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| Apr-13-15 | | RookFile: He could have gotten it back in the day pretty easily, but it just wasn't important to him. I remember seeing his rating north of 2500 on the wall charts. |
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| Oct-26-15 | | zanzibar: Has anybody read Joel Johnson's <Formation Attack Strategies>? In particular, his comments about Curdo (p56)? |
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Oct-27-15
 | | perfidious: <zed> Have not seen it; all I know is that Curdo gave Joel (aka <FearNoEvil> hereabouts) a rough go of it. While Joel was always a superb tactician, that sort of game was Curdo's meat as well. |
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Oct-27-15
 | | chancho: You can read page 56 here:
https://books.google.com.pr/books?i... |
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| Oct-27-15 | | zanzibar: Anybody ever play on Curdo's set?
Or see what's inside the little black book? |
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Oct-27-15
| | perfidious: <zed: Anybody ever play on Curdo's set?> Many times.
<Or see what's inside the little black book?> Never. |
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Oct-27-15
| | chancho: What's inside Curdo's "black book?"
Here, have a look:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012... |
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Oct-27-15
| | perfidious: 'Lively', eh? |
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| Oct-27-15 | | zanzibar: <chancho> good one! <perf> I take it you didn't have any qualms using John's set then? |
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Oct-27-15
| | perfidious: <zed> Never bothered me to use John's stuff; there were some who clearly preferred their gear--a strong player in numerous Montreal blitz events I played in the nineties always invoked the rule of using his clock when Black. |
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| Oct-27-15 | | zanzibar: There's the rule about sharing a pie, one guy cuts it, and the other guy gets first pick of the slice. So Black gets to decide what equipment is used as well as which side the clock goes on? Hmmm...
Some of the various rules that apply for USCF are referenced here, where the case of Black being late to the game is discussed: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/gen... |
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| Apr-18-16 | | RookFile: I played Curdo 5 or 6 times, don't remember a black book. Maybe he didn't need it against me. |
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May-03-16
| | chancho: A link with a 1949 graduation article from the Daily Evening Item. (Lynn, MA)
http://www.lvtiaa.com/Home/daily-it... Check the list of graduates under <awards diplomas> |
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| Dec-10-16 | | Caissanist: Still playing in, and winning, local tournaments in Massachusetts: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain... . His rating seems to be bouncing along in the low 2200s, although mostly staying above the 2200 floor. Curdo certainly seems to be the strongest active player over 80 in this country, I wonder if there are stronger players that old in other countries. |
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| Dec-10-16 | | RookFile: Spassky is going to be 80 next month. |
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| Dec-10-16 | | zanzibar: Curdo is 85 and still grinding out weekend Swiss tournaments. Of course, it represents his spending money, but still... Spassky's last active games on <CG> are from his match with Korchnoi: http://www.chessintranslation.com/2... has some quotes from Spassky about it.
<CG> has a tournament page, with no intro. Thank goodness <CB> keeps its pages active (at least for now): https://en.chessbase.com/post/korch... https://en.chessbase.com/post/korch... The "sleepy bear" did pretty good. |
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Dec-10-16
| | chancho: <Shelby Lyman: I recall with almost a kind of dread a scene from the late ’60s: an early confrontation between man and machine. The human was John Curdo, a gifted and dominant New England chess master. His opponent, MacHack VI, one of the first computer chess-playing programs. It was scary because <<<Curdo seemed frightened>>>> <and isolated in the company of his unusual opponent, apparently a new experience for him.><I don’t remember who won the game, but I do know that Bobby Fischer later beat MacHack with ease.Fischer, always the supreme realist when evaluating chess play, was one of the first to predict that chess machines would outstrip humans. He seemed to accept the notion matter-of-factly, although he was later to decry their influence on the game, concluding incorrectly that they had destroyed “classical” chess. Garry Kasparov, who was terrified as a young world champion at the possibility of computer supremacy, sounded the death knell for his species when he was defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997, claiming afterward – a thesis taken seriously by few – that IBM had cheated during the match. Today, their dramatic confrontation is no more than a moment in the modern prehistory of the game. In a recent interview, Magnus Carlsen explains that computers are no longer adversaries but a useful adjunct to the modern game. Would he play one?
Of course not, he admits. He would lose easily.> |
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| Jan-19-17 | | Caissanist: Methinks that Lyman is dramatizing things a bit here. If he was indeed working as a sysadmin at the time, Curdo would presumably have known a few things about not only chess but computers as well. The first computer tournament win against a human didn't come until 1967, when MacHack (aka Greenblatt (Computer)) beat a 1500 player. The first win over a master was in 1980. |
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| Jan-19-17 | | Granny O Doul: I played Curdo just once, on his set, though I never had the honor of playing Pal Benko on his drug store set, the type with a backgammon board on the reverse side. |
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Mar-23-17
 | | mjmorri: During the mid 80's my college friends and I played in a few local tournaments in Massachusetts. When John showed up, my friends and I remarked how John, wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, looked like a farmer who had just come in from plowing his fields. By the end of the weekend, he had usually won the tournament, quietly leaving presumably to finish his plowing. |
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Mar-23-17
| | perfidious: That about says it all: John was unpretentious in appearance and mild in temperament while always correct in his behaviour at the board. For all that, John was one tough, aggressive opponent who would easily have made IM level at his zenith, had he played much outside the weekend swiss circuit. |
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Sep-02-20
| | chancho: The highest rating Curdo ever had was USCF 2500. Chess Life issues back in the 90's showed the list of USCF ratings and it confirms that 2500 rating. |
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Oct-09-20
 | | FSR: His peak rating was apparently 2516, achieved at the Western Massachusetts Classic in August 1992. http://www.uschess.org/datapage/rat...
http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain... |
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| Oct-15-21 | | Z truth 000000001: CT has this Goichberg--Curdo game, presumably from US Open (Boston 1964). <
[Event "Boston"]
[Site "Boston"]
[Date "1964.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Goichberg, William"]
[Black "Curdo, John"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2530"]
[BlackElo "2270"]
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bc5 4.f4 d6 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.d3 a6 7.f5 Na5 8.Bg5
Bb4 9.O-O Bxc3 10.bxc3 Nxc4 11.dxc4 b6 12.Qe1 Bb7 13.Rd1 Qe7 14.h3 h6
15.Bh4 Qf8 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.Qh4 Ke7 18.Nh2 Qg7 19.Rf3 Rag8 20.Rd2 Qg5
21.Qxg5 fxg5 22.Re2 h5 23.Kf2 a5 24.Ke3 f6 25.Kd3 Ba6 26.Nf1 c6 27.
Ne3 d5 28.exd5 Rd8 29.Kd2 cxd5 30.Nxd5+ Kf7 31.Re4 b5 32.cxb5 Rxd5+
33.Rd3 Rxd3+ 34.cxd3 Bxb5 35.c4 Bd7 36.g4 hxg4 37.hxg4 Rh2+ 38.Re2
Rh4 39.Rg2 Bc6 40.Rg1 Bf3 41.Rb1 Rh2+ 42.Ke3 Bxg4 43.Rb7+ Ke8 44.Ke4
Re2+ 45.Kd5 Bf3+ 0-1
>
Not sure what the primary source was, but this does seem to lend credit to Curdo's participation. |
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Apr-24-22
| | perfidious: An early mention of John is seen in the August 1948 number of <Chess Review> (pp 6-7), the same year in which he scored his first Massachusetts title, aged sixteen: http://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/CL... |
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