Michael Valvo was an International Master of chess

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...

.

By 1962, he was one of the top blitz

Blitz chess

Fast chess, also known as blitz chess, lightning chess, sudden death, speed chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60 to 180 minutes per player.-Overview:The different...

 players in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He won the 1963 U.S. Intercollegiate Championship.

A native of Albany

Albany, New York

Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, N.Y. and a graduate of Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, Valvo was a member of the U.S. team that competed in the 11th Student Olympiad in Cracow, Poland, in 1964. His teammates included William Lombardy

William Lombardy

William James Lombardy is an American Grandmaster of chess, writer, teacher, and one-time Catholic priest.- Life and career :...

, Raymond Weinstein

Raymond Weinstein

Raymond A. Weinstein is an American chess master from Brooklyn, New York, who was awarded the FIDE International Master title in 1962. He has been incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital since killing a man in 1964.-Chess career:...

, Charles Kalme

Charles Kalme

Charles Ivars Kalme was an American International Master of chess recognized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and a mathematician.Kalme was born in Riga, Latvia on November 15, 1939...

, and Bernard Zuckerman

Bernard Zuckerman

Bernard Zuckerman is an International Master of chess.Zuckerman competed in seven U.S. Chess Championships , his best result being a tie for fourth and fifth in 1965. He served as a member of the U.S...

. The Americans finished fourth, behind the USSR, Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

.

By 1976, Valvo had essentially dropped out of tournament chess and his rating was no longer published in the USCF

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...

 rating lists, until Bill Goichberg

Bill Goichberg

William "Bill" Goichberg is a rated chess master and is the former President of the United States Chess Federation. He was elected USCF President on August 14, 2005. He is a USCF Life Master and a FIDE Master, National Tournament Director and International Arbiter of FIDE...

 and Jose Cuchi invited him to a futurity tournaments. Valvo did well, earning a rating of 2440. However, Professor Arpad Elo

Árpád Élo

Arpad Emrick Elo is the creator of the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Austro-Hungarian Empire, he moved to the United States with his parents as a child in 1913.Elo was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was...

 refused to award Valvo the rating he had earned, because Elo had never heard of Valvo and suspected that the tournament had been rigged. This matter was debated at the 1978 FIDE Congress in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 and FIDE voted to give Valvo his 2440 rating. Valvo quickly proved that he really was a 2440 strength player and earned the International Master title.

Valvo never played in 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...

, but he was to make his mark in computer chess

Computer chess

Computer chess is computer architecture encompassing hardware and software capable of playing chess autonomously without human guidance. Computer chess acts as solo entertainment , as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human...

, which became his primary focus. At every World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship

World Computer Chess Championship is an annual event where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association...

 from the early 1980s until his death, Valvo was the organizer, moderator, commentator or acted in some official capacity. He also played a two game play by email match against Deep Thought

Deep Thought (chess computer)

Deep Thought was a computer designed to play chess. Deep Thought was initially developed at Carnegie Mellon University and later at IBM. It was second in the line of chess computers developed by Feng-hsiung Hsu, starting with ChipTest and culminating in Deep Blue...

, winning both games.

Mike Valvo died of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

. He was eulogized

Eulogy

A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...

 by long time friend, colleague and computer scientist

Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....

 Ken Thompson in the December 2004 issue of the International Computer Games Association

International Computer Games Association

The International Computer Games Association was founded as the International Computer Chess Association in 1977 by computer chess programmers to organise championship events for computer programs and to facilitate the sharing of technical knowledge via the ICCA Journal.Renamed the 'ICGA' in...

Journal.

External links

• The Chess Games of Michael Joseph Valvo
• Commentary on his 2-0 victory over Deep Thought