Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1972

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April 08 2017

The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, December 05, 1972

What Next?—Moravian student Gregory Williams of Easton (right) matches moves with international grand master Arthur Bisguier (left) as Ehor Gud of Allentown looks on.

Master Forecasts Pro Chess Teams
The establishment of a six-team professional chess league was forecast last night at Moravian College by international grandmaster Arthur Bisguier.
Bisguier said the proposal “is halfway to becoming a reality.” Only financial backers for the teams are needed, he stated.
Bisguier made the first of three stops in the Lehigh valley yesterday at Moravian.
He will be at Lafayette College today and Lehigh University tomorrow. He will speak at 4:10 p.m. in the east lounge or Marquis Hall at Lafayette today and will play simultaneous chess matches with students at 8 p.m.
Bisguier took on 34 other chess players simultaneously last night. He won 30 of the matches and appeared heading toward draws in two others.
His only losses were to Morris Bader, assistant professor of chemistry, at Moravian, and Richard Jokiel, vice president of the Allentown Chess Club.
Jokiel, well-known in local chess circles, will teach a January term course in chess at Moravian.
Bisquier played with the white pieces in each of the matches and allowed each opponent to make his first move, “as long as it is not too ludicrous.”
Bisguier, who has been an international grandmaster since 1956, devoted most of his attention to the recent world championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in his talk yesterday at Moravian. Bisguier has played and beaten both of the world champions during his chess career.
He said that he “inwardly wanted Fischer to win because the Russians have dominated the game for 25 years.” He called Fischer's victory a “tremendous boon to American chess.”
He added that Fischer now plays a “beautiful game” and is “perhaps the greatest chess player who ever lived.”
Bisguier predicted a rematch between Fischer and Spassky within the next three years. [(But the Soviet Union refused Mr. Spassky permission to travel… so this match would be suspended until 1992.)]
He noted that the financial position of chess players is improving. He said that if the new league is established, each team will be headed by a grand master who will be paid about $25,000 per year on a retainer basis. Bisguier added that many grand masters are now paid as much as $1,000 per week to be available for tours.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 2017

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April 08 2017

The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, April 08, 2017

Original b/w courtesy of U.S. Chess. Mr. Bisguier, who often played rare opening systems, was awarded the title grandmaster, the highest in class.

Arthur Bisguier, 87, brash, self-taught chess champion
By Dylan Loeb McClain
New York Times
NEW YORK - Arthur Bisguier, a largely self-taught chess grandmaster who brought a native Bronx brashness to his style of play in defeating some of the game's greatest players while finding mostly frustration when he faced Bobby Fischer, died Wednesday in Framingham, Mass. He was 87.
His daughter Erica Bisguier said the death, at a care facility, was caused by respiratory failure.
Mr. Bisguier learned to play chess when he was 5 by watching games between his older sister and a cousin. He won the New York High School Championship while still in junior high school.
He was not yet 20 when he won the US Junior Championship in 1948; the next year, he successfully defended the title. He went on to win the US Open in 1950, the first of five times he would triumph or tie for first in that tournament. And in 1954, he won the US Championship, an invitation-only event.
Mr. Bisguier might have won more US Championships or at least one more if not for Fischer. When Fischer came along, he was 14 years younger than Mr. Bisguier, but he began to dominate the US chess scene almost immediately, winning his first championship, in 1957-1958, before he was 15.
Mr. Bisguier's one taste of victory against Fischer came in the first game they ever played, when Fischer was a child prodigy of 13. But he would not beat him again. Mr. Bisguier's career record against him consisted of that one win, one draw (in their second game), and 13 consecutive losses.
Mr. Bisguier had a good opportunity to best Fischer in the 1962-1963 championship, however. The two were tied going into the last round and had to play each other head to head. But, as happened so often against Fischer, Mr. Bisguier finished second.
In Fischer's book “My 60 Memorable Games” (1969), the grandmaster and journalist Larry Evans wrote in an introduction to a chapter, “Bisguier is the one grandmaster who consistently obtains decent positions against Fischer, only to throw them away for no apparent reason.”
There was indeed a kind of Bronx brazenness to Mr. Bisguier's personality and style of play. He was undisciplined, rarely spending time preparing for opponents. And having spent less time studying chess than many of his chief rivals, he would often play unpopular or rare opening systems. As a result, his opponents' preparation would often no longer give them an advantage.
Mr. Bisguier preferred socializing to studying, and he made friends readily, even among his opponents. In the midst of the Cold War, at the 1952 Helsinki Chess Olympiad, he met David Bronstein, a leading player for the Soviet Union. As Bronstein wrote of him in his autobiography, “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” (1995), “It is difficult to believe that during this tense political climate we became friends and were openly talking to each other in the tournament hall.”
Though he could never overcome Fischer, Mr. Bisguier counted some formidable opponents among his vanquished, including former world champion Boris Spassky; Samuel Reshevsky, who, like Fischer, won the US Championship eight times; and Svetozar Gligoric, who was a candidate for the world championship three times.
Mr. Bisguier was awarded the title grandmaster, the highest in chess, in 1957 by the World Chess Federation, the game's governing body. At the time, there were only 39 grandmasters in the world.
Though he competed abroad, Mr. Bisguier had more success on American soil, becoming a mainstay in major US tournaments for decades. He often gave lectures and exhibitions in which he would play against multiple opponents at the same time.
Among his major victories was first place in the 1973 Lone Pine International tournament in California, one of the preeminent competitions in the world in the 1970s.
Arthur Bernard Bisguier was born in New York on Oct. 8, 1929, and attended the Bronx High School of Science. As a student there, he was already one of the best players in the country, and also at the center of a spirited rivalry with its cross-city rival Brooklyn Tech, whose team was led by Robert Byrne, a future grandmaster and chess columnist for The New York Times.
After high school, Mr. Bisguier served in the Army from 1951 to 1953, though he was given time off to play for the United States at the Helsinki Chess Olympiad, where Byrne was among his teammates. He played for the United States in four more Olympiads, including in 1960 (with Fischer and Byrne as teammates), when the United States took silver, behind the Soviet Union.
After his Army service, Mr. Bisguier graduated from Pace College (now Pace University) in New York in 1955. He married Carol Collins in 1959; they honeymooned in Omaha, where Mr. Bisguier was playing in a chess tournament, his daughter Erica said. His wife died in 2014.
Besides Erica Bisguier, with whom he lived in Wellesley, Mass., he leaves another daughter, Cele Bisguier; a sister, Sylvia Prival; two granddaughters; and three step-grandchildren.
Mr. Bisguier was such a competitor that even beating a vaunted opponent did not always satisfy him. In 1961, for example, he defeated Paul Keres, who many thought was good enough to be world champion. But Mr. Bisguier was not proud of the game. He thought there had been nothing special about the way he played.
“After the game I was strangely depressed at having wasted an opportunity” he wrote in his autobiography, “The Art of Bisguier” (with Newton Berry, 2008). “I wanted to beat him brilliantly. After all, if one has the chance to play Keres only a few times in his life, is it not better to go down in defeat in a fine game against an immortal than to win by doing 'nothing?'”

