Peter Grant (1905-1966)
1960 (co) South Carolina Chess Champion
Born Perec Grodiecki on December 26, 1905 in Bialystok, Poland, Peter Grant immigrated to the United States in 1922 at age 17. After building a family in New York, Mr. Grant moved to Columbia, South Carolina in 1940, working as a salesman before eventually becoming the owner of the Columbia Dry Goods Co. (1125 Park Street, currently POPS - Pub on Park Street). Mr. Grant was an active member and supporter of the Columbia Chess Club, having multiple top finishes in the Columbia City-Wide Title Tournaments. In 1960, Mr. Grant and two other Columbia natives--Lanneau Foster and Alex Edelsburg--all tied with 4.0/5.0 points to become co-champions at the S.C. State Championship held at the YMCA in Sumter held Nov. 26-27, 1960. Mr. Grant was also a member of the House of Peace Synagogue and is buried at the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery at 720 Blanding Street. For nearly a decade after his death in 1966, the Columbia Chess Club hosted the Peter Grant Memorial Tournament to determine the Columbia City-Wide Champion in his honor.
John Geddings Wallenburg (1941-1963)
1961 South Carolina Chess Champion
John G. Wallenburg was born on April 9, 1941 in Aiken, SC. He graduated from Aiken High School in 1959 as a member of the National Honor's Society. He attended Davidson College in North Carolina before transferring to the University of South Carolina in 1960 to study mathematics and English. After moving to Columbia, SC, he also took a serious interest in chess, joining the Palmetto Chess Club--the Columbia Chess Club's predecessor--where he improved rapidly. His first appearance in a major chess tournament was the 1960 Two Carolinas Open in Charleston, where he won only 2 out of 6 games. By the summer of 1961 he had skyrocketed to prominence, taking third place in the same tournament held in Southport, N.C., and he also became the University of South Carolina Chess Champion. While still a Junior in college, he competed in the South Carolina State Championship held at the Trenholm Road Foster School of Dance in Columbia, SC from November 24-26, 1961. There, he bested multiple former state champions and won the state championship with a perfect score of 5.0/5.0.
Mr. Wallenburg enlisted in the US Navy a few months after winning the state chess title in 1961 and was enrolled in the Guided Missile School. While staying in Norfolk, VA during his tour of duty, Wallenburg met an untimely death at the young age of 22, falling from the seventh-story roof of the Thomas Nelson Hotel on the mid-morning of July 20, 1963. He is buried at the St. Thaddeus Cemetery at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church in Aiken, SC.
Dr. Steven John Shaw (1918-2003)
1963 South Carolina Chess Champion
Born Steven John Szawlowski on November 16, 1918 in Hamilton, New York, Steve Shaw became a high school teacher and was drafted and served in World War II in 1940. Following the war, Shaw received his Masters and Ph.D from New York University. Has professorial career spanned from 1957 until 1989 where he taught business administration courses in Marketing at Tulane University, The University of Florida, the University of Washington, and finally at the University of South Carolina where he was chair of the Marketing Department and the Executive Director of the Bureau of Business and Economic Research. He authored four books and more than thirty articles in the subject of Marketing, and in 2002, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Marketing Advances.
Dr. Shaw was active in South Carolina chess for more than three decades spanning the late 1950s to the early 1990s. He won the title of Southern Chess Champion in 1957 and later served as secretary of the Southern Chess Association in the early 1960s. In 1963, Dr. Shaw competed at the South Carolina State Championship held at the Joel Poinsett Hotel in Greenville on Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 1963, where he finished in clear first place with a score of 4.5/5.0. Dr. Shaw was also runner-up the following year in 1964. In 1975, he was elected president of the Palmetto Chess Club--the Columbia Chess Club's predecessor. He continued to compete in tournaments in South Carolina and regularly attended the Palmetto Chess Club until 1991, when he moved to Miami, Florida in retirement.
Dr. Shaw was also an avid volunteer with Partners of the Americas, the largest non-profit organization between the United States and Latin America. The South Carolina Chapter of Partners of the America helped institutions in Colombia, South America via an an exchange program of professionals in different fields, and many projects were developed from 1976-1991.
