Allentown Center City
Chess Club

Historical Allentown Chess

Welcome to ACCCC's Historical Games Page. Many thanks to Neil Brennen (the PSCF Historian) for providing the following game scores. UseNet posts have been left in tact, editorial corrections notwithstanding.

A Brief History of Chess in Allentown

(UseNet Post by Neil Brennen)The original Allentown Chess Club was founded in 1920, according to Paul Sherr, writing in a early 1970's issue of Overboard Chess Magazine. Of course chess was played in the Lehigh Valley before the club was founded. Organized chess can be traced back to 1888 in the Lehigh valley, and likely well before then too. One of the founding members of ACC was correspondence player Ludwig Otto Hesse, champion of Bethlehem from 1888-1918, according to contemporary newspaper reports. In the 1930's ACC was meeting in the Rialto, and meetings were very well attended. The club quickly drew in strength, lead by Hermann Hesse, son of Ludwig Otto. Hesse's winning the Pennsylvania Championship in 1934, coinciding with the move of a strong Pittsburgh area player, Martin Simsak, to the area, seem to have been the catalyst. In addition to Simsak and Hesse, a third strong player, Thomas Gutekunst, emerged as well. This helped propel Allentown/Bethlehem to the position of third strongest chess center in PA, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In the 1940's the club moved to the YMCA in Allentown. Growth continued despite the war. In the 1950's ACC had a new generation of players emerge, lead by Bruce Alberston, now a senior master. In the 1960's the club moved a number of times, eventually finding a home at PSU's branch campus (UseNet Post by Eric Johnson)PSU branch campus then dissolved in the early 1990s. They dissolved their treasury, library, and ceased functioning. A Bethlehem-based club (Lehigh Valley Chess Club) was operating out of a local hospital cafeteria on Friday nights run by a nice fellow named Louie Sigmund. Louie's health (and his wife's health) deteriorated, and he stopped attending. Eric C. Johnson took up the organizing slack and ran the hospital site from 1990-94. The "Allentown" club folks started to play at the hospital site. Simultaneously (or rather, parallel in 1993) a small group started running events at the church site on Saturdays. The group stayed small until Eric Johnson contacted the organizer Tom Hefflefinger, and suggested rated quads. In early 1994...the small Allentown group started running TLAs for the Allentown-based church club (which is the current "Allentown" Center City Chess Club)..and attendance went from 6 guys playing in a small room to 20-30 players in quads. Mr. Hefflefinger was delighted. So there were two groups in 1994. The hospital group faded down to nothing in about a year's time, despite the free site (due to lack of mailings/promotions), and the original Allentown/PSU campus folks moved to a different church in Allentown, and continued to run a casual non-rated blitz round robin oriented club on Friday nights. Both the Friday night club and the Church club are still in existence today.

Martin A. Simsak, Former Lehigh Valley Champion, Passes at 92 (courtesy of The Morning Call, March 10, 2003) Martin Andrew Simsak, 92, of Bethlehem, died March 7 in St. Luke's Hospital, Fountain Hill. He was married to Rose D. (Prokop) Simsak for 63 years. A member of the Fraternal Order of Police, Bethlehem, he joined the Bethlehem Police Department in 1946, was promoted to training sergeant and served as assistant public safety director before retiring in 1968. Previously, he was a regional sales manager for Home Soap Co., Pittsburgh, 1933-44, and an employee of Westinghouse Electric, Pittsburgh, and National Carbon Co., Cleveland, Ohio. After retiring, he worked for the Pennsylvania State Liquor Control Board for seven years. Born in Munhall, Allegheny County, he was a son of the late George and Anna (Blanar) Simsak. He was a member and former councilman, deacon, greeter and Sunday school teacher of Salem Lutheran Church, Bethlehem. He also was involved in the church's Civil War Program and was a member of its Lunch Bunch and Men of Salem. He was a Navy veteran of World War II, serving as a fire controlman and gun captain on the US Wileman in the South Pacific. He received two Bronze Stars for his participation in the invasions of Saipan and Leyte. A master chess player, he won the Allentown City Championship eight times, the Lehigh Valley Open Championship four times and the Lehigh Valley Speed Championship three times. He placed second in 1943 and third in 1961 in the Pennsylvania State Championship and won the Pennsylvania State Speed Championship in 1961. His chess career was chronicled in articles in Chess Life magazine, Quarterly for Chess History, and in The Morning Call. Survivors: Wife; son Martin R. of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; daughter, Millicent A. Tice of Bethlehem; five grandchildren, a great-grandson. Note: Allentown chess players who have games involving Martin Simsak (wins, draws, or losses --- games of any kind) are encouraged to submit them here as part of a chess "memorial" page.

Historic Allentown Games to be posted soon...

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