Claude Bloodgood
Encyclopedia
Claude Frizzel Bloodgood (born Klaus Frizzel Bluttgutt III on July 14, 1937, died August 4, 2001) was a controversial American chess
player. As a young man, he got into trouble with the law, and was arrested several times. He was sentenced to death
after being convicted of murdering his mother, although this sentence was later commuted. While in prison, he remained a very active chess player, playing a large number of correspondence games
and rated games with other inmates. Over time, he achieved a very high ranking in the United States Chess Federation
(USCF). Some allege he accomplished this by manipulating the ratings system in use at the time.
, Virginia
in the late 1950s. He was the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Federation, where he rated himself at an Elo rating of 1956.
and served prison time in Delaware
. He was also convicted of forgery of his parents' accounts, and spent more time in jail. In 1969, just nine days after being released from prison, he murder
ed his mother, Margaret Bloodgood (whom he later claimed to be his stepmother). According to reports, he rolled her body in a carpet and left it in Dismal Swamp
, where it was soon found. His death sentence was ultimately commuted to life imprisonment
when the U.S. Supreme Court
found the death penalty, as then administered, to be unconstitutional.
From prison, Bloodgood played thousands of chess games by mail, as well as thousands with fellow inmates. He also published three books on chess openings, including The Tactical Grob (on 1.g4
).
In 1974, Bloodgood and fellow inmate Lewis Capleaner received a furlough to play in a chess tournament. They overpowered the single guard assigned to them and escaped, but they were recaptured after a few days.
with the Supreme Court of Virginia
. His contention was that the death sentence
, later commuted to life, was based in part on the fact that he was a repeat offender, having been convicted twice of burglary
in Delaware. However, these convictions had been obtained prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Gideon v. Wainwright
which guaranteed the right to counsel. He argued that since no defense attorney had been assigned to him in the Delaware cases, the two convictions were unconstitutional and thus the Virginia death sentence was unconstitutional as well. The court rejected his contentions, resulting in two decisions of the Virginia Supreme Court in Bloodgood v. Virginia and Bloodgood v. Garraghty, 783 F.2d 470, 475 (4th Cir. 1986).
Prison, which were by necessity with fellow inmates. Many of these inmates were taught the game by Bloodgood, and thus began as unrated and inexperienced players. Bloodgood obtained USCF memberships for them. Some accused Bloodgood, with his intimate knowledge of the rating system
, of rigging their ratings. The accusation was that he arranged for new prisoners to play rated games against other prisoners, who would deliberately lose, thus giving the new inmate an inflated USCF rating. Bloodgood, it is further alleged, then played rated games against the new highly-rated prisoner, and each time he won, gained a few more rating points. This continued for several years, and by 1996 his rating rose to 2702, making the 59-year-old Bloodgood the second-highest rated player in the nation. In comparison, at his retirement Bobby Fischer
's rating was 2760, and several leading grandmasters were in the 2600s. Bloodgood's true strength at the time is not knowable but is likely to have been in the USCF Expert
(2000–2200) range, though some have estimated that Bloodgood was of Senior Master strength (i.e., 2400+) when in his prime in the 1960s.
This is all a matter of considerable controversy even today. Bloodgood himself vehemently denied these accusations, and said that he played chess in the only competitions available to him, prison tournaments, and won almost every game because he was the strongest player in the prison system. As his rating rose, he wrote the USCF to warn them that its system was prone to "closed pool" ratings inflation. However, nothing was done until Bloodgood's rating skyrocketed. He even qualified for entry into the U.S. Chess Championship
, a prestigious invitation-only event intended for the best 16 players in the country. His high rating caused a crisis in the USCF, which debated extensively what to do about the situation. In the end, Bloodgood wasn't invited to the event (which he could not have attended anyway), and the USCF changed its ratings system rules to attempt to prevent "closed pool" ratings inflation.
or Mexico
and asked to be extradited to those countries or to be involved in prisoner exchange
. He also claimed to have been a Nazi spy during World War II
. He often gave interviews, trying to convince the interviewer that he was completely innocent of his crimes and a victim of mistaken identity. Bloodgood died in Powhatan Correctional Center of lung cancer
on August 4, 2001.
houses the Claude F. Bloodgood Collection, which "contains the personal papers of Claude F. Bloodgood, including legal documents, medical and other prison records, and chess related items."
November 10, 1971 (notes by Bloodgood): 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd 4.Nd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.f5 Nc6 11.fe fe 12.Nc6 bc 13.e5! de 14.Bf6 gf 15.Ne4 f5? (15...Be7) 16.Be2 Be7 (if 16...fe 17.Bh5 Ke7 18.O-O Qd6 19.Rf7 Kd8 20.Rf8 wins) 17.Bh5 Kf8 18.Qh6 Kg8 19.Rb3 Black resigns. In the note to Black's 16th, modern computer analysis prefers 18.Rf1. The program also says that after 19...Kd8 20.Qa5 Ke8 21.Rh7 mate is better.
