The story below is from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Longtime Roanoke Valley resident Walter Muir helped make postal chess a national phenomenon.
The address of 1722 Orchard Drive, Salem, Virginia, became familiar to thousands of chess players throughout North America and throughout the world. It was the home address of Walter Muir, a man who spent the second half of his nearly century-long life building a genuine society of letters among people that played chess games through the mail. The game they played was referred to as correspondence chess or postal chess.
Correspondence chess is a game of pondering and patience. Players have three days to respond with the notations for their countermove. Correspondence chess tournaments can take as long as three years to complete.
“It’s social and the games are well researched and well played,” International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) Grandmaster and current ICCF champion Jon Edwards says. Edwards played Muir in correspondence chess on several occasions. Like many correspondence chess players, Edwards started playing because he had a young family at home and couldn’t take the time to travel. “There’s a meaningful competition with the possibility for advancement, but above all, each game is a supreme challenge, every move like an adjournment.”
As ICCF-USA secretary, Muir mailed players a packet with information on playing against domestic and international opponents. He assessed their skill level to place them in competitive matches.
Courtesy of Jon Edwards
Correspondence chess letter from Walter Muir to Jon Edwards, 1996.
Walter Muir wore many hats in this world he cultivated, including as an elite player, an administrator and a promoter. He often had 60 correspondence chess games going simultaneously. Additionally, Muir played opponents from over 60 countries and collected the stamps from the places around the world from which his opponents hailed.
Muir founded the United States Postal Chess Union and served for many years as the secretary of the ICCF-USA. He contributed significantly to the global administration of ICCF, offering thoughtful advice on which players should be given the rankings of international masters and grandmasters. Locally, Muir served for several years as the president of the Roanoke Valley Chess Club (RVCC), the oldest continuously active chess club in the state of Virginia.
Correspondence chess had tens of thousands of devotees across the United States for much of the twentieth century. While the availability of internet chess has cut deeply into the appeal of correspondence chess in the last two decades, Walter Muir created for several generations of chess players a community of likeminded individuals that transcended borders. Correspondence chess is the clear forerunner of the kinds of online gaming that are now enjoyed by millions of people the world over. Muir was rightfully known as the “Dean of American Correspondence Chess.”
Muir was born in Brooklyn in 1905 and raised in upstate New York, the son of Canadian parents. He studied engineering at Cornell University, where he came upon his two greatest passions. As a sophomore, he started playing correspondence chess, then a small and disparately played game with little in the way of formal organization. He also met a history major named Dorothy Sanders who became his lifelong companion. Walter and Dorothy married in 1932 and they remained together for the next 62 years. Like Walter, Dorothy was a chess enthusiast. She was a three-time national women’s correspondence chess champion (1958-1960).
Muir’s chops as an over-the-board (in person) and correspondence chess player were impeccable. Being a dual American-Canadian citizen, Walter competed in and dominated play in the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association, winning nine national titles between 1928 and 1942. Twice he won British Commonwealth correspondence chess titles and won nine ICCF Master Tournaments. His bona fides were also strong as an over the board player. He won the Roanoke city championship on three occasions and finished second in the three Virginia state tournaments in which he chose to compete—all of which took place in Roanoke. For in-person tournaments, Muir dressed to the nines, wearing a white dinner jacket and black bow tie for gameplay.
In 1971, he earned the title of International Correspondence Chess Master. Perhaps Muir’s most famous match was a 1960 victory over Soviet correspondence chess champion Peter Atjashev, making the Salem resident one of the first Americans to defeat a Soviet player of that caliber.
Courtesy of Jon Edwards
Correspondence chess moves from Walter Muir.
In 1972, the University of Louisville’s library acquired Muir’s vast collection of chess books. Muir donated more than 500 books and magazines, which he delivered personally to university librarian John Demos. The collection includes many antique British chess magazines and books which were not previously available in the United States. Thousands of records of Muir’s games are included in the files, which would be most beneficial to the international chess community if they were made available online.
It was work that brought the Muirs to the Roanoke Valley. Walter spent more than 40 years working at General Electric (GE). He began at the industrial giant in the late 1930s, working in GE’s Industry Control Department in their base of operations in Schenectady, New York. Muir moved to the Roanoke Valley in 1955 as part of the first wave of corporate transplants who helped establish the Salem facility. He served as a senior design engineer until his retirement in the mid-1970s.
Muir lived in the city of Roanoke for a time before settling in Salem, not far from the GE plant. Walter and Dorothy never had children but made a remarkably rich life for themselves in Salem. They were enthusiastic gardeners and arborists. “Muir Woods” on their property included apple trees, maples and elms as well as more exotic trees from around the world, including their prized Manchurian elms. Both Walter and Dorothy were excellent bowlers, having played on several General Electric teams that won company championships. Walter was also an enthusiastic football fan. He kept records of all the high school, college and professional games he attended between the 1920s and the 1980s.
Muir took great pride in the chess community and found great fellowship with his co-workers at General Electric. In later years, he took on an ambassadorial role in both communities, often driving long distances with Dorothy to attend the funerals of longtime colleagues.
