 26.Bf3 Bxb5 27.Bh6+ Bg7 28.Bxg7+ Nxg7
29.Qxb5 Rb8 30.c6 bxc6 31.Qe5 e6 32.Qf6+ Kg8 33.Nd4 Qf8
34.Qe5 c5 35.Nxe6 Nxe6 36.Bd5 Kf7 37.Qxf5+ Ke8 38.Qxe6+ Kd8 39.Bc6 1-0
[Event “CCC”]
[Site “Postal Game”]
[Date “1960.02.12”]
[White “Sloan,Sam”]
[Black “Thompson,Sydney L.”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E51”]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.Nf3 O-O
7.b4 Nbd7 8.Bb2 c6 9.Qc2 Bd6 10.Bd3 e5 11.dxe5 Nxe5
12.Nxe5 Bxe5 13.cxd5 cxd5 14.Ne2 Bxb2 15.Qxb2 Be6
16.O-O Rc8 17.Rfd1 Qb6 18.Nf4 Rc7 19.Rd2 Rfc8 20.Rad1 h6
21.h3 Rc6 22.Qe5 Qc7 23.Qd4 a6 24.a4 Rc1
25.b5 axb5 26.Bxb5 Ne4 27.Rd3 Qc2 28.Nxe6 Qxf2+
29.Kh1 fxe6 30.Rxc1 Rxc1+ 31.Rd1 Rc2 32.Rg1 Qg3 0-1
Sam Sloan