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1989

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June 18 1989

The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Sunday, June 18, 1989

CONCENTRATION — John Soniak of Wilkes-Barre, seated, and chess grandmaster Arthur Bisguier contemplate their next moves. Times Leader Photos/Alejandro A. Alvarez

Bisguier/at a glance THE BEGINNING: Exchanged checkers for chess at age 4: never went back. REACHING THE SUMMIT: Became an international grandmaster—tops in the chess field—in 1957. RANK: Among the top 50 players in the United States. ON SATURDAY: Beat 33 challengers in an exhibition at the West Side Mall in Edwardsville.

Playing With The Master—Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier played 33 challengers in a simultaneous chess exhibition at the West Side Mall Saturday.

Checkmate!
Chess grandmaster beats all comers
By Mary Therese Biebel, Times Leader Social Editor
After handily beating more than 30 regional chess players at their favorite game, grandmaster Arthur Bisguier finally had a chance to sit down and rest.
For two hours Saturday afternoon the 59-year-old national chess champion strode rapidly up and down a hallway at the West Side Mall, stopping briefly at each of a series of tables to make a move against his many challengers.
He made short work of some players, who rolled up their portable chess boards and were promptly replaced by new recruits.
Others put up a good fight, but eventually—inevitably, it seemed—they, too, lost to the master from the Catskills.
Finally there was one only challenger left, and Bisguier had a chance to sit down across the table from Joseph Androski, a 32-year-old loom cleaner from Scranton.
About 25 spectators, most of whom had just lost to the white-haired, dignified grandmaster, watched intently as the two men played out their final moves in the hallway in front of Bergman's Department Store.
Nine-year-old Chris Katorkas of Scranton rested his freckled face on the round table and watched the game from close range.
The red-headed boy pushed a scorecard toward Bisguier, five-time winner of the U.S. Open Chess Tournament, and asked for an autograph.
While Androski concentrated on his next move. Bisguier scrawled his good wishes for the boy's chess-playing future.
A few moves with a pawn and a knight later, and Bisguier had beaten his move promising challenger.
“Good game,” he told Androski as the simultaneous exhibition sponsored by the Wilkes-Barre Chess Club drew to a close and about 25 bystanders broke into applause.
“It taught me a lot,” Androski said of his game. “Maybe I could've played the ending a little better.
“I'm not used to playing in front of people,” Androski explained with a tug at his Detroit Lions caps. “But once you start playing, you wipe everything out of your mind.”
The local chess club, which meets Thursdays 6 to 9 p.m. at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre, planned the event to attract new members.
Club member Joseph Malloy, 71, of the East End section of Wilkes-Barre, happily reported that roughly 20 newcomers were among the 33 players who paid $5 to play a game with Bisguier.
Bisguier said he enjoys simultaneous exhibitions because “they bring good players out of the woodwork.”
After sparring with Bisguier, several good players reflected on their performances.
“He (Bisguier) said it was a real wild game. I had him going,” said Tony Renna, 50, of Taylor, who lasted 30 moves. “My ears were turning red.”
“It was even after 32 moves,” reported Howard Meiser Jr., a 37-year-old cook from Weatherly. “I had him in trouble a few times (but) I didn't have any possibility of beating him.”
“It's almost like having to play speed chess,” 32-year-old Neal Munchak of Scranton. “You have little time for analysis.”
As he struggled against Bisguier, 58-year-old Jesse Lladoc of Stroudsburg became philosophical about the game.
“When you play chess, you're in a different world. It takes you out of the regular grind of life. This is a game that should be taught to the young.”
Many of the participants in Saturday's exhibition said they had learned the game when they were about 4 years old.
That was the age when Bisguier exchanged checkers for chess and never went back. It's also about the age 7-year-old Kourtney Koslosky of Shavertown learned the game from her father, Ron.
“I wanted her to have the strategy and mental discipline. I think it's a great mental exercise,” said her father.
“Instead of sitting in front of the TV, we'd rather have her sit in front of the chess table,” said Kourtney's mother, Rhonda.
Kourtney, apparently the youngest player to challenge Bisguier Saturday, lasted 12 moves.
Nine-year-old Chris Katorkas of Scranton lasted 35 moves and proudly announced he had captured the grandmaster's two bishops, one knight and a pawn.
He also lost two bishops, one knight, three pawns and a rook.
“I wanted to have a chance to try to beat him, to try to track him down.” Chris said.
Actually, Bisguier said, he often loses a game at an exhibition. He said he was surprised that he didn't lose at all Saturday.
“The girl had a real chance,” he said, referring to 15-year-old Karen Bryta of Montdale, who played the grandmaster alongside her 16-year-old brother, Mark.
“It gets you so tired, and you wouldn't think it would,” she said with a sigh as she conceded defeat. Soon after, her brother laid his king on its side to indicate he, too, had lost. “You did well.” Bisguier told him.
The Brytas, who play each other and also travel to out-of-town tournaments, ended the afternoon with some good-natured sibling rivalry.
They agreed that one of them wins 61 percent of the games they play against each other, but they couldn't agree who it was.
“I'm in the lead,” said Mark.
“No, I'm in the lead,” said Karen.
“Actually, I'm better than she is,” Mark insisted.
“He's such a liar,” insisted his sister.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1977

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March 17 1977

Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, Thursday, March 17, 1977

Arthur Bisguier makes his way around the tables, as he plays 61 persons in a simultaneous chess match at the U. of R. D*C photos by Steve Groer

