2001-06-08 - 11:54 p.m.

A Terrible Waste

For a while I've been the unofficial historian of the New York State Chess Association. It's a title that I got because nobody else was really interested in chess history. Still, I managed to win a national journalist award for some articles I wrote.

A year ago or so the president of the state association told me that there were some boxes of historical documents that were at the home of a former president who was moving out of the state. He said that since I seemed to be the person doing the most historical research, I should have them. Somehow, someone else managed to get them. I heard this person, whose name was Richard, would probably not give them up.

Recently I resolved to try to track down the boxes and find out who really had them.

Basically I had two leads - the names of the former president, and Richard. The trouble was that nobody had a current address for either of them. So, I called the U.S. Chess Federation, but they don't give out members' addresses. However the woman I talked to agreed to forward letters to them if I included a stamped envelope.

Well the woman at the USCF was as good as her word because I've talked to both of them now. The story I got from them is a sad one.

The former state association president, whom I am calling Daniel, said that he recently moved out of the state, and entrusted the boxes to a friend of his named Martin. He'd read my articles and also agreed that I probably should be the one to keep the boxes.

Then I heard from Richard. Actually, when he first called the house I wasn't there and he talked to Lily instead. He talked her ear off for a half hour. Lily got a very confused picture of what was going on. To get a story that made sense I had to talk to Richard himself.

The bad news, up front was that the boxes were gone, destroyed. This was terrible news because what was in the boxes was irreplaceable.

Here is the story that Richard told me.

The boxes were in the basement of a building that was owned by Daniel. Because he was leaving the area, he was selling the building. Apparently his wife (his SECOND wife, Richard adamantly informed me) called a firm whose job it was to clean buildings, and they went through the entire place, top to bottom. To them, the state archives just looked like some boxes of old papers, so they threw them out.

Gone, the entire thing.

A while back I saw a quote, wish I could remember who said it: "Worse than being dead is being forgotten."

Well, that's how oblivion closes in - little bits of history being erased.

It's kind of depressing. Like I said, much of what was in those boxes was irreplaceable.

Still, it was interesting talking with Richard. He knows a lot about this history of his are but man, that guy can talk!

Back in the 1850s and 1860s before chess was really organized in this country, someone of my playing strength would be 3rd or 4th strongest player in the whole United States. Paul Morphy, the strongest player in the world at that time scored so many spectacular victories because the opposition was so weak.

Here's one interesting little tidbit that he told me. There was a strong player from the Syracuse area named George Nelson Cheney who was down in New York City in 1859 when Morphy was there. He played a two game odds match with Morphy and won, 1 1/2 to 1/2. Of course, Morphy was spotting him a knight: at even odds Cheney wouldn't have stood a chance.

Cheney was just 24 when he was killed in 1861, during a battle (I think it was the battle of the first Bull Run)in the Civil War. Cheney had a nephew who was named after him, who was also a chessplayer. He was an officer of the New York State Chess Association for many years, even into his 80s. In fact, I even have a game of this second George Cheney from the 1941 state championship. That's 80 years to the month after his uncle and namesake was killed in battle.

Links to the past - 1861 seems like so long ago, but there are only three degrees of separation from then for me since I have talked to three people who played in the 1941 championship.