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Eliot Hearst (1932-2018)
February 17, 2018
Eliot Hearst passed away on January 30 in Tucson, Arizona.
Hearst, who had the distinction of beating a young Bobby Fischer in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament, was one of the top American players in the 1950s and played in the 1954 and 1961 U.S. Championships. He was a member of the 1960 U.S. Student Olympiad team that won gold in Leningrad and captained the 1962 US Olympiad team in Varna.
Hearst was an excellent writer. In the early 1960s he wrote a popular column ("Chess Kaleidoscope") for Chess Life, and later co-wrote with John Knott Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games, which won the Fred Cramer Award for the Best Chess Book of 2009.
Hearst received a PhD in psychology in 1956 from Columbia University and was a professor at Indiana University and the University of Arizona.
https://www.chessclub.org/news.php
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/i...rst_1932-2018_
(See Chess Note No. 10740)
________
From:
http://tartajubow.blogspot.ca/2017/0...-s-hearst.html
Hearst's first appearance in the US Championship was is 1954. The USCF planned a "candidates tournament" for Philadelphia that was open to anyone with an Expert (2000 Elo) rating and who was willing to part with the entry fee of $25. That's the equivalent of about $225 these days. The whole idea was unpopular, but that meant little to the USCF.
Because there were 23 players the event had to be a Swiss and worst of all according to the players, the first prize was only $250. That was offset by the fact that for those who did play in Philadelphia there were six places in the 1954 championship up for grabs. The main player showing up was Arthur Bisguier who was 23 years old and just out of the Army. Bisguier had been an up-and-comer a few years before when he won the 1950 U.S. Open and his first international tournament, at Southsea, England.
As things turned out, USCF didn't have the money to hold the championship tournament! As a last resort the Marshall Chess Club offered its rooms to the 14 players. Bisguier, who attended college classes during the day, ended up sleeping at night in one of the Marshall's upstairs apartments
Rating-wise the tournament wasn't particularly strong. Bisguier was eighth on latest rating list and Evans, the defending champion, was only tenth. The top five top rated players, Reshevsky, Robert Byrne, Kramer, Donald Byrne and Denker declined their invitations. Still, recent French emigre GM Nicolas Rossolimo, Manhattan Chess Club champion Max Pavey and the Marshall Chess Club junior star, 20-year-old James T. Sherwin, ranked only 24th in the country, plus members of the old guard, Sidney Bernstein and Herbert Seidman, could hardly be considered weak. Bisguier won undefeated. Evans finished a point back, losing only one game...to Hearst who scored +5 -6 =2 to finish in tenth place.
Hearst's next US Championship was in 1961 and even without Fischer and Reshevsky it was a strong one. The favorites were Evans and the most recent US Open winners, Robert Byrne (winner in 1960) and Pal Benko (1961). The remaining field had a few players who had been largely inactive. For example, Hearst, who hadn't played since 1954 because of school work, George Kramer and Donald Byrne, whose recent absences from the championship were no doubt due to his declining health. By this time Evans was approaching 30 and claimed he was playing chess "for the spirit of competition" and sometimes because I run short of cash." When it was all over Evens finished an undefeated first and Robert Byrne, also undefeated, was a half point back. Hearst finished in 7th place with a score of +2 -2 =7.
Although Hearst is a Life Member of the USCF their web site lists him as a National Master, but he is listed as unrated with the comment, "This member is not present in the Rating Supplements since January 1, 1991,"
_______
Chess Life was a most interesting magazine to read in the 60s. It had these as columnists and contributors:
Samuel Reshevsky, Claude Bloodgood, George Koltanowski, William Lombardy, Larry Evans, Frank Brady, John Collins, Fred Wren and Anthony Santasiere.
And it was the most reliable source for news of Bobby Fischer's successes.
Eliot Hearst's column Chess Kaleidoscope debuted March 20, 1960. It was a lively, chatty column, which I enjoyed reading as a young man. I wrote him and told him that and asked if he was related to William Randolph Hearst, the great publisher. He did answer me but I forget what he said and the letter lies in one of a hundred boxes of chess material in storage.
