FM and OLM Albert Chow died shortly after 5 p.m. today. He had been diagnosed with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma last month.
Albert was clearly the strongest player in Illinois for a brief period in the mid-1980s, as evidenced by his seven Illinois Open titles. In 1994, he tied for the US Open Championship held in Rosemont, Illinois.
Today, I’d rather remember him as a devoted son who gave up his career to care for his mother, and as someone who loved our game.
Sad news indeed. Al truly loved chess. He seemed to always take his time - lots of it - in his games. As a TD I could count on Al to be one of the last players to finish the game each round. He seemed to know that chess did not lie and he kept looking for the “truth” OTB. There are a great many stories we TDs tell each other. Al was a character in many of them. I will miss him.
Very sorry to hear this. Al was a feature at many Midwest events including several in Wisconsin like the North Central Open and the Western Open. My favorite memory of Al is from the 1990 World Youth in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. When the Australian parent/child duo of Connie and Charles Pizzato arrived they asked if there was a strong player locally who could coach Charles during the event. Since we couldn’t think of any strong local players who could take the week off at short notice, we expanded our search when someone suggested Al. We got them in touch and they agreed on an arrangement so Al drove up. I recall the three hitting if off from the start. Since we were out of available bed space at the college we played at, Al had to sleep on a couch in one of the townhouses for the duration of the event.
Very sad news and what a competitor! I did have the privilege of playing against Albert in the last round of the 1993 Greater Peoria Open and our game decided the tournament. Yes, he chewed up a lot of time and I had a totally loss position and when he made time control, the 1993 Greater Peoria Open was his tournament and another tournament win was notched by Albert. I then pushed down the clock to see how close I came to winning the tournament and 3 seconds elapsed off of this clock before his flag fell and it was an amazing game. That final Sunday, I had the black pieces in the last 2 rounds against the top 2 seeds, and played the Sicilian Dragon against my 4th round opponent and won, and when Albert opened e4, he thought he would see another Dragon out of me, and played e5 and he responded f4 to play the King’s Gambit. I declined the gambit and the game was a real tactical affair, and tried keeping the position complicated and it was clear that he was going to win. I can remember Albert keeping us there going over the game for about an hour, and my 4th round opponent was my driver as he was waiting patiently to drive back to St. Louis, as he was waiting for this long post mortem analysis to conclude. I would have loved to play Albert again, but maybe some other time. RIP Albert, you will be missed.
Respectfully Submitted,
David A. Cole, USCF LIFE Member, Franklin, NJ
Albert Chow will be sorely missed among the Illinois chess community. At one point he was doing a chess column for the Chicago Sun Times newspaper. I remember 1 game we played where Albert spent 45 minutes on what was a forced more. After I lost the game I said to Albert that at that point in the game I thought I had an advantage. He wisely pointed out to me that it is not an advantage if you don’t or can’t do anything with it.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/albert-chow-obituary?id=31277304
Lots of chess players stopping by on Thursday. I think Friday is more for immediate family & closest friends.