"My 75 Year Chess Career - An Autobiography of My Life" by
Walter Muir, 1997 Hopskotch Ink, English Descriptive Notation,
Paperback, 354pp., $19.95

It is probably not an understatement to say that Walter Muir has
been the single most influential person in the development of
correspondence chess in the United States. He has been a dominant
force in postal play on a national and international level for almost
five decades. He fully deserves recognition as the "Dean of
American Correspondence Chess." It was with a great feeling of
expectation that we approached his book "My 75 Year Chess
Career - An Autobiography of My Life." Jerry P. Hopfer is listed
as the editor of the book and has also contributed a brief
introduction.

The book is divided into sixty-five (!) short chapters. A review of
the Table of Contents has each duly listed (and each begins with
"In..." or "Into...") although it fails to indicate at what page any
chapter may be found. The book is written in the first person and
the typical structure of every chapter is a two- or three-page
narrative followed by a game or two in English descriptive
notation. The use of English descriptive is explained by Hopfer
"because Walter has been a lifelong advocate" of it.

The text itself reads less like a book and more like a personal diary.
In each chapter we are presented events in Muir's life in staccato,
often unrelated fashion, followed by a game or two with light
notes. This excerpt from Chapter 48 is typical:

CHAPTER XLVIII
In My Last Year as ICCF-US Director

We received the sad news from the GE Reporter that George
Townsend had died January 5 [1979] in Sun City, Arizona, at age
85. He was a great friend of mine having helped me get started in
GE April 12, 1937. He was a Senior Design Engineer having had a
great 40 year GE career. He was a strong chess player. We met
several times in chess tourneys over a 30 year period.

During the weekend of Saturday, January 20, through Sunday,
January 21, Virginia suffered the worst ice storm in its history. The
ice was three-fourths of an inch thick on the tree limbs. Over 50
percent of the Roanoke Valley homes lost power. The trees in Muir
Woods were heavily damaged. We lost two large Manchurian elms
on the North side of our house. All limbs were completely stripped
from the main trunk.

In February, we had two big snowstorms which required hours of
shovelling our driveway and walk. Still we managed to celebrate
St. Valentine's Day, February 14, with dinner at Tanglewood. It
was just 50 years ago that I gave my Beta Psi fraternity pin to Dot
on the Cornell campus. We have been great pals ever since!

We attended Funeral Services for Willis Rice at Oakey's North
Chapel on Peters Creek Road on Monday, February 26. He had
died on Friday, February 23, at age 81. He was retired from GE
after 46 years of company service. I had bowled with Willis
1937-1942 in Schenectady in both GE Drafting League and GE
Office League winning Championships in both Leagues.

On Monday, March 12, John and Gladys Macarow were stopping
at Blacksburg Marriott Inn on their way from Albany to Texas.
They phoned us to have dinner in Jacob's Lantern and spend the
evening with them which we did.

On Sunday, March 18, we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway and
had dinner at the Peaks of Otter Lodge.

Friday, March 23, Stacey Tree Service cut down the two damaged
elms. They also pruned broken limbs on all our oak and maple
trees. On Saturday, March 31, Mr. Altizer harmwed our garden
with his two horses to make it ready for Spring planting. The
horses enjoyed the apples I gave them.

We celebrated my joining GE April 12, 46 years ago with dinner at
Sheraton Inn. On Saturday, April 21, we took Dick and Jean Wertz
to Roanoke College for the college play "The Boy Friend" and
dinner in the new "Commons" building.

We had a lovely drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway Sunday, May
13, with a delicious dinner at Peaks of Otter Lodge which Dot
enjoyed very much!

Our good GE engineering friend, Ted Driesch, died in Drexel Hill,
Pennsylvania, on May 15 at age 78.

Tuesday evening, June 5 we attended graduation ceremonies of
Salem High School held in Salem Civic Center since Anne Bourne
was among the graduates.

