As a historian, I am always interested in the history of a chess event…   Looking through my records, I compiled the following:

I have played in the USAT every year since its inception in 1986, with the exception of 1989 (I don’t remember if I was ill, or the event was in another State), and 1993.  In 1986, there was no Southern region until it was rescued by Mack Tyner in 1997.

I played in 13 events, 71 games.  I had 21 partners including Nardandrea (eight times), Schoonmaker (4), Petersen (3), Ardaman, Earley, Redway, Haimes, and Chavira (twice each), Gumienny, Wasserman, Buel, Haskins, Morrison, Tannenbaum, Chase, Hartigan, Chakis, Spedale, Dyson and Hall (once each).  I played in Jacksonville, Orlando, Baton Rouge and Gainesville.  My team won the event three times (1995, 1997 and 2000).  Looking back at the names of my teams, its funny that some reflect the times while others are just chess monikers:

1986 Herb is Our Alternate (following the famous Burger King ad of that year)

1987 Mate in four

1988 Caissa’s Chosen

1990 The Opposition

1991 Dances with Rooks (with apologies to Kevin Costner)

1992 The Collection Agency (Named expressly to combat the multi-winning team, Overdrawn Checks)

1994 Shaq-Mate Magic (Exporting Orlando’s basketball team to Baton Rouge)

1995 Shaq-Mate Magic II (Winner of event in Baton Rouge)

1997 Reti For Fine Moves (I thought it was clever, and we won the event)

1998 Deep Orange and Blue (tribute to the Gators and Kasparov’s silicon opponent)

1999 Three Masters and A Spare (playing on Chuck Hall’s love of bowling)

2000 Psyched! (With Psychiatrist Miles Ardaman joining our team, we were!  Winner of the event)

2001 Psyched 2

Of all these teams, a few memories stick out:

* In 1987′s first round, our unheralded 3rd and 4th boards, Chuck Gumienny and Frank Redway had easy wins, while two-time State Champion Mikel Petersen and I struggled against opponents rated hundreds of points lower.  Redway wouldn’t let us forget that for years to come.  That team, by the way, had only one loss in 24 games, but it came during our key encounter to the Overdrawn Checks.

* Joe Wasserman’s amazing 6-0 performance on third board in 1988.

* Setting a mating trap for a 1992 opponent, but not until warning my first board, John Nardandrea, it was going to happen so he could offer his higher rated opponent, Mike Gatlin, a draw.

* Taking 45 minutes to find the winning plan against Louisiana’s Robert Bistany while a panic stricken Jason Earley looked on thinking I was going to lose on time.

*Pulling out a huge win against Miguel Salomon in 1997 to half the clinching match.

*David Winkler, refusing to resign our game in 1998, because he didn’t want to be the first to let his team down.

*Miles Ardaman impressing us by going 5-0 on first board last year.

*Rallying to tie the Miami team this year after Miles lost to Marcel Martinez.

These are just a few of the many memories that come to mind.  Perhaps others can add this this body of knowledge.  If you care to share your thoughts, email me!

Larry Storch