A Pawn in a Duel of Queens, Bishops
By LARRY KING D&C Staff Writer
Bobby Fischer once said during an interview that, for him, the high point of a chess match came when he began “to crush the other guy's ego.”
Anyone who wants to know what a crushed ego looks like can examine mine.
I played chess Tuesday night with Arthur Bisguier. So did 60 other people. Bisguier rolled over our egos like a German tank crossing the Polish border.
Bisguier, 46, of New York, is the resident grandmaster of the United States Chess Federation. The USCF sponsored a visit by him to the University of Rochester, at the invitation of the University of Rochester Chess Club.
He pitted himself against 61 foes way around the tables, as he plays in a duel simultaneously. The idea was to promote the game of chess by showing us what some high-caliber competition was like.
With some of his opponents, the idea may have backfired. I'm thinking about giving up chess for something less demanding, intellectually. Hopscotch, maybe.
You see, a grandmaster such as Bisguier is to chess what an All-Pro quarterback is to the NFL. I am to chess what Woody Allen is to the NFL.
The match took place in the Psychology Building on the U. of R. River Campus. Tables were set up along three walls of one room and along two walls of a smaller room next to it.
THE MATCH BEGINS at 7:30 p.m. Bisguier first announces some simple rules.
He has white and therefore the first move on all games. We are not to reply immediately to his opening, but to wait until he approaches, so he can see our move. He then will move and we will wait until he walks around again, and so on.
However, he says we can make his first move for him, provided it's a standard opening move and not something completely irrational. This, in effect, negates any advantage he might gain by having the first move.
I decided to be generous and allow Bisguier to make his own opening move.
He does, using the king's pawn. It is a conventional opening; my reply is equally conventional, using my queen's pawn.
The next four moves go like that, the usual jockeying for position. I realize, though, that I'm getting nervous each time Bisguier approaches. I'm scared of being humiliated.
This is what Fischer meant about crushing egos. Chess is a game of mental warfare. Luck is not involved, only the intellect.
If you lose, the inescapable conclusion is that you were defeated because you're dumber than your foe.
BEFORE THE MATCH started, Bisguier predicted he would win 90 per cent of the games. That would leave 54.9 of us feeling like idiots.
His fifth move leaves me feeling like something less than a mental giant. I'm baffled.
Worse, he made it without a pause to examine the board. Apparently, he didn't even need to think about it.
My hopes, never high, are being scaled down. I want now only to make him stop, think about what I've done, express some uncertainty.
My reply to his fifth move is conservative, something to buy time. But when Bisguier walks up again, he stops and thinks briefly.
Hah! Pressure getting to you, Bisguier?
He moves a pawn into a position that I immediately see is going to cause me grave problems.
SITTING ON MY LEFT is a young man named Jim Klingenberger, a member of Rochester's City Chess Club. He's in more trouble than I am.
At least I haven't lost any pieces yet. Bisguier is mowing down some people like tall weeds.
On the 11th move I lose a knight, but I immediately take one of Bisguier's. The match has taken an hour and 20 minutes so far.
Klingenberger's in bad shape. He's down a pawn and his over-all position on the board is poor.
At the table across from us, Bisguier wins his first match. He does it by checkmating his opponent, rather than by the opponent giving up.
My heart leaps as Bisguier comes to make his 14th move in our match. He stops, winces, looks at me, mutters under his breath, and finally moves.
Something like confidence returns. The next series of moves quickly destroys it. He captures a knight; I can't retaliate.
Klingerberger resigns.
FURTHER DOWN THE table, somebody else is checkmated.
I gamble on my next move, offering a bishop in exchange for a knight but putting my queen into an attacking position.
Bisguier looks at the board, frowns; looks at me. “You mean it?” he mutters. He ignores the offered exchange.