The most lasting local legacy of Walter and Dorothy Muir can be found at the RVCC, which holds an annual tournament in his honor.
“The Walter Muir Tournament is our biggest tournament of the year. Pre-pandemic, it drew as many as 30 players but, since the pandemic, numbers have been down to around 20,” club officer Mike Huff says.
The estate of Walter and Dorothy Muir created a memorial fund which helps support the Roanoke College library, arts and humanities programming in the region, as well as an annual chess tournament administered by the RVCC. The club decided to honor their beneficiary by naming it the Walter Muir Memorial Tournament.
While Walter served as club president in his early years in Roanoke, he was a much less frequent though awe-inspiring presence by the time Rusty Potter joined the RVCC in 1960.
“Muir was this mystical figure because he rarely came in. He was buried in the world of chess by mail, which was a more common way to play in rural areas,” Rusty Potter remembers. “When he came in, it was a rare treat for us to talk to him and ask him questions and tell yarns about all the guys he’s played all over the world. He would come in with quizzes and puzzles for the others and he was kind of a giant among men. There were just a handful of people that could keep up with him.”
Courtesy of Jon Edwards
Correspondence chess moves from Walter Muir.
A Roanoke native, Potter is a four-time Virginia state chess champion and holds the title of Original Life Master, the most esteemed designation awarded by the U.S. Chess Federation. He is also a full-time chess instructor for the Mid-Atlantic Chess Instruction Center. Potter was born in 1948, the year after the formation of the RVCC. He joined up at age 12 and has been a member ever since. Growing up in the rough-and-tumble West End, Potter persevered through a number of challenges and found a second home at the Roanoke Valley Chess Club.
Potter remembers Muir’s gruff New York accent and, at times, irascible tone but found the man to have a heart of gold. He cites Walter’s personal kindness towards him as a mentor—a relationship that was cemented one rainy afternoon when Potter missed the bus and Muir saw his young chess playing compatriot walking down the street. The chess legend got him out of the rain, chatted amiably with him on the ride and brought him home.
In later years, the two became friends. Whenever Potter visited the Muir home, Walter was pouring over moves from the dozens of postal games he had going at the time. He remembers Walter for his strong sense of social conscience.
“Walter Muir was very much an environmentalist and he was a member of some civil rights groups,” Potter recalls. Muir put his money where his mouth was, making generous donations to support the causes in which he believed. On several occasions, Muir shared his progressive political views with Potter.
By the early 1990s, the Muirs slowed down considerably. Dorothy’s health declined rapidly and Walter spent his days caring for his bride. The Muirs, too, had friends looking in on them regularly in Salem. Dorothy died in 1994 and Walter was never quite the same, though he remained an active chess player until his death on December 29, 1999 at the age of 94.
The Muirs’ legacy lives on in the tournament that bears Walter’s name and the still vibrant local club he once managed.
“It’s a fellowship of intelligent people,” club officer Mike Huff says. “We have some interesting discussions outside of chess on geopolitics and economics and current events.” Players of all ages and abilities belong to the Roanoke Valley Chess Club, which is actively seeking new members and has a very informative website at roanokechess.com. The club meets every Wednesday night at the Raleigh Court Branch Library in Roanoke at 5:30 p.m. Rusty Potter, too, is taking on new players for chess instruction. You can find him at chessinstructor.org.
Roanoke Valley Chess Club Celebrates its 75th Anniversary
The Roanoke Valley Chess Club (RVCC) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The organization is the oldest continuously operating chess club in the Commonwealth. The club, which is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, meets every Wednesday night at the Raleigh Court Branch Library in Roanoke at 5:30 p.m. Evenings can run until around 10 p.m. The Library is located in front of Patrick Henry High School at 2112 Grandin Road SW in Roanoke. Meetings take place in the Community Room. Free food is available at the weekly gatherings.
“The chess scene has never been so buoyant or robust down here,” Rusty Potter says. Potter is the chairman of the RVCC board and a three-time Virginia state chess champion.
The popularity of The Queen’s Gambit, a 2020 Netflix miniseries based on the Walter Tevis novel, has no doubt played a role in introducing or reintroducing the game to players. The Queen’s Gambit was one of the most streamed programs of the stay-at-home phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the pandemic also encouraged many people stuck at home to try out the game or to give it another chance.
Before the pandemic, a typical week at the chess club drew eight to 12 players. Recently, 20 to 25 players on a Wednesday night have become the norm. Never before has regular attendance been so strong, even during the chess boom of the 1970s that was brought on by Bobby Fischer’s international success, according to Potter. Several interesting events dot the remainder of the 2023 calendar.
Macon Shibut, the editor of the Virginia Chess Newsletter and himself a three-time state champion, will be visiting the RVCC and giving a lecture. The date of the lecture will be announced shortly. In addition, the annual Walter Muir Memorial Tournament will be taking place on October 13-14 this year. The club is enthusiastically seeking entrants.
Players of all ages and abilities belong to the Roanoke Valley Chess Club, which is actively seeking new members and has a very informative website. Details on the club’s upcoming events can also be found on the website: roanokechess.com.
The story above is from our September/October 2023 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!