We enjoyed a beautiful drive on Sunday, July 1, along the Blue
Ridge Parkway and dinner at the Peaks of Otter Lodge.

Tony Slamecka, a chess player and great supporter of
ICCFUSPCU, died after a short illness on Friday, July 6, in
Princeton, West Virginia, at age 67. He was a native of
Czechoslovakia and was a retired civil engineer from the West
Virginia Highway Department. On Monday, July 9, we drove up to
Princeton to attend the grave side ceremony at Rose Lawn
Memorial Gardens. Afterwards we visited his widow, Kitty, at
their home 101 Mahood Avenue.

We learned that Bill Alvarez, Manager of Engineering Industrial
Control Department in Charlottesville, had died Thursday, July 12.
I broke him in as a young engineer in 1940 when he first came to
the Industry Control Engineering Department in Schenectady, New
York.

On Sunday, July 29, we visited Virginia Mihtary Institute campus
in Lexington before we had dinner at our favorite Peaks of Otter
Lodge.

Early in 1979, I had been successful in getting all the viable "CC"
groups in the USA to affiliate with USPCU with the exception of
CCLA and USCF "CC" operations. Consequently, in the Spring, I
made one last ditch effort by writing to CCLA President
Vandenburg and USCF Director Dr. Gerald Dullea. However,
neither acknowledged my appeal...

Muir tells a very personal story. The love and devotion of his wife
of sixty-five years, his emotional devastation upon her death and in
general their life together tell a sweet, moving story. An
"addendum to the book" (really a few appendices) compiles letters,
obituary notices and even the football games the author attended
from 1923-1980. This kind of material will probably only be of
slight interest to most readers. And although there is a record of his
tournaments, there were some additional things that could have
been done, such as totaling the wins, losses and draws and drawing
some conclusions from his extended record and the statistics.
 
One gets the distinct impression that any effective editorial duties
in the production of the text were either not actually performed or,
perhaps more probably, overruled by Muir. From the redundant
title, to the antiquated notation sure to limit sales, to the lack of
coherent organization that could have produced an outstanding
account of both the history of correspondence chess in the United
States and one of its most significant advocates, the result can only
be described as unfortunate.

The are some very nice games, albeit in English descriptive
notation. Muir played some powerful correspondence chess in his
time, and almost eighty of his best efforts are represented here.
One of the games, (converted to algebraic...)

F.J. Valvo-Walter Muir, cc 1956, King's Fianchetto Opening 1 g3
e5 2 Bg2 d5 3 d3 Nc6 4 Nd2 (If 4 c4 Be6) 4...Be6 5 Ngf3 f6 6 e4
d4 7 Nh4 Qd7 8 f4 O-O-O 9 f5 Bf7 10 Nb3 Kb8 11 Bd2 g5 12
fxg6 (Exchanging pawns unblocks the position to Black's
advantage.) 12...hxg6 13 Bf3 Be7 14 a3 Nh6 15 Ng2 Be6 16 Qe2
Ng4 17 Nh4 Rhg8 18 h3 Ne3! 19 Bc1 (If 19 Bxe3 dxe3 20 Qxe3
Bxb3 21 cxb3 Qxd3! Or 20 Nc1 Nd4!) (See Diagram) 19...a5!
(Black opens up a new avenue of attack which proves decisive,
since White must now play Bxe3, enabling Black to occupy d4.) 20
Ng2 a4 21 Bxe3 dxe3 22 Nc1 Nd4 23 Qd1 Qb5 24 Rb1 Bxa3 25
Nxe3 Bxb2 26 Kf2 a3 27 c4 Qc5 28 Kg2 Nxf3 29 Qxf3 (If 29
Kxf3 f5) 29...Bxc1 30 Rbxc1 Rxd3 31 Rhe1 f5 0-1

It is not clear how the correspondence chess community will
receive this book. The respect, almost awe, that most have for Muir
may lead to quiet acceptance. Too bad. A strong editorial hand
could have resulted in this looking less like a vanity publication
and more like the classic it should have been.