His move eliminates the potential threat of my queen, and does irreparable damage to my ego.
There is excited babbling at the other table. Bisguier has lost a match! He resigns to Scott Maid, a junior at the U of R and a member of the Chess Club. Maid wears the smile of a small boy who has just caught a very large fish.
Maid's victory gives me a surge of self-confidence. It is unfounded.
BISGUIER'S NEXT FEW moves progressively weaken my position. He is not pausing, now. My king is hiding behind a pitifully weak pawn. On his 24th move, Bisquier thrusts a rook down to my end of the board.
I gaze morosely at the position. I play out various combinations in my head. The best I can do is to prolong being checkmated for another five moves. Assuming Bisguier does not suffer a nervous breakdown, which he seems far from doing.
He has already beaten 20 opponents, lost to one, and accepted a draw from another. It is past midnight.
Bisguier approaches. I contemplate the three moves I could possibly make. Two are deadly; one is merely crippling.
I resign.
Much later, the entire match ends. Bisguier ends up winning 50 games, drawing eight, and losing three. He missed on his 90 per cent prediction by about five games, unless you split the difference and call half the draws wins.
Must have been an off night.

Arthur Bisguier and opponents ponder boards. D&C photo by Steve Groer

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1963

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May 27 1963

The Standard-Star, New Rochelle, New York, Monday, May 27, 1963

DEMONSTRATING his prowess as a former U.S. chess champion at New Rochelle High School Friday afternoon, is Arthur Bisguier, standing. Among his 30 opponents from the Westchester High School Chess League and New Rochelle High School students, are, left to right, William Oncken of Mamaroneck High, Frank Kinger, Richard Sobel and Richard Ellbert, NRHS chess team members. Standing in background are left to right, Ronald Greene, league chess coordinator and coach of Woodlands High, and John Van Tielen, league coordinator and Rye Neck High School chess advisor.—Staff Photo by Paul Byrne.

Bisguier, Chess Ace, Beats 27 of 30 Opponents at NRHS
Arthur Bisguier, former U.S. chess champion and runner-up to Bobby Fischer in 1962, said checkmate 27 times in a simultaneous match against 30 opponents at New Rochelle High School Friday. In the four-hour exhibition he faced 25 players in the Winchester High School Chess League including the five-man team from New Rochelle, and five students selected from the audience.
The three exceptions consisted of a loss and two draws. The lone winner was William Roth Jr of 524 Fifth Ave., Mamaroneck, a member of the Rye Neck High School chess team. Playing Mr. Bisguier to a tie were John Lamberti of Woodlands High School and William Oncken of Mamaroneck High.
New Rochelleans who opposed the former champ unsuccessfully were the five chess team members, Frank Klinger, William Zucker, Richard Eilbert, Richard Sobel and Michael Albert, and five students chosen from the spectators, Marc Goldfisher, Jeffrey may, Fred Geldon, Irwin Gaines and William Bruner.
The three who put up the longest fight before capitulation were William Zucker, 47 moves, and Richard Eilbert, 46 moves. Frank Klinger was ahead at one point in his game, a rook to a bishop, but lost two pawns and eventually resigned when his opponent queened a pawn. Bill was also ahead at first, then went even, fell behind and surprisingly took an edge again before succumbing.
Richard fell behind by a pawn early in the game and although he played strongly, finally fell when Mr. Bisguier queened his free pawn.
Mr. Bisguier, an IBM engineer, started out in the Manhattan Chess Club, where he is still a member. he will be one of three Americans to represent the United States in the international championships in Europe this summer. The other two are Mr. Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky, who placed third in the 1962 U.S. championships.
Rye Neck High School was presented with the third place trophy in the Westchester League tournament. First place is still up for grabs, although New Rochelle High School has a 1½-½ lead over Scarsdale and needs only a tie in their match to win the championship.