From his columns:
Chess Kaleidoscope, CL March, 1962:
Odds and Ends from the Bled Tourney
Fischer's comment when he read somewhere that an Englishman holds the world's record in number of suits (240) possessed: "It's only temporary. I've got eighteen already"... Tal keeps a pair of his shoes (although fully polished outside the door of his hotel room while he goes for walks around the lake. The motive: his opponents should think he's home preparing variations for them all the time.."Bobby is going to be world champion" (S. Gligoric)...Fischer was the only player who didn't lose a game. However, after he had drawn with Parma, Fischer was asked, "It seems you were lost a one stage." Fischer replied, "You should never ask me whether I was lost or not. I just can't bear thinking about defeat!"
Your Chess Kaleidoscope reporter remembers the days 6 or 7 years ago when each of Bobby's defeats would inevitably be followed by a burst of tears from the pre-teenager. The story (likely not true) is told that, just after Bobby had administered the coup de grace to Don Byrne (at the 1956 Rosenwald tourney) in one of Bobby's first great games, a well-meaning spectator remarked to the victorious 12-year old: "See, Bobby, Donnie didn't cry!") ..At Bled Ivkov became a most serious candidate for the time consumption record. He took 1:35 for his eleventh move against Tal.. "Look at me," said Najdorf, after his defeat at Petrosian's hands, " I am laughing, I'm making pleasantries and probably I am not going to be able to sleep tonight."..Dr. Vidmar, the venerable tournament director, who had been waging a strong battle against the legality of quick draws in chess, was shocked when Najdorf and Trifunovich agreed to a draw in 11 moves. Vidmar interrupted all the games and made a speech to the audience about the fiasco. When everything had calmed down, someone recalled that Vidmar himself had once accepted a draw in 8 moves. It was also discovered that it was not Najdorf who held the world's record for draw offers in the same game (six times, vs. Petrosian in Zurich, 1953), but Vidmar himself, who had proposed a draw no less than 15 times to his major rival in the last pre-war championship of Yugoslavia. To all this, the old fox Vidmar had a ready response: "Every saint was a sinner in his youth."
(to be continued)
February 17, 2018
Eliot Hearst passed away on January 30 in Tucson, Arizona.
Hearst, who had the distinction of beating a young Bobby Fischer in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament, was one of the top American players in the 1950s and played in the 1954 and 1961 U.S. Championships. He was a member of the 1960 U.S. Student Olympiad team that won gold in Leningrad and captained the 1962 US Olympiad team in Varna.
Hearst was an excellent writer. In the early 1960s he wrote a popular column ("Chess Kaleidoscope") for Chess Life, and later co-wrote with John Knott Blindfold Chess: History, Psychology, Techniques, Champions, World Records, and Important Games, which won the Fred Cramer Award for the Best Chess Book of 2009.
Hearst received a PhD in psychology in 1956 from Columbia University and was a professor at Indiana University and the University of Arizona.
https://www.chessclub.org/news.php
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/i...rst_1932-2018_
(See Chess Note No. 10740)
________
From:
http://tartajubow.blogspot.ca/2017/0...-s-hearst.html
Hearst's first appearance in the US Championship was is 1954. The USCF planned a "candidates tournament" for Philadelphia that was open to anyone with an Expert (2000 Elo) rating and who was willing to part with the entry fee of $25. That's the equivalent of about $225 these days. The whole idea was unpopular, but that meant little to the USCF.
Because there were 23 players the event had to be a Swiss and worst of all according to the players, the first prize was only $250. That was offset by the fact that for those who did play in Philadelphia there were six places in the 1954 championship up for grabs. The main player showing up was Arthur Bisguier who was 23 years old and just out of the Army. Bisguier had been an up-and-comer a few years before when he won the 1950 U.S. Open and his first international tournament, at Southsea, England.
