Picture by Cranston Chess – John Curdo (dark shirt) vs GM Ivanov
FIDE Master John Curdo (was rated over 2500 at his peak) was born in November 14, 1931 in Lynn, Massachusetts. He is about to achieve a milestone in chess which will be incredibly hard to duplicate. Extra bonus trivia: What incredible chess milestone is he about to achieve?
Unfortunately, he does not get the credit or exposure that he deserves. I would like to change that and pay a tribute to him.
For those of you who know him or have played him, what can you say about him?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
What milestone?
John Curdo is one of the nicest chessplayers anyone could ever meet, either at the board or away.
I have an autographed copy of his book, bought almost 20 years ago.
Met him once at the former Framingham Chess Club. Managed a draw against his expected leningrad Dutch. Was very lucky.
For months afterwards he would drop by my (much lower) board at tournaments to check out my games and say hi.
I assume he is approaching a total number of games record. I think his records for State Championships is unapproachable.
Ken
Three things come to mind about John (other than the fact that he is a New England chess legend):
(1) He has won hundreds of miniatures over the years and publishes them periodically in a compilation entitled “Chess Caviar”. This gives him a great psychological advantage over players like me, who worry that any miscalculation will be summarily punished and published in his next edition.
(2) He is famous in New England for the saying “Two bishops is money in the bank.”
(3) I have seen him beat a lot of extremely strong players and lose to a number of very weak players over the years. In all cases, he remains very even-tempered. To his credit, he has never been one to complain about his losses or gloat about his wins.
I believe the milestone would be 750 tournament wins – either clear or shared 1st place. I suspect that is a world record!
Like the last blogger said, John Curdo himself knows exactly how many tournaments he’s won outright or shared 1st. It’s well over 700 and I doubt many can claim such a feat. I was lucky enough to play him one.
Actually the number is 800 tournament wins (either tied or first place), including 4 U.S. Senior Championships!! He was VERY close to that when I interviewed him back in August 2007.
Humble, a true gentleman, he has a GREAT sense of humor which he doesn’t often reveal. He is/was self-taught and is truely an amazing success story!
I think he is mentionned in one of James Rizzitano’s books of games. Taking him on was one of the “rites of passage” for all of the young hotshot players in New England over the past many decades.
I wonder are there other players like him (must be) in Russia, England, Germany, Hungary, etc.? Very strong masters who never got the chance to play outside of their immediate region but who were local legends?
I have met John a few times. I am rated below 1400. At first I met him and got invited to go to his house. There he gave me advice on learning chess. I had lots of books and he showed me what he used. I was shocked. He had one or two of the Encyclopedia books. that was about it on openings. And he stressed I work on tactics and endgames and not waste money on opening books.
Well of course I did not really take his advice. But when I went to a tournament he would always talk so nice to me and give me some of his time. All the other high level people would shun me as a low rated player.
John is a saint. A really good man. He lived a very simple life in his home. I am very impressed by John and anyone who could live his life is a saint also.
I remember him breaking 500 wins and 600 and 700 wins. Amazing that he is now up to 800 wins.
My only hurt is to see his rating drop a bit in his older age. I know he just plays for his love of the game.
He told me to sit down with an Encyclopedia of opening and work out the moves on my own. This was well before computer programs were available.
today I like to use a computer to work on my openings. And most importantly I have become comfortable with my chess bility. I no long have to strive to get better. I can simply enjoy the game today.
I remember John telling me that money was tight for him. It was hard because it cost to play chess all the time. And he needed to win once in a while to pay back some of the expenses so he could play again. John never really went for the so called big money tournaments. He was happy with the weekend swisses with the regular guys. I think he just wanted to play chess. The money never mattered really. He was just as happy to fight all weekend for $50 top prize.
I bet he would have enjoyed losing to me to see the joy in my face at winning. John is a softie. He likes people. He has a heart of gold. John is the Best of the Best.
He told me to learn to play e4e5 as white and black. I have done that. He was right. I learned to play better.
Susan,
I hope you meet John some day. He is such a nice preson. You will like him.
To me John is a life time GrandMaster. Always was and always will be a GrandMaster to me.
I started playing chess in Massachusetts back in 1972. He probably won the open section of almsot every tournament back then. I’m trying to recall if I ever played in him in an actual tournament. I played him a few times in simuls when he came up to Burlington, Vermont. I didn’t win or draw any of those simul games.
I don’t get up to New England to play much any more, but when I do he always says hello to me, and still remembers who I am.
One of the highlights of my class B chess career was getting to board 3 in the open section of one of our club’s monthly tournaments, and sitting next to John and IM Foygel. (see http://globularchess.blogspot.com/2006/04/playing-with-big-guns.html for my blog post with photo!).
In honor of Curdo, I played Bird’s openeing (1. f4) which turned into a Lenningrad Dutch reversed; a line John plays from time to time. I ended up winning (!) and asking him later what he thought of my opening. His reply…
“I thought it sucked.”
I never laughed so hard.
-Matt
John Curdo is a private man who doesn’t bluster or show off, he quietly arrives at each tournament, opens his briefcase, fills out some scoresheets and places himself at board one to promptly trounce all patzers..I always look for John’s board whenever I go to a tournament, his games are always fascinating!
I was reminiscing about my long-ago chess career while reading of Bobby Fischer’s passing and it reminded me of one of my greatest chess heroes and mentors: John Curdo.
I had the pleasure of having John as a guest in my parents’ home, as an occasional teacher and coach and as an opponent. In 1977 he generously published a victory of mine in the Boston Globe.