SMILING HIS CONFIDENCE Friday at New Rochelle High School, where he was the only player out of 30 to beat former U.S. chess champion Arthur Bisguier, right, is William Roth Jr. of 524 Fifth Ave., Mamaroneck, a junior at Rye Neck High School and member of their chess team.—Staff Photo by Paul Byrne.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1992

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August 30 1992

The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, Sunday, August 30, 1992

This being Bobby Fischer, few people are ready to count him out. And the thought of his regaining the championship is enough to give chess fanatics goose bumps.
“This would be absolutely fantastic!” said Carol Jarecki, a member of the World Chess Federation's rules committee. “Nobody's ever done this.”
This somebody is capable of moving chess players to rhetorical fireworks of a sort usually lavished on Beethoven, Michelangelo or Muhammad Ali.
“Part of the reason for his greatness,” Arthur Bisguier said, “is that he plays each game of chess as if it's the last thing he's going to do on Earth. I don't care if his score is 9 out of 9, and the nearest opposition is three points behind, he will play to win that 10th game.
“This is his thing-this is his religion, this is his truth. This is his greatness.”

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1995

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March 19 1995

The Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, Sunday, March 19, 1995

A Day of Strategy
International Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier moves around a ring of tables at the Akron-Summit County downtown library yesterday, playing 30 chess games at once against members of the Akron Chess Club, Bisguier won 23 of the games.

Dan Schlue holds his head as he ponders his move against chess grandmaster Arthur Bisguier (standing at left, back to camera) yesterday at the library in downtown Akron.

Chess grandmaster Arthur Bisguier (standing) considers a move as he plays one of 30 members of the Akron Chess Club yesterday at the Akron-Summit County Public Library. In the foreground are Stuart Taylor (left) and Dave Walker.

Chess champion takes on all comers
Grandmaster challenges members of Akron Chess Club; five of them now can say they beat a man who beat Bobby Fischer (a long time ago)
By Jim Carney, Beacon Journal staff writer
The silence was overwhelming. Thirty of Akron's finest chess players concentrated on beating one of the world's best yesterday at the main library in downtown Akron. The only noises were the sounds of chess pieces being moved, the scratching of heads and international grandmaster Arthur Bisguier mumbling strategy to himself. Bisguier, 65, of Rock Hill, N.Y., challenged members of the Akron Chess Club for more than 4½ hours. He won 23 matches, lost five and tied two.
“It hasn't sunk in that I beat him,” said Jerry Smith, a 41-year-old Akron truck driver, after getting Bisguier to fall for a trap play. “It was a bad day for me,” Bisguier said. “I make mistakes.”
Bisguier met Robert Moeller, the executive director of the club, on a chess cruise in the Atlantic a few years ago and the two men became friends. Moeller, a retired vice president of Cornwell Tool, invited him to Akron to play some of the club's 70 members. The two men are playing in a Chicago tournament later this month.
“He is a giant—a legend of American chess,” the 63-year-old Moeller said of Bisguier. Bisguier is a member of the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in New Windsor, N.Y.
He won the U.S. Open in 1950, and beat Bobby Fischer in 1954. Bisguier won or tied for first in 1956, 1957, 1959 and 1969. The second time he played Fischer, the game ended in a draw. The third time, Bisguier said, Fischer beat him.
Thirty chess boards were set up on tables in the library conference room.
At 10:15 a.m., the game began.
“Ready or not, here I come,” Bisguier said. He allowed his opponents to make his first move for him.
“The way to be competitive with a superior-rated player is never to play his game,” Bisguier said.
For the next 270 minutes, Bisguier, wearing black shoes, blue jeans, a blue and white striped shirt and a blue cardigan sweater, moved clockwise from player to player. He was paid $250 to appear at the event.
One of the players he beat was Mercer Mitchell Jr., 33, of Akron.
Mitchell works for United Parcel Service and teaches chess after school at Akron's Erie Island School.
“Chess is life in a nutshell,” Mitchell said. “It teaches you self control, discipline, patience and self-confidence. I teach my kids that you never lose—you learn.”
Stuart Taylor, 42, an executive recruiter from Hudson, tied the grandmaster.
“This will probably be the only opportunity to play an individual of his stature in my life,” Taylor said.
As the games progressed, Tom Lenin, 28, of Kent, found himself at an advantage over Bisguier.
“I must be hallucinating,” he said.
He wasn't. Lenin eventually beat Bisguier.
When Richard Fioravanti, 46, of Bath Township, made his move, Bisguier paused for a few seconds to think about his next move.
“Bless you for stopping and thinking,” Fioravanti said.
Bisguier is semi-retired. He has worked in accounting, computer programming, technical writing and magazine editing. He is a grandmaster-on-staff for the U.S. Chess Federation and technical adviser to the monthly magazine Chess Life. He has played as many as 100 people at a time.
Bisguier said chess is fascinating at all levels, but he particularly enjoys the social aspects of the game.
“I see people who tell me I inspired them 20 years ago,” he said. “That is gratifying.”
Other winners were David Walker of Akron, Xavier Garcia of Canton and Dean Rowe of Wadsworth. Playing to a draw was Joe Yun of North Canton.
The Akron Chess Club meets every Saturday at 10 a.m. at either the main library or the West Hill Library.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1983

