AAugust 04 1958
Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Monday, August 04, 1958
150 to Open National Chess Tournament at Rochester
Special to the Minneapolis Tribune
Rochester, Minn.—Some 150 chess players from 40 states and several foreign countries will open the 59th annual United States Open Chess championship tournament here today.
The tournament, a major event of Minnesota's Centennial sports program, will begin at 7 p.m. when Rochester Mayor Alex P. Smetka makes the first move.
Games will be played from 7 p.m. to midnight daily through Aug. 14 in the cafeteria at International Business Machines' new eight-million-dollar plant.
For the first time in tournament history, a battery of IBM machines will be used to rank the players before each evening's round.
Ranking according to daily scores—formerly a 20-manhour task—is expected to be completed in 20 minutes.
The final round will be at 2 p.m. Aug. 15 Winner will be announced the following day at an 11:45 a.m. luncheon.
Aug. 16 there will be a speed tournament at 8:30 a.m. in which moves must be made within 10 seconds. Winner will be declared United States Open Lightning champ.
Among 20 Minnesotans who have registered for the tournament are Curt Brasket, 25, 520 SE Washington St., 1957 state chess champion.
George Barnes, 55, Minneapolis, 14 times state champion, and Dr. Giles A. Koelsche, 50, Rochester, five times state champion, also are scheduled to play.
George Koltanowski, San Francisco, Calif., international chess master, will direct the tournament.
