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| Apr-05-05 | | Dick Brain: John Grefe started playing tournament chess at 15 and won his first tournament: his first USCF rating was 2131 (!). |
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Apr-05-05
 | | TheAlchemist: Here's Grefe's stunning upset over the great Walter Browne in the US championship 1973 [Event "USA ch"]
[Site "Moranwelz"]
[Date "1973.??.??"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Grefe, John A"]
[Black "Browne, Walter S"]
[TimeControl "-"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B99"]
[WhiteCountry "USA"]
[BlackCountry "USA"]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 h6 9.Bh4 Qc7 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.Be2 Rb8 12.Qg3 Rg8 13.Rhf1 g5 14.fxg5 Ne5 15.Nf3 b5 16.Nxe5 b4 17.Nxf7 bxc3 18.gxf6 Rxg3 19.fxe7 Rg5 20.Bxg5 hxg5 21.Nxd6+ 1-0 |
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Apr-05-05
| | TheAlchemist: Too bad he went a bit downhill from 1973. By the way he was playing, he could have easily been a solid GM. |
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| Apr-06-05 | | pazzed paun: <TheAlchemist> do you really "need" the GM title if you win the U.S. championship the first time you play? |
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Apr-06-05
| | TheAlchemist: <pazzed paun> I guess not :) , but FIDE... you know, the norms etc. :) Grefe has certainly proven his worth in 1973, but as I said, he went a bit downhill from then, I don't know why. A mystery... like a shooting star... coming out of the blue, only to fade away into nothingness... well, almost. God, that was too pathetic :) |
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| Apr-07-05 | | Champ Supernova: This guy is a hippy who has been homeless for a long time. |
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| May-28-05 | | DutchDunce: My one memory of Grefe was when he was playing chess at the Student Union at UC Berkeley, circa '91. He was a grey-haired fellow, mustache, baseball cap. Someone walked up to him and said "How's it going John? Killing everyone?" To which he replied calmly, "Well, so far so good." LOL |
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| May-28-05 | | WMD: Hey, maaaaan, the chess pieces are sooooo heavy. |
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| May-29-05 | | pazzed paun: Is there a way to get some of his chess
articles republished? respecting copyrights and getting him paid for them and all that stuff? He wrote some good st5uff about chessthinking and move selection. |
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May-29-05
 | | Caissanist: He certainly would have been a solid GM had the norm rules been the same then as today. Back in the seventies, you couldn't get a title norm in national championships or open swiss events, which were where he scored his best results. I was amused to see an interview he gave after co-winning the championship (http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/...). Although the top three US players of the day (Fischer, Byrne, Reshevsky) did not participate, he wanted it made clear that there was quite a strong field, since (out of fourteen participants) "five. . . are international grandmasters and one is an international master." Times have changed a bit since then. |
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May-29-05
| | Caissanist: Sad to see that he's homeless, though not really surprising. Does anyone know if he still tries to hustle games in the Bay Area, as mentioned in Dutch's anecdote above? |
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| Sep-10-05 | | pazzed paun: I HAVE seen his name in the U.S. Chess federation quick play list-so maybe he is playing |
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Sep-28-05
| | Caissanist: Grefe is currently listed as an instructor at "Success Chess Schools" in Fremont, California. http://www.successchess.com/Instruc... |
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| Oct-16-05 | | joddle: I recently played John Grefe at Success Chess Schools in a simultaneous exhibition: Derek O'Connor(me)-John Grefe
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 Bd6 6.Bg5 Bc7 7.d6 Ba5 8.e4 0-0 9.e5 Re8 10.f4 h6 11.Bxf6 Qxf6 12.Nh3 Qg6 13.Qf3 Qc2 14.Bc4 Qxb2 15.0-0 Qxc3 16.Bxf7+ Kf8 17.Qh5 Re6 18.Qf5 (I think Ng5 should have won) Rf6 19.exf6 Kxf7 20.fxg7+ Kxg7 21.Qg4+ Kh7 22. Qf5+ Kg7 23.Qg4+ Kh7 24. Qf5+ 1/2-1/2 |
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| Jan-31-06 | | cantdropwontstop: 'Can a cherry picker win the U.S.
Championship?' (John Grefe - C.L. -'73 or '74). |
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| Jan-31-06 | | Fan of Leko: John Grefe gave everything to his Guru and his brain slowly turned to jello. The Guru rides in a Rolls-Royce while his worshippers live in vans or cardboard boxes. |
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| Sep-06-06 | | BIDMONFA: John A Grefe GREFE, John
http://www.bidmonfa.com/grefe_john....
_ |
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| Sep-05-07 | | savagerules: I swear that Grefe guy bears a resemblance to some guy who was always in airports selling flowers and chanting Hare Krishna a couple decades ago. I bet the guru he worshipped is living it up in a mansion with the earnings from the beggars who were his followers. |
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| May-06-08 | | Petrosianic: <I swear that Grefe guy bears a resemblance to some guy who was always in airports selling flowers and chanting Hare Krishna a couple decades ago.> Yeah, Chessgames has a sense of humor, referring to him as "joint US Champion". (Yuck, yuck). But I saw a recent picture of him a few years ago and he seemed to have ditched the hippy look. (Not sure about his devotion to Prem Wawat, formerly Maharajah Ji, who's still in the Transcendental Dissertation business). <cantdropwontstop> <'Can a cherry picker win the U.S. Championship?' (John Grefe - C.L. -'73 or '74).> Actually, that's the article he wrote about the 1977 Championship, his last one. But I think it was apple picker (picky, picky... pun intended). |
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| Apr-25-09 | | Dredge Rivers: Good Grefe! |
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| May-22-09 | | Agent Bouncy: I played Grefe in a 4 round Swiss in Berkeley the year before he won the US championship. I still remember the game very clearly. At the time I was a low A, but improving rapidly. This tournament was my best to that date. I beat my first master in round 2 and a very high expert in round 3, and sat down to play Grefe, with naively high hopes, in the final round. I had white, and he played a Benoni. Altho material was even, my position was in shambles after about 30 moves, and Grefe finished me off with a simple but very artistic mating combination. |
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Mar-01-12
 | | GrahamClayton: Here is a Grefe victory that I have just uploaded to the database: [Event "?"]
[Site "Berkeley, California"]
[Date "1988.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "John A Grefe"]
[Black "Alan Pollard"]
[Result "1-0"]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. e4 b5 6. e5 Nd5 7. Ng5 e6
8. Qh5 Qc7 9. Be2 h6 10. O-O g6 11. Qh3 Nd7 12. a4 N7b6 13. Nge4 a6 14. b3 Nxc3 15. Nf6+ Kd8 16. Qxc3 b4 17. Qf3 c3 18. a5 Nd5 19. Nxd5 1-0 Source: Nick DeFirmian, Modern Chess Openings, 13th Edition, David McKay Company, New York, 1990, p. 434 |
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Mar-16-13
 | | Phony Benoni: In a preview of coming attractions, here is the finish of Evans - Grefe, Lone Pine 1973.
click for larger viewWhite has just blundered with <34.Be7>. Prove it. |
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Mar-16-13
 | | perfidious: <Phony Benoni> From the diagram, 34....Nh3 is a killing shot, exploiting the undefended heavy pieces in conjunction with White's exposed king. Impossible to hold onto everything. |
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Mar-19-13
 | | FSR: Here's J Grefe vs A Pollard, 1988. |
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