AAdditional Games
- Game, Jim O'Keefe vs. Scheffer, New England Amateur Chess Championship, 1959.
English High Honor Student Looms as 'Phenom' In Chess 14 May 1959, Thu The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Photo Caption: YOUR MOVE.
Jimmy O'Keefe of Charlestown and English High is quick around second base, in the classroom and at the chess board.
2d Baseman O'Keefe Also Good at DP
English High Honor Student Looms as 'Phenom' In Chess By Art Ballou
The Charlestown Warriors' second baseman has the knack of making the right moves. Good reason! Jimmy O'Keefe, 18-year-old English High senior and high honor student, is one cf the most promising young chess players in the country. Comrade Botvinnik, regard yourself as forewarned.
Young Mr. O'Keefe, who has been playing chess only slightly more than three years,is only l/1000th of a point from becoming Master O'Keefe a chess master, that is. His achievement of that honor is inevitable.
All “A” student O'Keefe is looked upon with some degree of awe by his English classmates, not only because of his scholastic prowess but because of the impression that he has a victory over the great Sam Reshevsky to his credit.
O'Keefe is swift to clarify the conditions under which that victory was scored.
“Reshevsky was playing a simultaneous exhibition match against 50 or 60 of us throughout the country. He would trounce me in a man-to-man match across the board.”
“That may not always be the case, interposed Matthew Capano, coach of the English High team. “O'Keefe is improving all the time. His game is still growing. His ideas are not fixed.”
And Reshevsky?
“Oh, Reshevsky's game can't be expected to change much,” Mr. Capano said. “He was a child prodigy and his game hasn't altered a great deal since he was 16 or 17.”
“But he's a tremendous fighter,” O'Keefe said, “and a stubborn player.”
O'Keefe quickly explained that being a “stubborn player” is good, often can help one defeat an opponent, who is otherwise superior, but lacks patience.
Why does a 15-year-old boy become obsessed with the game of chess?
“It happened to me quite by accident,” O'Keefe said. “My mother just happened to bring a chess set home from intown. I didn't know a thing about the game, but the same day an insurance man happened to be visiting our house and knew how to play. He gave me some pointers and I've been an addict ever since.”
There are more chess addicts around than one realizes. Messrs. Capano and O'Keefe point out—but a far cry from the 10,000,000 who reportedly play in Russia.
The English High chess team, featuring O'Keefe, won the Greater Boston Interscholastic title in 1958, finished second this year. O'Keefe also plays chess for the Boylston Chess Club in the Metropolitan League. The Boylstons are one of the youngest teams in the league, but are a respectable fourth in the Class A League.
“O'Keefe has tremendous potential,” Mr. Capano said. “There's no cockiness nor over-confidence to his game, yet there is aggressiveness and flexibility. He knows when to attack, when to make his opponent play his kind of game.”
O'Keefe is swift to point out that much of his success is a result of guidance by Mr. Capano, who long has held the “master” ranking O'Keefe is seeking.