As things turned out, USCF didn't have the money to hold the championship tournament! As a last resort the Marshall Chess Club offered its rooms to the 14 players. Bisguier, who attended college classes during the day, ended up sleeping at night in one of the Marshall's upstairs apartments
Rating-wise the tournament wasn't particularly strong. Bisguier was eighth on latest rating list and Evans, the defending champion, was only tenth. The top five top rated players, Reshevsky, Robert Byrne, Kramer, Donald Byrne and Denker declined their invitations. Still, recent French emigre GM Nicolas Rossolimo, Manhattan Chess Club champion Max Pavey and the Marshall Chess Club junior star, 20-year-old James T. Sherwin, ranked only 24th in the country, plus members of the old guard, Sidney Bernstein and Herbert Seidman, could hardly be considered weak. Bisguier won undefeated. Evans finished a point back, losing only one game...to Hearst who scored +5 -6 =2 to finish in tenth place.
Hearst's next US Championship was in 1961 and even without Fischer and Reshevsky it was a strong one. The favorites were Evans and the most recent US Open winners, Robert Byrne (winner in 1960) and Pal Benko (1961). The remaining field had a few players who had been largely inactive. For example, Hearst, who hadn't played since 1954 because of school work, George Kramer and Donald Byrne, whose recent absences from the championship were no doubt due to his declining health. By this time Evans was approaching 30 and claimed he was playing chess "for the spirit of competition" and sometimes because I run short of cash." When it was all over Evens finished an undefeated first and Robert Byrne, also undefeated, was a half point back. Hearst finished in 7th place with a score of +2 -2 =7.
Although Hearst is a Life Member of the USCF their web site lists him as a National Master, but he is listed as unrated with the comment, "This member is not present in the Rating Supplements since January 1, 1991,"
_______
Chess Life was a most interesting magazine to read in the 60s. It had these as columnists and contributors:
Samuel Reshevsky, Claude Bloodgood, George Koltanowski, William Lombardy, Larry Evans, Frank Brady, John Collins, Fred Wren and Anthony Santasiere.
And it was the most reliable source for news of Bobby Fischer's successes.
Eliot Hearst's column Chess Kaleidoscope debuted March 20, 1960. It was a lively, chatty column, which I enjoyed reading as a young man. I wrote him and told him that and asked if he was related to William Randolph Hearst, the great publisher. He did answer me but I forget what he said and the letter lies in one of a hundred boxes of chess material in storage.
From his columns:
Chess Kaleidoscope, CL March, 1962:
Odds and Ends from the Bled Tourney
Fischer's comment when he read somewhere that an Englishman holds the world's record in number of suits (240) possessed: "It's only temporary. I've got eighteen already"... Tal keeps a pair of his shoes (although fully polished outside the door of his hotel room while he goes for walks around the lake. The motive: his opponents should think he's home preparing variations for them all the time.."Bobby is going to be world champion" (S. Gligoric)...Fischer was the only player who didn't lose a game. However, after he had drawn with Parma, Fischer was asked, "It seems you were lost a one stage." Fischer replied, "You should never ask me whether I was lost or not. I just can't bear thinking about defeat!"
Your Chess Kaleidoscope reporter remembers the days 6 or 7 years ago when each of Bobby's defeats would inevitably be followed by a burst of tears from the pre-teenager. The story (likely not true) is told that, just after Bobby had administered the coup de grace to Don Byrne (at the 1956 Rosenwald tourney) in one of Bobby's first great games, a well-meaning spectator remarked to the victorious 12-year old: "See, Bobby, Donnie didn't cry!") ..At Bled Ivkov became a most serious candidate for the time consumption record. He took 1:35 for his eleventh move against Tal.. "Look at me," said Najdorf, after his defeat at Petrosian's hands, " I am laughing, I'm making pleasantries and probably I am not going to be able to sleep tonight."..Dr. Vidmar, the venerable tournament director, who had been waging a strong battle against the legality of quick draws in chess, was shocked when Najdorf and Trifunovich agreed to a draw in 11 moves. Vidmar interrupted all the games and made a speech to the audience about the fiasco. When everything had calmed down, someone recalled that Vidmar himself had once accepted a draw in 8 moves. It was also discovered that it was not Najdorf who held the world's record for draw offers in the same game (six times, vs. Petrosian in Zurich, 1953), but Vidmar himself, who had proposed a draw no less than 15 times to his major rival in the last pre-war championship of Yugoslavia. To all this, the old fox Vidmar had a ready response: "Every saint was a sinner in his youth."
(to be continued)
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