2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

[Ken MacDonald]

At the Ken Whyld Association meeting in Cleveland in August this year, John Donaldson authored and distributed a booklet about this event. Of interest to me was the participation of the following Canadians, of whom I know 2 names. The names are: Ross Siemms, at the age of 11, played in the Junior Masters Section and William Oaker played in the Junior Master Reserves section; others were W. Hastings of Islington in the Junior Master Reserves, R. Warner of Toronto in the Junior Major Section and E. Shulman of Toronto in the Junior Major Reserves. I only know the first two players. Ross Siemms was a very strong CC player and such long before computers! William Oaker used to write The Montreal Star chess column, if memory serves me correctly.

[Roger Patterson]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

At the Ken Whyld Association meeting in Cleveland in August this year, John Donaldson authored and distributed a booklet about this event. Of interest to me was the participation of the following Canadians, of whom I know 2 names. The names are: Ross Siemms, at the age of 11, played in the Junior Masters Section and William Oaker played in the Junior Master Reserves section; others were W. Hastings of Islington in the Junior Master Reserves, R. Warner of Toronto in the Junior Major Section and E. Shulman of Toronto in the Junior Major Reserves. I only know the first two players. Ross Siemms was a very strong CC player and such long before computers! William Oaker used to write The Montreal Star chess column, if memory serves me correctly.

not the same Bill Oaker who was also a long time CC player (last time I saw him, he was in Toronto)?

[Ken MacDonald]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

not the same Bill Oaker who was also a long time CC player (last time I saw him, he was in Toronto)?

Not sure, but I never did hear of any other Oaker from Canada who played chess. I think he was in Oakville the last time I heard. He still appears on the CCCA rating list.

[Hugh Brodie]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

I'm pretty sure that he's the same one.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

A Bill ( William ? ) Oaker ( middle aged ) used to play at the Scarborough Chess Club. I thought I had heard that he had been a strong junior.

Bob

[Larry Bevand]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

A Bill ( William ? ) Oaker ( middle aged ) used to play at the Scarborough Chess Club. I thought I had heard that he had been a strong junior.

Bob

The Bill Oaker I know was a strong junior and...one of the organizers of the 1956 Canadian Open...he wrote articles on the event for the Montreal Star and then became their chess columnist. He went on to become a speech writer for major company presidents. I met up with him when we opened in Toronto in 1993. He was retired and so he helped out with many of our tournaments for kids...ahhh yesss...now I remember he also spoke fondly of a Mr Friedman...from his youth. He is a great individual! I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with him...but it has been about a decade since I have seen him. He owns a home about a 15 minute car ride from where CMA was located on Bayview... I would guess he must be in his 80's by now.

Larry

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: 2nd US Junior Championship, Cleveland 1947

The Bill Oaker I know was a strong junior and...one of the organizers of the 1956 Canadian Open...he wrote articles on the event for the Montreal Star and then became their chess columnist. He went on to become a speech writer for major company presidents. I met up with him when we opened in Toronto in 1993. He was retired and so he helped out with many of our tournaments for kids...ahhh yesss...now I remember he also spoke fondly of a Mr Friedman...from his youth. He is a great individual! I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with him...but it has been about a decade since I have seen him. He owns a home about a 15 minute car ride from where CMA was located on Bayview... I would guess he must be in his 80's by now.

Larry

Yes, it's the same SCC regular Bill Oaker. He also wrote a brief series of historical articles on chess in the Toronto Star in the late '60s.

Bernard Freedman had paid for top juniors of Toronto's Junior Chess League to travel to the US Junior. the best Toronto Juniors were Siemms, who is still around, and Frank Anderson who almost became a GM.