| Aug-28-09 | | Benzol: Dr Peter Lapiken? |
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Jul-31-10
 | | GrahamClayton: <Benzol>Dr Peter Lapiken? <Benzol>,
Yes. A biography can be found on page 28 of the following edition of the California Chess Journal: http://www.calchess.org/journal/200... |
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Jul-31-10
 | | Tabanus: Which says,
Peter Lapiken (1905-1983) by IM John Donaldson
Older Mechanics’ members and those that played in US Opens in the 1950s and 60s will remember
Dr. Peter Lapiken, the strongest player ever to live in Montana. Perhaps best known
for his performance at the US open in Long Beach in 1955 where he narrowly missed beating
Sammy Reshevsky (it ended in a draw) and also drew with the event’s winner GM Nicholas Rossolimo,
Lapiken was a many of many talents. Fluent in Russian, Chinese, French and English
Lapiken received a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in Russian studies. A master
at bridge as well as chess, Lapiken was also a concert level classical violinist who knew an
amazing number of scores by heart. Often at social occasions Lapiken was the life of the party
having in his memory many poems, witty lyrics, etc
Born in Riga the son of a Russian Orthodox priest, Lapiken’s family moved East around 1916,
eventually settling in Harbin. He lived in this refuge for White Russians until 1935 when the
Japanese invaded. He then moved to Shanghai before coming to the United States in 1939.
Based in Seattle for a short while he managed to find time to play in the Washington State
Championship. Soon after he went south to begin his studies at UC Berkeley and finished third
in the 1940 Mechanics’ Institute Championship. During the Second World War he served in the
US military in intelligence and afterwards taught foreign languages to armed forces personnel.
Lapiken returned to California in the early 1950s and finished his PhD. He was on the faculty of
USCA for several years before taking a position at the University of Montana which he held until
his retirement. The last ten years of his life were spent in San Francisco and he would often
drop in at the Mechanics’ Chess Room. |
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| Apr-16-11 | | Wyatt Gwyon: Nice bio. It's too bad there aren't more games of his available. |
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Jul-05-11
 | | perfidious: Lapiken was truly a Renaissance man, and it's unfortunate that he's known to posterity only for his crushing defeat by Fischer. On another site, I've discovered eighteen more games credited to Lapiken: http://www.365chess.com/search_resu... |
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Nov-12-11
 | | Phony Benoni: Some are on the way, including a draw with Reshevsky from the 1955 US Open. |
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Dec-05-11
| | Phony Benoni: One of the pleasures of this US Open project is coming across a number of Masters who were worthy players without ever making the top rank, and often are hardly remembered except for a crushing loss of some sort. Dr. Lapiken is the perfect example of this. In the above selection from the 1955 US Open, you might glance at his draws with co-winners Rossolimo and Reshevsky. He also had some more losses to good players, but the guy was hardly a slouch. |
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| Dec-01-14 | | zanzibar: What year did he get his PhD? |
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| Dec-01-14 | | Alien Math: <During the war
, Lapiken eventually
ended up in Army Intelligence where he
worked as a translator
. He returned to
Berkeley and completed his PhD in
Slavic languages in 1949> http://www.nwchess.com/articles/peo... |
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| Dec-01-14 | | zanzibar: Thanks <Alien>, maybe this date can be used in the bio! |
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| Dec-01-14 | | zanzibar: Another bio can be found here:
http://tartajubow.blogspot.com/2014... <After retiring, Lapiken spent the last ten years of his life in San Francisco, often showing up at the Mechanics’ Chess Club. Lapiken was a strong player with excellent theoretical understanding but often suffered from a lack of consistency. He was frequently known to relax too soon when it looked like he was winning and it cost him many points. He died August 14, 1983, in San Francisco.> The Donaldson bio (ref'ed by GrahamClayton above) seemed to suggest he got his PhD in the 1950's. Both NWChess and Tartajubow put it in 1949. |
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Aug-28-16
 | | Joshka: In 1953 one of his games wins a prize, and it's not even in the archive. |
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Jun-23-23
 | | FSR: Robert James Fischer routed Lapiken at the 57th US Open. Fischer vs P Lapiken, 1956. It took 12 years, but Lapiken got his revenge against the Fischer family at the 69th US Open, taking down James (Jim) Fischer. J Fisher vs P Lapiken, 1968. |
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Kibitzing