Dr. Shaw passed away on September 25, 2003. He is buried at Vista Memorial Gardens in Miami Lakes, Florida.
Dr. Monte Lee Hyder (1936-2003)
1964, 1966, 1967 (co), 1968 (co), 1975 (co), 1978, 1989 (co) South Carolina Chess Champion
Born on June 16, 1936, in Maryville, Tennessee, Lee Hyder was an Eagle Scout who was educated at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and at the University of California at Berkeley, which awarded him the Ph.D. degree in chemistry in 1962. Dr. Hyder moved to Aiken, SC, where he had a 35-year career as a research chemist and manager at the Savannah River Laboratory. He was the author of nearly 50 scientific and technical publications, and was recognized as an expert on safety in nuclear operations. In this capacity, he served on several national safety reviews conducted by the U.S. Dept. of Energy, and was joint editor of a monograph for the International Atomic Energy Agency on the disposition of radioactive iodine from nuclear reprocessing operations. He participated in U.S. safety exchanges in Russia in 1993 and 1994, and was on the first U.S. delegations that visited two formerly secret Soviet nuclear installations. After retirement in 1998, he continued to consult and served a term as president of the International Society for Nuclear Air Treatment Technologies.
Dr. Lee Hyder has had a large impact on South Carolina chess as both a player and organizer. Winning several local and regional tournaments, including being the Carolina's Open winner in 1970, Dr. Hyder was South Carolina State Champion a then-record seven times over a span of more than 20 years. His first state title victory came at state championship held at the Trenholm Rd. Foster School of Dance on Nov. 17-29, 1964. With a score of 4.5/5.0, bested five former SC state champions. He won the championship again in 1966 at the same location on Nov. 25-27, 1966. In 1967 he shared the state championship with Alex Edelsburg, but again won outright in 1968, those championships held at the YWCA in Columbia on December 1-3, 1967 and October 11-13, 1968, respectively. Nearly a decade later, Lee Hyder shared the title three-ways in 1975 at the state championship held at Recreation Center No. 2 in Fort Jackson, Columbia on Oct. 31-Nov. 2. His next two state championships both came at the Tremont Motor Inn (111 Knox Abbot Dr., now apartments) more than a decade apart, winning outright in 1978 on Nov. 3-5, 1978 and sharing the title three ways in 1989 on Oct. 13-15, 1989. Dr. Hyder also had some brushes with chess celebrity, drawing GM Larry Evans during a simultaneous exhibition in 1969, and has the distinction of losing both a game of chess and a game of billiards on the same day in 1972 to former world champion Tigran Petrosian.
As an organizer, Dr. Hyder held various offices with the South Carolina Chess Association, including as president in 1968-1969 following the death of Lanneau Foster. Lee Hyder was also an extensive editor and contributor to the SC Chess Association's official publications, where he gave many game reviews, book reviews, and views on chess over the course of three decades. He also served as President of Southern Chess Association 1969-1970, US Chess Federation Regional Vice President in the early 1970s, and Secretary of the US Chess Federation in the late 1970s. He was also involved in organizing many tournaments, including the Korchnoi-Mecking Candidate's Match in Augusta in 1974. He served for more than a decade as a Trustee of the US Chess Trust and won the US Chess Federations Distinguished Service Award in 2003.
Dr. Hyder was also highly involved in his local community, teaching chess for the Aiken Recreation Department in the 1970s. He also served as a scoutmaster for the St. Thaddeus scout troop. After retirement, he was an instructor with the University of South Carolina Aiken offering computer training to older adults. He was also a board member for the Aiken County Open Land Trust and was an avid photographer, having won local awards.
Dr. Hyder passed away on November 3, 2003 and is buried at St. Thaddeus Cemetery at St. Thaddeus Episcopal Church in Aiken, SC.
