The Morning Call Allentown, Pennsylvania Sunday, April 05, 1981 - Page 95
Unknown Expert From California
What makes a great chess player? We often hear of Bobby Fischer's “genius” for chess or Jose Capablanca's “intuition,” especially in the end game.
But Fischer, himself, has speculated that it was feverish work and an uncommon passion for the game, which separated him from other grand masters. And very few of even the most learned chess aficionados know that Capablanca meticulously studied hundreds, if not thousands, of endgames to develop his “natural” talent.
An intriguing case of natural talent is the interrupted career of Larry Remlinger, a Californian, who at age 12 and 13 was runner-up in the 1954 and 1955 junior championships (for players under 21.) During those years, Remlinger was already considered to be the 3rd best player in California, behind Herman Steiner and William Addison, both top U.S. masters.
Remlinger, at that early age, had a lucid positional style, and excelled in the end game (like his hero Capablanca).
But by late 1955, he had already dropped out of serious chess competition. In 1957, after two years of inactivity, he chanced to engage another young prodigy, an already ascendant Bobby Fischer, in hundreds of offhand “blitz” games, spread over three sessions.
At their first meeting, it was Remlinger, who was the victor, by a dozen or so games! Fischer also trailed at the end of the second session by four or five games. Finally in the third session, Fischer won by that same amount.
Several months later, Bobby Fischer became the youngest ever U.S. Champion at 14.
Remlinger returned to chess in the late 60s and has played sporadically, since then, with some good results. He is obviously still a player of considerable ability.
Here is a victory over International Master Jack Peters from a recent West Hollywood, Calif., tournament.