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November 01 1983

The Oshkosh Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Tuesday, November 01, 1983

Only Pawns In His Game
Arthur Bisguier, left, grandmaster chess player, studies a chess board. Seated across from him is David Cowles and in the foreground is Clair Palfrey. The two were among 24 players who Bisguier challenged in a simultaneous chess match night in Park Plaza, Oshkosh. After two hours of play, Bisguier had won 35 and lost one.

Chess Expert Vies With 24 Opponents
PATRIK VANDER VELDEN
Northwestern Staff Writer
Watching 24 chess players contemplate their chess boards like so many Buddhas, Arthur Bisguier looks boxed in.
Bisguier is a grandmaster of chess, the equivalent of a black belt in karate. He held an exhibition Monday night in the mall at Park Plaza in Oshkosh, playing 24 games simultaneously while his 24 opponents played one game.
Through 36 games, he lost one.
“I hung my queen,” explained the grandmaster.
Bisguier, who once competed against Bobby Fisher, is technical adviser of “U.S. Chess” magazine. He lectures, attends chess seminars and occasionally competes. This weekend he will compete in the Fifth Anniversary Open in Janesville. That tournament—Wisconsin's largest—will bring together 20 top-rated professional and 120 Wisconsin rated and unrated players.
Bisguier's appearance in Oshkosh was a promotion sponsored in part by the American Chess Federation and the U.S. Chess Federation.
While he walks smoothly inside the square, the players around him, six at four tables, furrow their brows, stroke their chins and stare with unblinking eyes at the pawns.
Facing a board, Bisguier leans forward, hands on the table top, eyes intent on the open squares and chess pieces. The clock inside his head ticks, sometimes once, sometimes 20 times; then he slides his countermove.
The opponent considers the move, sometimes with a solid face, sometimes jerking a shoulder or showing a smile.
There are two unwritten rules that make the whole exhibition civilized. Never embarrass anyone, and if dad, son or daughter are playing, beat dad first.
To Bisguier none of this is competition, only a day away from the office. “It's good for everyone who works to get a change of pace.”
It also keeps him in touch with the rest of the chess world. “I see some people who have talent, a future master once in a while. The interest is starting younger and younger.”
At the table sits a teenager in a jersey shirt, BENNETT spelled across its back. Ron Bennett says he is 14 and his father taught him to play at age 10. With only four years of experience, Bennett didn't think he had much chance of beating Bisguier. While he didn't let that intimidate him, he did come alone.
“I tried to get my friends to come along, but they wouldn't. I came to try and learn something.”
At the other end of the spectrum is 72-year-old Dr. Kurt Hoehne. Mouthing a cigar, head poised forward, eyes looking over a pair of glasses, Hoehne says in words fringed with a German accent, “I just wanted to see Grandmaster Bisguier. It's just something interesting. I'm a doctor … I don't have much time to play.”
Hoehne says he first played as a teenager. This spring he played in a tournament for the first time since who knows when. Then his wife bought him a computer chess board and here he is tonight.
“I get to see the other guys. This is a way to socialize. Last time I was here, four years ago, I didn't play. I'm old; after an hour or so you get tired. This is a game you have to play with a great deal of concentration and enthusiasm.”
Across the square from Hoehne, David Rice busies himself scrawling a coded script onto paper—P-K4, P-K4, N-KB3, N-QB3, and so on.
Rice, a 21-year-old University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh student and president of the UW-O chess club, canceled the 7 p.m. Monday meeting in Reeve Union.
He's here tonight, he says “mostly for fun. You want to see how you do.”
Chess, claims Rice, takes no special skills.
“It's just your mind against his mind. It's intriguing because there are so many possibilities for moves. No other game has that.”

