AOctober 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.
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.
