February 24 1952
El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas, Sunday, February 24, 1952
Chess players on both sides of the Rio Grande are practicing for the first international Global Chess tournament opening Wednesday in Juarez. Grouped around the four-handed board, in a recent practice session held at Texas Western College, are: (seated, left to right) Col. V. M. Kimm, former West Point champion; Leon Apteckar, inventor of the game; Alfred Coles, an outstanding national chess tournament player, and Dr. E. T. Ruff of TWC. Standing, J. G. Diaz, Jack Galicia and Antonio Ruiz Ruida.
Global Chess Tournament To Be Conducted In Juarez
The first International Global Chess tournament using the four-man game invented by Leon Apteckar of El Paso, will open Wednesday in the Club de Ajedrez in Juarez.
Outstanding players from both sides of the border have signed up for the tournament, including Antonio Ruiz Rueda, a top-ranking Mexican chess player, and Col. Virgil M. Kimm, former chess champion of West Point and later, of Hawaii.
Others taking part in the tournament will be El Paso's Alfred Coles, one of the nation's top chess players; Jose G. Diaz, Jack Galicia, Genaro Saldivar and Sosthenes Pacheco.
On both sides of the river, players have been practicing for the competition.
CHALLENGE MATCHES
Players on both sides of the river have been practicing for the tournament, with challenge matches being held as preliminaries.
Global Chess, Apteckar hopes, is the answer to the objection that ordinary chess is a two-man game that bars sociable foursomes. The inventor, who worked out the details of the game while recovering from a near-fatal accident, fondly hopes that some day his Global Chess will shoulder its way into the parlor as a competitor against bridge or canasta.
Colonel Kimm is one of the strongest backers of the game.
WOMEN CAN JOIN
“Chess has always been a man's game and it generally was unfair to pit man against woman,” the colonel said. “The four-handed game changes this situation. Women now can share in a game that has made chess a parlor game to be played by couples. The four-handed game also is a great leveler of skills. Under the rules, partners cannot confer, so it would, be futile for a brilliant player to plan a complicated game unless experienced partners can figure out what he is trying to do. The game opens a greater field for enjoyment of the game on equal levels of skill. At least, chess has become a game that husband and wife can enjoy together on equal terms.”
The game has gained wide publicity below the border, where it has spread more rapidly than in the U.S.
Apteckar has found, from recent matches, that his chess game has another advantage over the conventional form.
“I thought the game would eliminate the kibitzers,” he said, “but it's really an improvement for the kibitzer. He can sit between players and kibitz either two hands at a time—or all four.”
Apteckar is a statistician for El Paso Natural Gas Co.