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1981

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November 04 1981

Manitowoc Herald-Times, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Wednesday, November 04, 1981

International Chess Master Whips 22 Players During Single Lesson
By DENNIS HERNET
Two Rivers Bureau Manager
TWO RIVERS - Arthur Bisguier thought he would probably never lose a chess match while playing 22 boards at one time against select players at Washington High School.
Or, at worst, he might win only 999 out of 1,000 games against the group gathered there. And, by his own estimations, he would probably never lose a match playing one-on-one with anyone in the room.
And Bisguier was in no way trying to downgrade the Washington High School chess program, an extra curricular activity under the direction of Bob Kleckner, who succeeded Warren Otto. The teams at Washington High School have a continuous string of Northeastern Wisconsin Chess Association titles as long as your arm, have always been a contender for the Wisconsin High School Chess Association championship, and back in 1976, under the direction of Otto, won the United States High School Chess Championship.
But Bisguier is an international chess master, one of perhaps 15 persons in the United States with such a rating, and one of just a dozen who is active.
The 55-year old expert carries a rating of about 2,500. The current world champion carries a rating of about 2,700.
The average player on the Washington High School carries a rating between 1,000 and 1,600.
Rick Kaner, one of the highest rated players ever to participate with Washington High School, had a rating of around, or just over, 1,800, according to Kleckner.
Putting it simply, it's the highest title you can achieve in the International Chess Federation.
The five-time United States Open Champion from New Windsor, N.Y., came to Two Rivers Monday as part of a tour of the state. He was making stops at Green Bay, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Whitewater and Janesville, winding up his tour by playing in a major tournament Saturday in Janesville.
The previous day he had compiled a record of 120 wins, 3 losses and 3 draws while in Madison and was about to go through the same routine Monday night at the Port Plaza Mall in Green Bay. On a similar tour last year he had a record of 295-10-20 and while in Green Bay, won 53 games in a span of three hours.
Monday in Two Rivers, battling the members of the Two Rivers chess team; he won all 30 of his games on 22 boards in a matter of 90 minutes.
“I guess this is a hot bed of chess,” Bisguier concluded, after playing the games. “My purpose here is to give them a glimpse of what can be done.”
While moving around the room, spending just a few seconds at each board, Bisguier almost automatically, with computer actions, moved pieces and defeated players.
“I am a professional,” he said, trying to describe what he was doing in the most simple terms for the chess novices and others who were there merely to rub elbows with a person of international acclaim. “The work is for the legs only,” he said, guessing that he lapped the room more than 50 times during the afternoon.
“Ninety-five percent of the moves are made with the fingers, not the mind,” he analyzed. He said about the only time he would lose a game would be in a competition such as this, 25 boards being played simultaneously, and then only if he made a blunder.
“I'm not a machine'” he said. “And there is a fatigue factor.”
Bisguier was traveling the state with Wray McCalester of Janesville, president of the Janesville Chess Association and vice 'president of the Wisconsin Chess Association, along with several other state chess officials.
McCalester said that Bisguier, in addition to being an expert in chess, has also accumulated master bridge point and is a former New York state checkers champion.
Bisguier, a part-time employee of the United States Chess Federation, leaves no doubt about his job…“I'm here to stir up enthusiasm for the game,” he said.
And how did he rate the players in Two Rivers… “Some are better than some I've played, some are worse than others, some showed talent,” he said, but then added what could probably have been a lesson to all. “Some could use some direction, they could use a club,” he said, pointing out that there was a strong possibility there were potentially some very good players in the group, with the word “potential” being the key.
With Bisguier's experience and talent, it was obvious he saw things invisible to the novice.
When one young player came up, boasting that he had lasted 48 moves, Bisguier pointed out that the game was over long before that. “You would have been wise to quit after nine moves and start a new game.” he said, taking the wind out of the young man's sails.
Bisguier knew this. That's why he carries the title of “international grandmaster.”

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1960

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1960

1960, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, Mercer County, New Jersey
One of the highlights of this year's action was the club tournament during the winter term. Prizes for the winners were two inlaid wooden chess sets. On the inter-school schedule were Princeton High School and Peddie. The club was fortunate in being able to hear Mr. Arthur Bisguier speak. Mr. Bisguier is one of the leading chess players in the United States.

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August 14 1960

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri, Sunday, August 14, 1960

U.S. Chess Meet--Quiet, Please
Country's Leading Players Concentrate in Silence in Open Tournament Here
Arthur Bisguier of New York City, who won the Open in 1950 when he was only 20, again in 1956 and again last year at Omaha, is back to see whether he can make it two straight, a feat not achieved in the Open since Larry Evans of New York did it in 1951 and '52.
Bisguier is seeded fourth in the field of 174, behind Pal Benko, once of Hungary, who has been playing in this country for the last five years, Evans and Robert Byrne, always a strong contender, whose brother Donald copped the Open in 1953.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1980

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October 21 1980

Portage Daily Register, Portage, Wisconsin, Tuesday, October 21, 1980

Grand Chess Master Checkmates
Make your move to East Towne Mall when International Chess Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier matches wits with 25 players during a simultaneous chess exhibition on the mall November 8 and November 9. The chess exhibition sponsored by the Janesville Chess Association is open and free to the public.
Arthur Bisguier has been active in tournament play since the 1940s when he twice reigned as National Junior Champion and several times as the Manhattan Chess Club champion. Since that time he's played virtually every leading grandmaster in the world.
In 1950 Arthur Bisguier won the US Open for chess a feat he was to tie or master four more times during the decade. In 1954 he won the Challenger's Tournament in Philadelphia qualifying him for the US Championship which he won later in the year.
The International Chess Grandmaster has participated in two interzonals five Olympiads and team matches against the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. He was awarded the international master title in 1952. He has won every major Swiss event including the Lone-Pine Tournament and the National Open.
Tied for first in the 1979 Open winner of the 1979 Grand Prix and third in the 1980 U.S. Open. the Grandmaster has co-authored “American Chess Masters from Morphy to Fischer” and hosted his own television show.
Match wits with the Grandmaster chessman Arthur Bisguier during a simultaneous - chess exhibition at East Towne Mall November 8 and November 9.