John Arthur Chalmers (1940-2024)
1965 (co) South Carolina Chess Champion
John Chalmers was born on March 10, 1940 in Live Oak, Florida. After his father returned from naval service in World War II, John grew up in Charleston, SC. He attended Charleston Day, North Charleston Schools, Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida, and graduated from St. Andrew's Parish High School in Charleston. He studied pre-med at the University of South Carolina and graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1973. He practiced law in Charleston for 41 years, primarily in personal injury, and he also served as a Charleston County Magistrate for West Ashley.
Mr. Chalmers most outstanding accomplishments in chess came during his life in Columbia, SC while attending school. While an undergraduate, he was active in the Columbia Chess Club and the South Carolina Chess Association. In 1965, he competed in the SC Chess Championship held at The Foster School of Dance on Trenholm Road in Columbia, SC from Nov. 26-28, 1965. There he tied former multi-time champion Alex Edelsburg for a share of the state title. While a student, John also won the Peter Grant Memorial Tournament, establishing himself as the Columbia-area champion in 1968. He also served as Secretary-Treasurer of the South Carolina Chess Association from 1967-1968, and John continued to play chess in Charleston for many years after he returned to his home town.
Outside of chess, John enjoyed playing piano, golf, and tennis. He was a voracious reader and was interested in everything from history and art to quantum physics and woodworking. He also helped the Public Defender's Office in Charleston with its changeover to computers in the early 80's--his fascination with computers beginning when he was hired by SCE&G in Columbia to program computers that, in the early days, covered an entire wall.
Mr. Chalmers passed away on October 4, 2024 and is buried at Long Cane Cemetery in Abbeville at Highway Bypass 28 and Greenville Street.
Dr. Spencer Relmond Mathews Jr. (1939-2024)
1969 South Carolina Chess Champion
Born in Virginia Beach on August 24, 1939, Spencer Mathews attended Princess Anne High School where he was a Junior Chess Champion for Virginia. While attending the University of Virginia, he also won a game against Bobby Fischer during a simultaneous exhibition held by the Richmond Chess Club on March 29, 1964. He eventually obtained a PhD from the University of Virginia and thereafter began a teaching career in Psychology at Converse College (now Converse University) in Spartanburg, SC. Dr. Mathews devoted 37 years of his life to teaching experimental and developmental psychology, serving as department chair from 1972 to 1998, and also as Converse’s Athletic Director from 1983 to 1991. Beyond his contributions to Converse, Dr. Mathews served the South Carolina Psychological Association as Secretary and President for 1 year each, and was a valued member of the Spartanburg Regional Hospital Institutional Review Board. In 1997, during a sabbatical at UCLA with the Lovaas team for Behavioral Early Intervention for Children with Autism, Dr. Mathews gained expertise that he brought back to South Carolina. He developed a course at Converse to train intervention therapists and worked with approximately 20 children and their families in the upstate region between 1998 and 2007.
Dr. Mathews's chess legacy spanned many decades in South Carolina. After finishing as runner-up in 1968, Dr. Mathews won the SC State Chess Championship held at the YWCA in Columbia, SC on Nov. 7-9, 1969. There, he scored a last-round win against defending champion Lee Hyder (the game can be found on p. 6 of 1969 Vol. 4 No. 1 of SCCA News). Dr. Mathews was active in the SC chess scene, winning many local tournaments, serving as SCCA Treasurer in 1968-1969, and actively playing and organizing competitive chess events for over 50 years. Significantly, he organized the Spartanburg Chess Club where he was champion multiple years, and also organized the 1989 and 1990 US Women's Championship at Converse. He was also a friend of the Clemson Chess Club and gave a simultaneous exhibition at Clemson in the old Student Union.
Outside of chess, Dr. Mathews found joy on the water as an accomplished sailor, racing and volunteering with sailing clubs on Lake Norman in North Carolina and Lake Hartwell in Georgia. He served as Commodore and long-time Membership Chairman of the Western Carolina Sailing Club on Lake Hartwell. An avid tennis player, he was also once City Doubles Tennis Champ in Spartanburg. Dr. Mathews passed away on December 10, 2024 at the age of 85.