It is quite uncommon to find someone who has made so many significant achievements – in so many different areas of chess – in so many different states.  Such a person was the late Charles Richard Long.  Richard lived most of his life in Georgia and it is here where he made most of his contributions to chess.

 

Richard was born (in 1940) and raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He learned how to play at age 14. He and two of his high school friends started playing against each other regularly. One friend started going to the library and beating the other two. Then Richard and the other friend followed suit. The arms race escalated from the library to the purchase of chess books followed by subscriptions to Chess Review magazine. Richard later wrote in the July/August 2002 issue of Georgia Chess that his first chess book was Practical Chess Endings by Reuben Fine, but he must have been confused (Practical Chess Endings was written by Irving Chernev; Reuben Fine wrote Basic Chess Endings). Richard began playing postal chess as well. He and his friends formed a chess club at their high school, but there was no one for them to compete against.

 

In 1956 the U.S. Open was held in Oklahoma City, OK. One of Richard’s two chess friends went to play. Richard’s parents could not afford the two-week stay for Richard to play but allowed him to go for just the first weekend and stay with his friend. Richard got to play a skittles game with the new U.S. Junior Champion, a 13-year-old Bobby Fischer. Richard achieved a winning position but lost. His friend won his skittles game against Fischer.

Then Richard had some incredibly good luck. The local tournament organizer (and future USCF President), Jerry Spann, told Richard that he wanted to encourage young players to enter the tournament, so he waived Richard’s entry fee. Then the hotel clerk – also a chess player – not only told Richard that he could stay for free with his friend for the entire tournament, but that he would also give Richard the free lunch that he normally got every day. Richard’s parents said that he could play and mailed him some additional money.

Richard scored 6-6, losing to three Masters, drawing a Master, and beating an Expert. His first USCF rating was 1933. Richard’s friend did almost as well with a 5-7 score and a first USCF rating in the 1800s.

Richard and his two high school chess friends stayed in touch with each other for life. Both of his friends later became USCF Masters.

 

Richard got his Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in Economics in 1961 from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, TX. While a student there, he won the 1959 Dallas City Championship.

 Richard also traveled to win the 1961 Iowa Open.

 He won the Arkansas State Championship Tournament in 1961, 1962, and 1964 (4½ - ½). Richard played Bobby Fischer in simultaneous exhibitions twice in 1964, losing in Little Rock, AR, but winning in Houston, TX.

 

Richard moved to Nashville, TN in 1961 with an Expert rating of 2051 and obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University in 1965. He won the Nashville City Championship in 1963, 1964, and 1965. Richard was ranked as either the 3^rd or 4^th highest player in Tennessee for the time that he lived there. He also achieved a Tennessee Postal Chess rating of 2050 before leaving Tennessee.

Dr. Long moved to Atlanta and worked for the Federal Reserve Bank from 1965 to 1968.

 

Richard scored 4½ - 1½ to tie for 2^nd - 6^th at the 1965 Peach State Open (with Truesdel, Scott, and Day, but ahead of Wade and Lamb).

Richard scored 5-1 to win the 1966 Tennessee Open with David Burris. This was a strong tournament – especially for that day and time – with six Experts playing (Richard wound up playing three of them). Richard was 1^st on tiebreaks and took home the Tennessee Open trophy, but could not be declared the Tennessee State Champion, as he no longer satisfied the residency requirement. Burris took home the Tennessee State Champion trophy. Richard’s rating at that time was 2059.

 Richard won the 1966 Atlanta City Championship.

 Richard was President of the Peachtree Chess Club from 1967 to 1969.

 

Dr. Long left the Federal Reserve Bank in 1968 to become an Economics Professor at Georgia State University, where he became the faculty sponsor for the Georgia State University Chess Club.

At the end of 1968, Richard was the 2^nd highest ranked player in Georgia (behind Brad Wade) with a rating of 2058. Richard won the 1969 Huntsville (AL) Open. He won the 1969 Atlanta Chess Club Championship (Closed). He won clear 1^st at the 1969 Augusta Open with a 5-0 score (ahead of Lamb).

