ASeptember 03 1946
Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday, September 03, 1946
Russell Chauvenet (right), Charlottesville, Defending His Chess Title
The Champion Swaps a Pawn With His Final Victim, Haines Dalmas, Roanoke. Staff Photo.
Chauvenet, Winner of State Chess Tourney, Retains His Title Under Trying Conditions
By Richard Morris
“A champion chess player” suggests an elderly grey-haired gentleman with a long flowing beard—or at least with a mustache of some proportions. But that's not the case in Virginia.
The Virginia State champion is a quiet, unassuming and clean-shaven young man of 26 years—Russell Chauvenet, of Charlottesville, who successfully defended the title he won in 1942 against the cream of the State's chessmen at the Hotel John Marshall yesterday. His defeat of Haines Dalmas, of Roanoke, in the seventh and final round of the 1946 round-robin tournament made him the undisputed chess champion of the Old Dominion.
Mr. Chauvenet, the son of Louis Chauvenet, a well-known Charlottesville Democratic leader, defended his title under singularly trying circumstances.
When asked if it were true than his wife, the former Jane Barrett, of Baltimore, is expecting the stork soon, he replied, “Soon? Today!”
“But I want you to understand,” he continued smilingly, “that I didn't leave her just to play chess. I had to come down to Charlottesville from Bound Brook, N. J., to take an examination in calculus for admittance to the university so I may begin work on my master's degree.”
He Started Early
Mr. Chauvenet, who learned to play chess at the age of 9 under the tutelage of his father, first made news in Virginia competition at the age of 16, when he won the class A title.
“But I wasn't able to win the championship until 1942, which was called the ‘duration’ title because we had no more competition during the war,” he said.
The 1946 titleholder jokingly remarked that an Atlanta newspaper dubbed him “an Hungarian deaf mute.”
“I am certainly not Hungarian,” he insisted. “I'm just an ordinary American, since my family has been in this country for more than 100 years.”
He went on to explain that an attack of spinal meningitis when he was 10 years old left him completely deaf and with an impediment in his speech, but the latter infirmity is now hardly discernible to the unknowing. His only hesitancy in speaking is apparently prompted by his modesty in matters concerning himself.
Born in Tennessee
Mr. Chauvenet was born in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1920, but says he is a Virginian, having moved to Charlottesville at an early age. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B. S. in biology in 1943, and then went to work for the Calco chemical division of the American Cyanimid Company at Bound Brook.
“I was working on accelerators, used in making synthetic rubber,” he said, “and since we were at it 56 hours a week, I didn't have much time for chess. In fact, I'm very stale, because I haven't played in almost four years.”
Mr. Dalmas, the champion's final victim in the current tournament and one of the leading contenders for the crown, paid tribute to his conqueror's ability on the checkered board when he remarked during the course of their match, “He was beating me 10 years ago, and he's still at it.”
So it would seem that Mr. Chauvenet was a top-notch player even before he was able to grow a beard.
Chauvenet, who successfully defended his title as State chess champion, won five games and drew one.
E. M. Knapp, Richmond champion, and A. T. Henderson, top-ranking Lynchburg contestant, were tied for the runner-up spot in the championship bracket. Their final game, which was not completed before the time set for the tourney to end, will be adjudicated by John N. Buck, Lynchburg chess expert, who will determine which player's game was superior.
Results in other groups, with games won and lost, are as follows:
Group A—
Private L. A. Helman, Fort Eustis, Va., first 6½-1½
K. C. Peck, Richmond, runner-up, 6-2.
Group B—
C. S. Boggess, Richmond, runner-up, 8-2.
Mr. Boggess and Mr. Cleek were tied for this place, and the winner was determined by the Sonnenborn-Berger system of superior play.
The Virginia State Chess Federation decided at its meeting this week end that the 1947 tournament will also be held in Richmond next Labor Day week end.
November 24 1946
The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, Virginia, Sunday, November 24, 1946
Champion Chess Player Will Battle All Comers
Russell Chauvenet, chess champion of Virginia, will meet all comers in a simultaneous match next Friday night at 8 o'clock at the Elk's club under the auspices of the Roanoke Chess club, officers of the club said yesterday.
