Raymond Weinstein
Encyclopedia
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.
, where he was two grades ahead of Bobby Fischer
. He won the 1958 U.S. Junior Chess Championship in Homestead, Florida
. Weinstein played a total of five times in the U.S. Chess Championship
. Weinstein played for the American team, led by William Lombardy
, that won the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad
, USSR, the first time the U.S. team had ever won that title. Weinstein tied for the gold medal
on his board in that event. Weinstein played on the U.S. team in the 1960 world Chess Olympiad
in Leipzig
, East Germany.
Weinstein defeated many top American players, including Samuel Reshevsky
and Pal Benko
. He never defeated Bobby Fischer, although he drew
one game of four with him (in the 1959-60 US Championship).
His best tournament result came in the 1960-61 U.S. Championship
, where he finished third, after Fischer and Lombardy. As this was a zonal year, this result qualified Weinstein to play in the Interzonal
tournament, held in Stockholm
in 1962, though neither he nor Lombardy played, with their places being taken by Benko and Arthur Bisguier
. This result also gave Weinstein the automatic International Master title. Weinstein defeated Lombardy, Reshevsky, Bisguier and Robert Byrne in this tournament. The results of this tournament were Fischer 9-2, Lombardy 7-4, Weinstein 6 - 4, Bisguier, Reshevsky, James Sherwin
and Charles Kalme
6-5, Benko, Hans Berliner
, Byrne and Anthony Saidy
4 - 6, and Herbert Seidman
2 - 8.
with a degree in psychology
and travelled to Amsterdam
, Netherlands
, to attend graduate school. By this time, however, he had apparently developed a mental illness
, possibly schizophrenia
. He was reportedly arrested for assault
; Dutch chess author Tim Krabbe
has identified the victim as the Dutch psychology professor and International Master Johan Barendregt. Soon after this incident, he was deported to the United States. There, he was detained in a half-way house
, where he killed his 83-year-old roommate with a razor after an argument. Weinstein was deemed incapable to stand trial, and remanded to a psychiatric hospital
, the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Manhattan
's Wards Island, where he remains to this day. A recent email states that Weinstein has been transferred to the Dunlap B section and he is seeking stronger chess opponents because he can beat all the other inmates in the asylum.
Weinstein had been described as having a "ruthless killer instinct" for chess in a February 1964 British Chess Magazine
article, before the incident took place.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
master from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who was awarded the FIDE International Master title in 1962. He has been incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
since killing a man in 1964.
Chess career
Weinstein attended Erasmus Hall High SchoolErasmus Hall High School
Erasmus Hall Campus High School is a four-year public high school in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States operated by the New York City Department of Education....
, where he was two grades ahead of 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...
. He won the 1958 U.S. Junior Chess Championship in Homestead, Florida
Homestead, Florida
Homestead is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States nestled between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area....
. Weinstein played a total of five times 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...
. Weinstein played for the American team, led by William Lombardy
William Lombardy
William James Lombardy is an American Grandmaster of chess, writer, teacher, and one-time Catholic priest.- Life and career :...
, that won the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, USSR, the first time the U.S. team had ever won that title. Weinstein tied for the gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
on his board in that event. Weinstein played on the U.S. team in the 1960 world Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...
in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, East Germany.
Weinstein defeated many top American players, including Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky was a famous chess prodigy and later a leading American chess Grandmaster...
and Pal Benko
Pál Benko
Pal Benko is a chess grandmaster, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.- Early life :Benko was born in France but was raised in Hungary. He was Hungarian champion by age 20. He emigrated to the United States in 1958, after defecting following the World Student Team...
. He never defeated Bobby Fischer, although he drew
Draw (chess)
In chess, a draw is when a game ends in a tie. It is one of the possible outcomes of a game, along with a win for White and a win for Black . Usually, in tournaments a draw is worth a half point to each player, while a win is worth one point to the victor and none to the loser.For the most part,...
one game of four with him (in the 1959-60 US Championship).
His best tournament result came in the 1960-61 U.S. 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...
, where he finished third, after Fischer and Lombardy. As this was a zonal year, this result qualified Weinstein to play in the Interzonal
Interzonal
Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, and were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle.- Zonal tournaments :...
tournament, held in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
in 1962, though neither he nor Lombardy played, with their places being taken by Benko and Arthur Bisguier
Arthur Bisguier
Arthur Bernard Bisguier is an American chess Grandmaster, chess promoter, and writer. Bisguier won two U.S. Junior Championships , three U.S. Open Chess Championship titles , and the 1954 United States Chess Championship title. He played for the United States in five chess Olympiads...
. This result also gave Weinstein the automatic International Master title. Weinstein defeated Lombardy, Reshevsky, Bisguier and Robert Byrne in this tournament. The results of this tournament were Fischer 9-2, Lombardy 7-4, Weinstein 6 - 4, Bisguier, Reshevsky, James Sherwin
James Sherwin
James Terry Sherwin is an American corporate executive and International Master in chess.Born in New York City in 1933, Sherwin attended Stuyvesant High School, Columbia College and Columbia Law School. He graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Officer Candidate School in 1956 and later...
and 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...
6-5, Benko, Hans Berliner
Hans Berliner
Hans Jack Berliner , a Professor of , is a former World Correspondence Chess Champion, from 1965–68. He is a Grandmaster of Correspondence Chess, and an International Master for over-the-board chess. He directed the construction of the chess computer HiTech. Berliner is also a chess writer.-Life...
, Byrne and Anthony Saidy
Anthony Saidy
Anthony Saidy is an International Master of chess. He has played many times in the U.S. Chess Championship. He won the 1960 Canadian Open Chess Championship. He is the author of several chess books, including The Battle of Chess Ideas, and The World of Chess...
4 - 6, and Herbert Seidman
Herbert Seidman
Herbert Seidman was a U.S. Senior Master of chess born in New York City. He played several times in the U.S. Chess Championship. He was known for his swashbuckling-style, playing risky or sacrificial openings such as the Orang-Utan attack.In 1961, Seidman won the most games of any player in the U.S...
2 - 8.
Illness
In 1963, he graduated from Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
with a degree in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and travelled to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, to attend graduate school. By this time, however, he had apparently developed a mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, possibly schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. He was reportedly arrested for assault
Assault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
; Dutch chess author Tim Krabbe
Tim Krabbé
Tim Krabbé is a Dutch journalist and novelist.Krabbé was born in Amsterdam. His writing has appeared in most major periodicals in the Netherlands. He is known to Dutch readers for his novel De Renner , first published in 1978...
has identified the victim as the Dutch psychology professor and International Master Johan Barendregt. Soon after this incident, he was deported to the United States. There, he was detained in a half-way house
Half-Way House
Half-Way House, also known as The Wiseburg Inn, is a historic inn and toll house located on York Road at Parkton, Baltimore County, Maryland. It is a large, -story Flemish bond brick structure. The main part, built as an inn about 1810, was placed in front of an earlier log structure which has...
, where he killed his 83-year-old roommate with a razor after an argument. Weinstein was deemed incapable to stand trial, and remanded to a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
, the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Wards Island, where he remains to this day. A recent email states that Weinstein has been transferred to the Dunlap B section and he is seeking stronger chess opponents because he can beat all the other inmates in the asylum.
Weinstein had been described as having a "ruthless killer instinct" for chess in a February 1964 British Chess Magazine
British Chess Magazine
British Chess Magazine is the world's oldest chess magazine in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as BCM....
article, before the incident took place.