A Brief History of Arlington Chess Club
| Five Decades of Chess in Arlington
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Arlington Chess Club (ACC) was founded in 1954 and is currently the longest
continuously meeting club in the D.C. area. When it began, that honor belonged to the
Washington Chess Divan, which had its origins in the late 19th or early 20th century. The
Divan closed for good in the early 1980's, leaving ACC to carry on the chess tradition of
the Washington metropolitan area. Arlington Chess Club is not only one of the largest
clubs in the area and the country, has the distinction of having possibly the longest
continuing weekly ladder tournament in the U.S. With tonight's ladder (July 9,1999--ma.)
that streak has reached 2080!.
Arlington Chess Club has been associated with the D.C. Chess League since its creation in
the 1950's. It has won more league honors than any other club. More recently, the club has
had regular action, quick and WBCA Blitz events to broaden the scope of chess activities
available to its members.
Within the past ten years, ACC teams in the D.C. Chess League have won numerous team
championships and has close to 400 players on its expanded ladder roster. We have actively
supported chess in the school system and have had several recent juniors, Charles
and Geoff Gelman and Matthew Morgan, highly ranked
within the national age group lists.
The club has also produced more than its fair share of Virginia State Champions, including
Macon Shibut, Bill Mason, Walter Morris, Geoff McKenna, and Irvin
Sigmund.
When I moved from Texas to Arlington in 1959, the President and guiding force of the club
was Col. John D. Mattheson. He was active in Virginia Chess of the mid
1930's and was State Champion in 1936. He was a founder of the Armed Forces Championship,
held annually in the D.C. area. He passed away recently and will be greatly missed.
Other significant ACC Presidents include Bob Dudley (now owner and editor
of Chess Enterprises, Inc.), Jules Zell (known for his enthusiastic
support of chess at all levels), and that most persistent of Presidents, yours truly!
During Mattheson's reign, the strongest player in the club was Columbia University
educated psychologist Eliot Hearst. He had a plus score against the likes
of Hans Berliner (former World Correspondence Champ) and Herb
Avram, several times Maryland State Champion. Another strong player of this era
was several time Virginia State Champion Irvin Sigmund. Unfortunately,
his career ended early when he died at the age of 45 from Leukemia. Home grown FM Craig
Van Tilbury represented the Virgin Islands in one Olympiad. Other notables
include Fred Turin, David Eisen, and the late Jack Mayer.
The club has sponsored many simultaneous exhibitions by some of the strongest players in
chess history. Some of the players have been GMs Vladimir Epishin, Svetozar
Gligoric, Larry Christiansen, Lev Alburt, Gregory Kaidanov ,John
Fedorowicz and Michael Rohde and IM's Eugene Meyer
and Jack Peters.
This article appeared originally in the May 26, 1995 edition of the Arlington Chess Club News, edited by Mike Atkins. Republished here by permission of the author, John T. Campbell.