May Meet 14
Up to the present time some fourteen Roanoke chess players have expressed their desire to compete against Virginia's top-ranking expert and Roanoke Chess club officials sponsoring the exhibition expect that by game time approximately two dozen challengers will be seated outside the circle within which Chauvenet will tour the boards of his competitors.
The exhibition is open free to the public as a part of the Roanoke Chess club's promotional campaign to interest localities in the game.
Chess players desiring to test their skill against that of the expert may do so by calling the club's program director, Nelson Bond, between now and Friday morning, it was said yesterday.
Chauvenet, a 26 year old student in the graduate school at the University of Virginia became Virginia's first-ranking player in 1942, held the title automatically throughout the war years when no contests were held, and proved his right to it by crushing all competition at the 1946 championship matches held in Richmond last September.
Despite his conclusive superiority over other players of the Old Dominion the champ is modest about his own ability.
“There are,” he says, “in the hierarchy of chess many classes: Grandmaster, Master, Expert; then the many classes of Amateurs, Class A, B, C, etc. My knowledge of chess is quite limited, and I am no real authority. I have occasionally defeated or drawn with lower-ranking Masters, but as a general thing I almost always lose to those in the Master's class, and I'm not worth a Grandmaster's waste of time.”
December 01 1946
The Roanoke Times, Roanoke, Virginia, Sunday, December 01, 1946
City Champ Meets State Champ—Russell Chauvenet, young University of Virginia graduate and Virginia chess champion (left), is shown planning his next move against Roanoke city chess champion, Haines Dalmas, right. In a simultaneous match against 22 members of the local club at the Elks club Friday night, Chauvenet won 18 (including his five-hour match against the local champ), three draws, and lost his sole game against 16-year-old Robert Dalmas, the city champ's son, who has been playing the royal game since he was ten years of age. Chauvenet has also been playing since he was 10. Chess club officials said last night that the public interest and response aroused by the simultaneous match conducted Friday night indicates that additional features will be planned to further interest in the game locally.
Youngster Is Only Winner Against State Chess Champ
Lone victor against the Virginia chess champion, Russell Chauvenet, young graduate student of the University of Virginia, in a simultaneous match conducted among 22 members of the Roanoke Chess club turned out to be 16-year-old Robert Dalmas, a junior member of the Roanoke Chess club who's been playing chess since he was 10 years of age.
City Champ Loses
Contrary to expectations, the top ranking players of the local chess club—more specifically City Champion Haines Dalmas, young Bob's father—fared worse than the youngsters. The matches began Friday evening in the Elks club at 8 o'clock. At eleven, when closing time for the club arrived, the group literally picked up their boards and adjourned to the mezzanine floor of the Patrick Henry hotel where the longest match—the one against the elder Dalmas was conceded by the local champion at 1 o'clock Saturday morning.
Approximately 50 persons—visitors and players—attended the first simultaneous match to be sponsored in the Magic City by the Roanoke Chess club. Eighteen of the matches turned out to be victories for the state champion. Three “draws” were recorded by Nelson Bond, runner-up to Haines Dalmas for the city championship and Merkel and Frank Brennan.
As a prize for his playing ability, young Dalmas was presented with a fine plastic chess set presented by the sponsoring club, and a statement by Chauvenet that “you've played the best game tonight.”
Congratulates Officers
Following the match, the state champion congratulated officers of the local chess club, declaring that he was “agreeably” surprised at the quality of chess playing shown in the Magic City. He stated that all of the games were “extremely interesting” and expressed the opinion that “the number of wins by no means indicates that the simultaneous match was any pushover.”
This is the third exhibition match put on by the state champion who has been playing chess since he was nine years old. He will appear in a similar simultaneous match in Richmond the week after next.
A spokesman of the local club declared last night that the public's interest in the match had been “gratifying” and that plans were being made to bring other interesting chess features to the Magic City in order to promote interest in the game. Six new members were reported at the meeting Friday night.