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November 06 1980

Green Bay Press-Gazette, Green Bay, Wisconsin, Thursday, November 06, 1980

An aerial view shows a checkboard “square” of competitors as Green Bay chess club members and chess enthusiasts take on U.S. Chess Federation Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier, who is pictured inside the square at the lower right.
Dixie Wise, 2014 August St., ponders a way to beat the grandmaster during 23-way chess competition.

Arthur Bisguier, international chess grandmaster, took on 22 challengers at a time Wednesday at Port Plaza Mall. Here Bisguier makes a move. Press-Gazette photos by Russ Kriwanek

Grandmaster checkmates 49
By PAUL WEI Of the Press-Gazette
The Grandmaster was at work.
For four hours Wednesday, Arthur Bisguier, international chess grandmaster, methodically circled the four tables surrounding him in the center of the Port Plaza Mall.
On the other side of the tables sat as many as 22 area chess challengers at one time, plotting for a chance to checkmate the grandmaster.
The 51-year-old Bisguier, in deep concentration, stopped at each board to make quick but calculated moves.
In displaying his world class form, Bisguier, grandmaster of the U.S. Chess Federation, played 53 non-stop games in less than four hours, checkmating 49 while losing two and tying two.
His losses and stalemates were at the hands of some tough area competition. John Falhstrom, 900 S. Quincy St., and Allen Ward, Route 2, Kewaunee, share the honor of defeating the grandmaster while two Green Bay players, Robert Meyers, Route 1, and Doug Younkle, 515 Crooks St., earned hard-fought stalemates.
Falhstrom is a past-president of the Green Bay Chess Club and organizer of the exhibition which was sponsored by the club and the Janesville Chess Association.
“I would say about a dozen or so good area chess club players came to play in the exhibition,” Falhstrom said. “And many of them play chess all the time.”
The experienced Bisguier, however, is accustomed to stiff competition. He has played in simultaneous exhibitions where as many as 100 players competed against him at a time.
Bisguier partakes in about 60 or so “simuls” a year and makes promotional tours periodically as part of his job as grandmaster of the U.S. Chess Federation. The federation has more than 50,000 members.
“I've been playing chess for 46 years,” Bisguier said. “And it has always been a major part of my life.”
Bisguier currently resides in Rock Hill, N.Y., 90 miles west of New York City.
“I guess you can say I am a product of the New York City school area which is where I grew up and where I learned how to play chess,” Bisguier said.
Although Bisguier won $3,000 by capturing the first American Grand Prix tour in 1979, he has been cutting down on competing in professional tournaments, especially on the international level.
“With my job at the chess federation, I really don't have that much time to practice, more or less to compete,” he said.
Along with his promotional work as grandmaster, Bisguier assists in putting together the federation's monthly magazine.
Bisguier gained his distinguished international grandmaster standing in 1957 at the age of 24. There are currently about 200 grandmasters in the world and about 12 in the U.S.
As a teen-ager, Bisguier twice captured the national junior championship and he won the national college championship while attending New York City College.
Although the veteran grandmaster has cut down on his playing time since his teen-age days, it is obvious he still enjoys playing chess, whether it be a nice, leisurely game with a friend, or 53 matches in less than four hours.

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1974

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March 08 1974

The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pennsylvania, March 08 1974

CHESS MASTER—The international grandmaster of chess Arthur Bisguier plays chess with 41 people simultaneously in Bucknell University's Larison Hall, Lewisburg. The master lost three games and one game was determined a draw. One of the losses was apparently with three fraternity brothers who “ganged up on him.” (Daily Item—Chris Evans)

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Arthur Bernard Bisguier, 1948

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July 23 1948

The Knoxville Journal, Knoxville, Tennessee, Friday, July 23, 1948

Bisguier Holds Chess Lead
OAK RIDGE July 22—Arthur Bisguier gained another point here today to lead the Junior United States Chess Championship Tourney with seven points and one draw out of eight possibilities.
George Krauss of Jamaica, L. I., had 6½ points; six points, as did J B Cross of Los Angeles, each were held by Hans Berliner, Washington D.C., K.R. Smith, Dallas, Frank Anderson of Canada. George Miller of Cleveland Ohio, held 5½, while five point each were held by Gerry Sullivan of Knoxville, Elliott Hurst of Chicago, P. Lee Cronu of Detroit, John Regan of St Louis, J Gilbert of Dallas, L. Pascatl of Chicago. The final session will end Saturday with presentation of prizes at about 2 p.m.

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