Sep-06-13 | | parisattack: I am guessing this is Robert ('Bob') O'Donnell of Boulder, CO. Nice kid, always polite and friendly; bright, a bit quiet and kept mostly to himself at college. His coach Eugene Salome hailed him as the next Bobby Fischer when O'Donnell was in high school. Perhaps not quite - but good enough to beat me in the final round of the state junior championships. My excuse was that I had learned the game not quite 12 months earlier. |
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Sep-07-13 | | DoctorD: A Robert E O'Donnell was also Champion of Colorado in 1973: http://www.colorado-chess.com/Histo... Same person? If so, that would place him in the class of individuals who have won championships of multiple states. |
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Sep-07-13
 | | Phony Benoni: <parisattack> <DoctorD> Here's Robert O'Donnell in 1984: http://206.130.103.122/interim/maga... That was the year he was probably most active in Michigan, and he simply blew everyone away while pumping his rating over 2300. My impression was a quiet person and player. Perhaps he lacked not so much confidence as the arrogance so common in the best players. If you have a minute to look, you might also enjoy the amusing picture(s) of Leon Stolzenberg on page 14. |
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Sep-07-13 | | parisattack: Yes, same Bob <Phony Benoni> My recollection was his positional understanding was extremely high but perhaps his calculation/visualization was not quite to that level. Bob and my best pal Moon had a bit of a rivalry at the college chess club. My recollection is that Moon pretty much had his number at 5-minute. I think he won a national tourney mid-seventies and was on the cover of Chess Life, also? He seems to have come into his own after I became inactive in 1973. |
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Sep-07-13 | | parisattack: <DoctorD: A Robert E O'Donnell was also Champion of Colorado in 1973:
http://www.colorado-chess.com/Histo...
Same person? If so, that would place him in the class of individuals who have won championships of multiple states.> Not sure how he wound up in Michigan. He was a Physics major but I believe changed to something else his junior year. |
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Sep-07-13
 | | Phony Benoni: <parisattack> Robert E O'Donnell is the same guy: http://www.uschess.org/msa/MbrDtlTn... Note the occasional trip to Colorado in his tournament listings. Clearly the 1980s were h is best decade. The national tournament you're thinking of may be the US Amateur that he won it in 1980. http://archive.uschess.org/CL_2006_...
He settled in the Ann Arbor area, so there may be some connection to the University of Michigan. In my active days, Ann Arbor wss consistently one of the strongest chess centers in Michigan, though the best players were generally adults rather than students. |
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Sep-07-13 | | parisattack: Hi <Phony Benoni> - Yup, that's him and the tourney I had in mind; thanks. I know he told me his new major - but have forgotten. No idea his career. He was actually something of a loner tho as mentioned, always friendly and willing to engage a bit. Had some interesting body language. When surprised he'd throw up his arms slowly in sort of a faux startle. Eugene Salome was very big on him early on. I later became great friends with Eugene - quite a renaissance man! A bit about him on the Robert Wendling page. |
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Sep-10-13
 | | cwcarlson: O'Donnell won the 1973 Denver Open with a perfect 5-0, not the Colorado Open, so he wasn't champion of CO that year. I played him in my first rated game, the first round of the 1969 Denver Open (won by Jude Acers, 7-0). We played seven times from 1969-76 and each won three. He was White all but once. Good player, nice guy, solid 2100 and sometimes 2200. In 1968 (?) when he was 1600 he upset master NJ master Marvin Sills. He could easily have been 2300. |
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Sep-10-13 | | parisattack: <cwcarlson> If you have records of any of your games against the Colorado 'oldtimers' it would be great to see them uploaded here - Koehler, Wendling, Traibush, Petters, Naylin. I had two wins against Traibush but threw out all my games when I moved to Hawaii in 1979. I do still have a handwritten article Wendling did on the Ponziani. I've never before-or-since seen such tiny handwriting! I also have a large box of 'Bookford's' Syzygy books from the 70s-80s-90s. |
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