Bloodgood (2250 postal) - Barnsley (2475 postal, British Postal Champion), correspondence game 1997: 1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 c5 3.e4 de 4.Ne5 Nd7 5.Bb5 a6 6.Bd7 Bd7 7.Bb2 Bf5 8.O-O e6 9.f3 ef 10.Qf3 Qc7 11.Na3 f6 12.g4 Bg6 13.Rae1 O-O-O 14.Nce4 h5 15.g5 Bf5 16.gf gf 17.Bc3 Qg7 18.Kh1 Rh6 19.Ba5 Rd4 20.Nb6 Kb8 21.Nac4 Qc7 22.Nd5 Qc6 23.Bc7 Ka7 24.Bb6 draw.
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
player. As a young man, he got into trouble with the law, and was arrested several times. He was sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
after being convicted of murdering his mother, although this sentence was later commuted. While in prison, he remained a very active chess player, playing a large number of correspondence games
Correspondence chess
Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon...
and rated games with other inmates. Over time, he achieved a very high ranking in the United States Chess Federation
United States Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation is a non-profit organization, the governing chess organization within the United States, and one of the federations of the FIDE. The USCF was founded in 1939 from the merger of two regional chess organizations, and grew gradually until 1972, when membership...
(USCF). Some allege he accomplished this by manipulating the ratings system in use at the time.
Early chess career
Bloodgood was an active chess organizer in Hampton RoadsHampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in the late 1950s. He was the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Federation, where he rated himself at an Elo rating of 1956.
Prison career, chess and brief escape
In the early 1960s, he was twice convicted of burglaryBurglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
and served prison time in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
. He was also convicted of forgery of his parents' accounts, and spent more time in jail. In 1969, just nine days after being released from prison, he murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ed his mother, Margaret Bloodgood (whom he later claimed to be his stepmother). According to reports, he rolled her body in a carpet and left it in Dismal Swamp
Dismal Swamp
* The Great Dismal Swamp located near Virginia and North Carolina* The Dismal Swamp located in Middlesex County New Jersey* The Dismal Swamp in Tasmania...
, where it was soon found. His death sentence was ultimately commuted to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...
when the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
found the death penalty, as then administered, to be unconstitutional.
From prison, Bloodgood played thousands of chess games by mail, as well as thousands with fellow inmates. He also published three books on chess openings, including The Tactical Grob (on 1.g4
Grob's Attack
Grob's Attack is an unconventional chess opening where White immediately moves the king knight's pawn two squares ahead:-Discussion:The opening takes its name from Swiss International Master Henri Grob who analyzed it extensively and played hundreds of correspondence games with it...
).
In 1974, Bloodgood and fellow inmate Lewis Capleaner received a furlough to play in a chess tournament. They overpowered the single guard assigned to them and escaped, but they were recaptured after a few days.
Legal challenges
Bloodgood filed two petitions for habeas corpusHabeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
with the Supreme Court of Virginia
Supreme Court of Virginia
The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears appeals from the trial-level city and county Circuit Courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative law cases that go through the Court of Appeals of Virginia. It is one of...
. His contention was that the death sentence
Death Sentence
Death Sentence is a short story by the American science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the November 1943 issue of Astounding Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov.-Plot summary:...
, later commuted to life, was based in part on the fact that he was a repeat offender, having been convicted twice of burglary
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
in Delaware. However, these convictions had been obtained prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright
Gideon v. Wainwright, , is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford their own...
which guaranteed the right to counsel. He argued that since no defense attorney had been assigned to him in the Delaware cases, the two convictions were unconstitutional and thus the Virginia death sentence was unconstitutional as well. The court rejected his contentions, resulting in two decisions of the Virginia Supreme Court in Bloodgood v. Virginia and Bloodgood v. Garraghty, 783 F.2d 470, 475 (4th Cir. 1986).
High rank possibly via manipulation
Bloodgood organized chess games within PowhatanPowhatan
The Powhatan is the name of a Virginia Indian confederation of tribes. It is estimated that there were about 14,000–21,000 of these native Powhatan people in eastern Virginia when the English settled Jamestown in 1607...
Prison, which were by necessity with fellow inmates. Many of these inmates were taught the game by Bloodgood, and thus began as unrated and inexperienced players. Bloodgood obtained USCF memberships for them. Some accused Bloodgood, with his intimate knowledge of the rating system
Elo rating system
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor....
