RIP Robert Feldstein

All Things Chess
1

A very longtime member of the Federation, Bob was the first to play rated chess in all 50 states.

Bob, you will be missed.

2

I recall he played in a tournament I ran in Yakima Washington the same weekend he played in tournament in Idaho. Believe there was quite an article in CHESS LIFE about his feat.

3

I only met Robert in the past two years when he came to play in the World Amateur in 2010 and then the Continental Amateur in 2011. I received word from his caretaker that he had passed away.

4

Pretty incredible to play in all 50 states. I’ve never personally met him, but from the stories I’ve heard from others, he was very passionate about the game.

5

I’m so sorry to hear of Robert’s passing. He was a 100% character but with a Heart of Gold. Let me know if there is somewhere to sign an on-line Memory Book. He stayed at my house a few times and I also saw him at the US Open in Hawaii.

My two best memories of Robert:

  1. He was a HUGH fan of team matches. He called me out of the blue to play in the Annual California North-South match to make arrangements to fly all the way from NY, NY to Visalia, CA to play in this week-end match. He stayed at my house and had interesting stories of his use and abuse of Frequent Flyer and Comp’ed for being Bumped air miles. He would book multiple flights on different airlines around major holidays looking to be bumped to receive Comp Air Miles. Once in a while he wouldn’t get bumped and he would take the flight to the schd’ed destination and then schedule an immediate return flight hoping to get Bumped on the return. For all his abuse of the system, he was eventually put on some sort of ‘watch list’ at JFK. He used all his freebie air miles on his chess adventures.

  2. While in some Western state of his 50 state tour, Robert was hired as a substitute teacher when the local teachers union went on strike. He spent a day or two subbing at a HS (I think) and then was interviewed by a local news film crew; I bet that he ran over a dozen people to get to the camera! On camera, the news reporter asked him the situation inside of the school which Robert described as ‘Absolute Chaos!’ and then he added details. The TV station loved the interview and ran it as a lead story. Robert was fired that night from his two day job; I wonder if that was the longest job Robert ever had. He carried the clip of the interview with him on his travels to show at every opportunity.

RIP Robert! There’s One Less Smile in the World!

6

Robert didn’t just play in a state once either. He truly toured the country to play all over. He visited this area several times includes times when we held regular tournaments in a bowling alley in Clayton, NC. I remember him remarking about how hard it was to find a tournament in some parts of the country. That he spent quite some time trying to find a tournament in Wyoming for example. He was definitely enjoy the competition wherever he could find it.