Clovis News-Journal Clovis, New Mexico Thursday, July 13, 1972 - Page 8
Station Attendant Remembers Long-Ago Chess Competition
Los Lunas, N.M. (UPI)— A Los Lunas gas station attendant teaches a small chess class, used to write a chess column and remembers a pickup chess club in this small central New Mexico community.
But Guilles Levesque vividly remembers a pickup chess match he got into some 20 years ago while stationed at Bolling Field, near Washington, D.C.
“I was just sitting in the Officers' Club when this young fellow, who looked about 8 or 9-years-old, came in and asked me if I played chess,” Levesque said. “I told him I played at it, so we played a game.”
“I played a little bit loosely, figuring that he was just a kid. I thought I would try to make it interesting for him.
“In 10 or 15 minutes, I found myself checkmated.
“I thought, well, I played a little solidly in the second game —didn't take so many gambles,” he said. “In about the same amount of time, he beat me again.
“It was getting embarrassing, so I played the best I know how in the third game. And he had no more trouble than in the first game.
“Several months later,” Levesque said, “I picked up a chess magazine and saw the youngster's picture on the cover. I learned that he had just taken the New York State (chess) championship and learned his name — Bobby Fischer.