, of rigging their ratings. The accusation was that he arranged for new prisoners to play rated games against other prisoners, who would deliberately lose, thus giving the new inmate an inflated USCF rating. Bloodgood, it is further alleged, then played rated games against the new highly-rated prisoner, and each time he won, gained a few more rating points. This continued for several years, and by 1996 his rating rose to 2702, making the 59-year-old Bloodgood the second-highest rated player in the nation. In comparison, at his retirement Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...
's rating was 2760, and several leading grandmasters were in the 2600s. Bloodgood's true strength at the time is not knowable but is likely to have been in the USCF Expert
Chess expert
Chess expert is a title given by the United States Chess Federation . It is awarded to chess players rated from 2000 to 2199. Players rated above that are masters while players below that are class players. Approximately 400,000 chess players have USCF ratings, of which approximately 4000 are rated...
(2000–2200) range, though some have estimated that Bloodgood was of Senior Master strength (i.e., 2400+) when in his prime in the 1960s.
This is all a matter of considerable controversy even today. Bloodgood himself vehemently denied these accusations, and said that he played chess in the only competitions available to him, prison tournaments, and won almost every game because he was the strongest player in the prison system. As his rating rose, he wrote the USCF to warn them that its system was prone to "closed pool" ratings inflation. However, nothing was done until Bloodgood's rating skyrocketed. He even qualified for entry into the U.S. Chess Championship
U.S. Chess Championship
The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...
, a prestigious invitation-only event intended for the best 16 players in the country. His high rating caused a crisis in the USCF, which debated extensively what to do about the situation. In the end, Bloodgood wasn't invited to the event (which he could not have attended anyway), and the USCF changed its ratings system rules to attempt to prevent "closed pool" ratings inflation.
Late prison career
Late in life, Bloodgood made a variety of claims that seemed designed to obtain a release from prison. For example, he claimed to have been born in 1924 and asked for a furlough based on old age. He claimed to have been born in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
or Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and asked to be extradited to those countries or to be involved in prisoner exchange
Prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners. These may be prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc...
. He also claimed to have been a Nazi spy during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He often gave interviews, trying to convince the interviewer that he was completely innocent of his crimes and a victim of mistaken identity. Bloodgood died in Powhatan Correctional Center of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
on August 4, 2001.
Library
The Cleveland Public LibraryCleveland Public Library
The Cleveland Public Library was founded in 1869 and is located in Cleveland, Ohio. It operates the Main Library on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 28 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and a library for the blind and physically...
houses the Claude F. Bloodgood Collection, which "contains the personal papers of Claude F. Bloodgood, including legal documents, medical and other prison records, and chess related items."
Games
Bloodgood - Cetenski Winston - Salem Ladder, 3rd match gameNovember 10, 1971 (notes by Bloodgood): 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cd 4.Nd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.f5 Nc6 11.fe fe 12.Nc6 bc 13.e5! de 14.Bf6 gf 15.Ne4 f5? (15...Be7) 16.Be2 Be7 (if 16...fe 17.Bh5 Ke7 18.O-O Qd6 19.Rf7 Kd8 20.Rf8 wins) 17.Bh5 Kf8 18.Qh6 Kg8 19.Rb3 Black resigns. In the note to Black's 16th, modern computer analysis prefers 18.Rf1. The program also says that after 19...Kd8 20.Qa5 Ke8 21.Rh7 mate is better.
Bloodgood (2250 postal) - Barnsley (2475 postal, British Postal Champion), correspondence game 1997: 1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 c5 3.e4 de 4.Ne5 Nd7 5.Bb5 a6 6.Bd7 Bd7 7.Bb2 Bf5 8.O-O e6 9.f3 ef 10.Qf3 Qc7 11.Na3 f6 12.g4 Bg6 13.Rae1 O-O-O 14.Nce4 h5 15.g5 Bf5 16.gf gf 17.Bc3 Qg7 18.Kh1 Rh6 19.Ba5 Rd4 20.Nb6 Kb8 21.Nac4 Qc7 22.Nd5 Qc6 23.Bc7 Ka7 24.Bb6 draw.
Books
- The Tactical Grob. Chess, Sutton Coldfield 1976, ASIN B0007AQKAC (public domain e-book available via this page)
- Nimzovich attack: the Norfolk gambits, 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 c5 3 e4 or 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 Nf6 3 Bb2 c5 4 e4. Chess Digest, Grand Prairie (1997). ISBN 0-87568-289-8
- The Blackburne-Hartlaub Gambit: 1 d4 e5 2 dxe5 d6!? (Chess openings for hustlers) (1998). ISBN 0-87568-292-8
External links
- Robert T. Tuohey article
- Hans Ree article (pdf)
- Marc Davis: The convict who would be king. In: Chess Bits: the journal of the International E-mail Chess Club, October 2002