Richard won clear 3^rd at the 1972 Georgia Open with 4½ - 1½. He lost to 1^st place winner Klaus Pohl in the last round. At the end of 1973, Dr. Long was the third ranked player in Georgia with a 2080 rating.

 

Then, other than playing 1^st Board twice in 1978 for the Atlanta Kings in the short-lived National Chess League (with his career highest rating of 2083), there is no mention of him in the Georgia chess publications, active state rating lists, or USCF website until 2001. One of his daughters explained that parenting three children and researching a macroeconomic computer program limited his time.

 

Richard only had mediocre results from his return to play in 2001 until he stopped playing rated chess completely in 2004. Dr. Mark Taylor quoted Richard in Georgia Chess as saying, “… the competitive fire has stopped burning.” But then Richard demonstrated other chess skills.

 

Starting with the November/December 2002 issue of Georgia Chess, Richard became the Games Editor. Dr. Long continued in this capacity for Georgia Chess through the September/October 2004 issue of Georgia Chess when he resigned because of time constraints. Dr. Long was annotating games in his columns as part of Editor Dan Lucas’ team while Georgia Chess received Chess Journalists of America (CJA) awards in 2003 and 2004 (Best State Magazine, Under 1000 Circulation in both 2003 and 2004 and Best State Magazine in 2004).

 

After working for thirty years as an Economics Professor at Georgia State University, Dr. Long retired in 1998. However, Dr. Long then demonstrated an exceptional chess ability honed by his thirty years of teaching.

 

Dr. Long began working for Championship Chess in 2001, and his best student was Xiao Cheng. Richard was Cheng’s mentor from 2001 to 2004, while Xiao’s rating went up from 1738 to 2178 (and 2242 FIDE).  Cheng was the 2001 6th grade National Champion and the 2002 7th grade National Co-Champion (1st–3rd).  Cheng defeated celebrated GM Walter Browne at the 2003 North American Open.

 

Cheng went on to be 2005 1st place K–12 National Champion. Cheng became both a USCF Master and Life Master in 2005. Cheng was also the 2006 Atlanta City Champion and the 2006 Georgia State Champion. Cheng achieved a 2300 FIDE rating in 2007 (and later sent in his application to become a FIDE Master in 2015).

 

Richard suffered from juvenile onset diabetes mellitus. He died suddenly from his diabetes in 2012 at age 71, apparently from a hypoglycemic attack.

 

The late Dr. Richard Long was a USCF Expert back in the day when an Expert was an Expert – and could be counted within the top four rated players in the state.  He was a three-time Arkansas State Champion. He won the Iowa Open.  He won the Dallas, TX City Championship once.  He won the Nashville, TN City Championship three times.

 

He spent most of his life in Georgia, and as a Georgian, he won the Tennessee Open, the Huntsville Open, the Augusta Open, the Atlanta City Championship, and the Atlanta Chess Club Closed Championship. He was President of the Peachtree Chess Club. He was a faculty sponsor for Georgia State University Chess Club. He contributed articles to Georgia Chess. He was Games Editor for almost two full years for Georgia Chess. He was the teacher/coach for a student player that won two National Scholastic Championships, and then went on to win a third National Scholastic Champion, an Atlanta City Championship, a Georgia State Championship, and became a FIDE Master.

 

Dr. Charles Richard Long demonstrated significant achievements in competition (over-the-board), teaching, coaching, and journalism. He bettered chess in the state of Georgia.

 

 

Sources:

Music City Chess News;

Tennessee Chess News;

Nashville Chess Center website;

Georgia Chess Association Chess-Letter;

Georgia Chess Association Newsletter;

Georgia Chess;

uschess.org website;

Steve Schneider, personal interview;

Ruth Long Windham, personal interview;

www.fide.com website;

chess1000.com website.