Saturday, May 18, 2013

More Chess


Moving into yet another decade, Samuel Bean gains his competitive edge, despite his double challenge of being both blind and deaf.

The East Bay metropolitan area finds itself boasting the possibility of a new chess champion, as Sam outpaces the defending champion, a student at the University of California at Berkeley.

Still living at the same address—though his mother, Ella Shields Bean, is by now no longer with him there—Sam is now fifty four years of age. Just moving into his prime, he surely must have thought as he pulled within grasp of first place in yet another chess tournament.

Perhaps a bit prematurely for the scoop on the end result, the Oakland Tribune moves in to report Sam's progress in a brief announcement on May 10, 1950:
            Sam Bean, a blind and deaf salesman of 1807 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda, is one of the leading contenders in the 1950 chess tournament of the Oakland Chess and Checker Club, club officials announced today.
            Bean has played ten games with eight wins and two draws. Larry Ledgerwood, University of California geology student and defending champion, has won four games, lost one and had two draws.

4 comments:

  1. It sure looked like he was headed in that direction, doesn't it?!

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  2. I agree with Far Side -- I hope he one. Your word "prematurely" suggests that maybe he didn't, though.

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    1. Unfortunately, Mariann, I have no way of knowing. The newspaper didn't continue their report--just left it there, though it didn't sound like the tournament was over yet. However, I do have other reports that showed he won quite a few tournaments in his day, so it's quite likely, unless that UC Berkeley geology student was able to pull a last minute miracle out of his hat.

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