The 1957 Virginia State Championship
As a result of my posting about Claude Bloodgood and his claims to have won various chess tournaments including the 1957 and 1958 Virginia Open, I pulled out an old copy of the Virginia Chess News Round-up and found the cross table of the 1957 Virginia Championship.
As you can see, Bloodgood did not play. The tournament was won by Irwin Sigmond. I do not believe that a tournament by the name of the 1957 Virginia Open was ever played. I played in the 1958 Virginia Open and I played Bloodgood in that tournament. He won the game, but not the tournament. The tournament was won by Stuart Margulies, who defeated Eliot Hearst. By the way, Eliot Hearst resided in Virginia at that time. (see how my photogenic memory for trivial facts comes in handy) so Bloodgood could not have been the highest Virginia resident, because Senior Master Eliot Hearst was.
As you can see, Anthony Pabon finished 7th with 5-2. I finished 31st with a score of 3-4. I was only 12 at the time, not quite 13. I was the only non-adult in the tournament. They had not invented scholastic chess yet.
What I remember most about this tournament was the end. I had prepared a special opening for my last round game. I was going to play, as White, 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Qf3 .
I was studying that move when the word came that somebody had dropped out and therefore I was going to receive a bye for the last round. I was given a bye even though I had won two games because I had the lowest rating and the lowest score of any player who had not received a bye.
I cried. I really cried. That is the only time I ever cried at a chess tournament. I never cried because I lost a chess game. The reason I cried this time was that was my only chance to play. Lynchburg, where I lived, did not really have an active chess club. The last of the old members had died. I only got to play chess three times a year, the Virginia Closed, the North Carolina Open and the Eastern States Open or its equivalent in Washington DC. Thus, by receiving a bye, I would not have a chance to play another game of chess until the following Summer. It was not like today where there are tournaments every weekend and one can always play chess online.
By the way, in my life I have never played the opening I prepared for that game, 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Qf3 .
Sam Sloan