There has never been a greater gentleman at the board, a better role model to young players, nor a tougher weekend Swiss opponent for me the John Curdo. Glad to hear he’s still playing.
I ‘ve played john i6 times,often in the last round to determine first place.He came in first.I met him in 1967 in Portland Maine.He truely is a most kind person.Thank you John for all the fun in our games.Roger Morin
These tributes to John Curdo are all great and true, but it is a disappointment to see that this blog is fixed. One person posted a very nice tribute to Curdo but which also contained a mild and reasonable criticism of Curdo’s chess philosophy.
But it has been deleted, as this one most likely will be too.
This does no credit to Susan Polgar
Yes John Curdo is a VERY nice man, but I think he gives damaging advice to weaker players. He once urged me to avoid playing against stronger players, saying ‘you have to beat the guys around your rating and below’ first. This goes way beyond chess and violates all the laws of learning and improving at anything. I’m not sure why he would offer such weird advice; perhaps it was his way of defending against the fact that he avoid the really big tournaments for most of his career. Why isn’t he a GM with all that talent? I think he has more talent than Walter Browne and many other players — but people like Browne played in all the strongest tournaments starting at age 13 as I recall and Browne soon became a GM and world championship contender. Very very strange…
Have never played John Curdo in a rated game–much too low-rated. I did have the pleasure of having him as a chess teacher. This morphed into a friendship/ He is a fine man, in every sense of the word–to me, the epitome of a gentleman, at the board and off. The world of chess, and the world in general, would be a nicer place with more like him in it.
People like Curdo are rare and he is a nice guy as well as a strong chess player. We have all met high-rated plyers who were snobs who didn’t want to interact with the hoi polloi. John Curdo isn’t one of those kind.
I have played John around ten times, having won once and achieving a “grandmaster draw” once (to split the top prizes). He has a great sense of humor on and off the board, and as everyone has pointed out is the epitomy of the Gentleman Chessplayer. When I found a 1948 annual of Chess Review with one of the first articles about him with a photo, he very kindly signed the photo for me, as well as one of his books. When I do play in Mass. I always look forward to greeting him.
Susan, I’m so glad to stumble on your blog posting about John Curdo. He’s an old friend of mine, though we haven’t crossed paths in many years. I used to run tournaments at the Billerica Chess Club, and since he lived in town, he routinely dropped by to scoop up his prize money. Once he tied for first place with Joel Johnson, and I announced that since there wasn’t a clear winner, the Club was keeping the money. Poor John’s jaw dropped—he wanted his prize money—and then I told them I was just kidding.
When he was looking for help putting together what everyone was calling “the Curdo book,” I volunteered to do it. Never more than a Class B player myself, I had the skills needed to put his manuscript together from John’s stacks and stacks of handwritten notes and game scores. I can’t say anymore for sure, but I think I was the one who suggested “Forty Years at the Top” as his title. John was delighted, and we drove together to a local photographer to have his portrait taken. He brought along a whiskey bottle and offered me a celebratory swig while I was driving. I politely declined, and he agreed that maybe the drinking could wait a while.
All of this was good for me as well, as our mutual friend Harry Lyman insisted on paying me generously for my work. I was an aspiring writer, and the credit was important to me. (Needless to say, my contribution did not extend to analysis—that was out of my depth and I knew it.)
I wish I could remember the name of the printer, who was out in western Massachusetts, but he did a beautiful job for us. Anyway, the book sold hundreds of copies by word of mouth.
John and I didn’t become close friends, but friends we were. Eventually I gave up chess in search of something I could be good at, but I’ll never forget John. He is a fine human being, and I hope he’s still doing well.
Bob Sanchez
http://bobsanchez1.blogspot.com
I played Curdo for the first time almost 40 years ago when I was a teen and he was on one of his jaunts to Maine tournaments. That game may have been one of my best ones I had against him, sacrificed a piece for an attack but sadly did not have the wherewithal to keep up the pressure. He was cool about it, didn’t even bother him. He’d seen it all before… Walked his king towards the center the attack petered out and …
Eventually I moved on to a family and a “real” job as I didn’t quite make enough of my junior years in chess. Moved down to Rhode Island and then eventually to Mass, where I started playing again in the 80’s and 90’s and I’d bump into him or play him at tournaments and he’d never fail to ask “how’s your dad?”. My dad used to take me to the tournaments back in the 1970’s and was just a 1200 player, but I gather they talked at tounaments and he remembered it.
Later, in the 1990’s, my kids and my ex-wife were watching me play and I had just played way over my head to knock off a high master, which gave me the privilege of playing against John in the last round I believe. I lost, but it made an impression on my kids. So years later my son was working at a Cumberland Farms in Auburn and says “Hey aren’t you John Curdo?” He didn’t know my son and could not figure out who would have recognized him. They talked and he realized the relationship and goes “Oh your dad, a good player”. Thanks John.
I have really never met anyone as devoted to this game as much as he has been, that is, who had not hit the absolute heights and really made a living at it.
I once asked him “Why didn’t he go for the IM title”. He said he’d rather be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in a big pond. I guess he knew his limitations, but still I wonder at his height what he could have done.
Congratulations on a long and illustrious career.
-Mike-
“He said he’d rather be a big fish in a small pond, than a small fish in a big pond.”
Is this really an attitude worthy of praise?? By that logic he should have played only in elementary school tournaments; then he’d have 5,000 tourney victories instead of 500
Curdo games speak/shout for themselves..CURDO-GM ROBERY BYRNE . Jude Acers/ New Orleans