I was a freshman at Case Institute of Technology in 1956. During the Christmas break in 1956 I played board 3 with the Case team. If memory serves, we won the tournament. In those days boards 3 and 4 generally had poor players. I and the person on board 4 won all our games. Consequently we won the tournament. I remember that Columbia, CCNY, and Yale (I think) also played. There were a few other Ivy League colleges in the tournament.
THE QUESTION: I can’t find the tournament listed anywhere. Does anybody know why?
Thanks for the responses. I’ve left our some more “facts” that I recall from so long ago.
First, Ross Sprague, who is still an active USCF member and living in Ohio, was our team captain and played first board. The tournament was played after the end of the first semester of the 1956-57 academic year. I seem to recall, from second hand information, that Ross was on academic probation after the first semester, so he wouldn’t have been eligible to play, by school rules. I think there was some question as to whether, or not, our results were counted.
Second, at that time I seem to recall that tournaments were not automatically USCF rated. After the first round someone pointed out that the players hadn’t voted to have the tournament rated. We had a vote, but I don’t recall the results. I do remember that some of the schools that lost the first round voted to not have the tournament rated! I don’t know how this would have affected the recording of the event.
Well, if it wasn’t USCF rated the odds are that it was never sent to the USCF office at all, then. Maybe there was a writeup on it in Chess Life, but I don’t have magazines from that far back. (They should be available on CD now, though, from Tim Tobiason.)
Moreover, this is an event from over 50 years ago, many (possibly most) of the USCF’s paper records from that era are no longer available.
I suspect there are records with the USCF somewhere that go back that far. I stopped playing tournament chess in 1957 and didn’t resume until about 1991. In 1991 (thereabouts) I wrote the USCF and asked if they could resurrect my old rating. They came up with something, so they must have had records for 1957, or so, in 1991 at least.
Oh, they have microfilm records of the old ratings cards (pre 1977), but I doubt they have detailed crosstable records of very many events from before the mid 1980’s (and incomplete paper records of the ones from then through late 1991, when the online records begin.
Reconstructing who played in some event from 1956 from the microfilmed cards (assuming the event was even USCF rated) would be difficult and incomplete at best, since the cards probably don’t show who played whom or team composition.
I see Ross from time to time and I imagine we will cross paths at least once in the next two months. I believe Ross uses an IBM Selectric to type legal documents, so I doubt he will be posting here anytime soon. I will mention this thread to him when I see him.
Ross is a very colorful character to say the least. He was Ohio Champion at the age of 17, and I believe again at the age of 34. Ross was an annual fixture on a strong Cleveland team at MOTCF in the 70’s and 80’s. As I recall, other members of that team were Robert Burns,
D i c k Noel, and James Harkins.
As I suggested above, visiting or calling the White Collection might yield the answer to your question. It is possible that the staff there would do the research for you.
They don’t even show what tournaments the player played in. I worked with those cards in the summer of 1972, when I helped USCF to catch up on ratings. All the cards showed was the number of games (in each event), the date of the event, and the post-tournament rating from the event.
I was finally able to get in touch with Ross Sprague last night. Seems my memory was faulty after 52 years Ross said that the tournament couldn’t have been in 1956 because he was still in high school. The tournament had to have been in 1959, or possibly 1958. He recalls that after the tournament, which was held over the Christmas-New Years break, he was called into the deans office and told he had to forfeit all his game because he wasn’t eligible to play for Case. He doesn’t recall much more than that, except that before his forfeits, we had done quite well, placing probably 2nd place.
Ross said that the tournament couldn’t have been in 1956 because he was still in high school. The tournament had to have been in 1959, or possibly 1958. He recalls that after the tournament, which was held over the Christmas-New Years break, he was called into the deans office and told he had to forfeit all his game because he wasn’t eligible to play for Case. He doesn’t recall much more than that, except that before his forfeits, we had done quite well, placing probably 2nd place.