Michael Valvo (April 19, 1942 in New York – September 18, 2004 in

Chanhassen, Minnesota Chanhassen is a city about southwest of Minneapolis in Carver County and partially in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. The southwest edge of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul suburbs, there is a mix of residential neighborhoods and rura ...

) was an International Master of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

. By 1962, he was one of the top

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

players in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. He won the 1963 U.S. Intercollegiate Championship. A native of Albany, N.Y. and a graduate of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, Valvo was a member of the U.S. team that competed in the 11th Student Olympiad in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, Poland, in 1964. His teammates included

William Lombardy William James Joseph Lombardy (December 4, 1937 – October 13, 2017) was an American chess grandmaster, chess writer, teacher, and former Catholic priest. He was one of the leading American chess players during the 1950s and 1960s, and a contem ...

, Raymond Weinstein,

Charles Kalme Charles Ivars Kalme ( lv, Kārlis Ivars Kalme, November 15, 1939 – March 20, 2002) was a Latvian American chess master and a mathematician. Kalme was born in Riga, Latvia on November 15, 1939. At the conclusion of World War II, Kalme and wh ...

, and

Bernard Zuckerman Bernard Zuckerman (born March 31, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York) is an International Master of chess. Zuckerman competed in seven U.S. Chess Championships (1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1977 and 1978), his best result being a tie for fourth place wi ...

. The Americans finished fourth, behind the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. By 1976, Valvo had essentially dropped out of tournament chess and his rating was no longer published in the USCF rating lists, until Bill Goichberg and Jose Cuchi invited him to a futurity tournament. Valvo did well, earning a rating of 2440. However, Professor

Arpad Elo Arpad Emmerich Elo ( Élő Árpád Imre; August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992) was a Hungarian-American physics professor who created the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess. Born in Egyházaskesző, Kingdom of Hungary, ...

refused to award Valvo the rating he had earned, because Elo had never heard of Valvo and suspected that the tournament had been rigged. This matter was debated at the 1978 FIDE Congress in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

and FIDE voted to give Valvo his 2440 rating. Valvo quickly proved that he really was a 2440 strength player and earned the International Master title. Valvo never played in the U.S. Chess Championship, but he was to make his mark in computer chess, which became his primary focus. At every

World Computer Chess Championship World Computer Chess Championship (WCCC) is an event held periodically since 1974 where computer chess engines compete against each other. The event is organized by the International Computer Games Association. It is often held in conjunction with ...

from the early 1980s until his death, Valvo was the organizer, moderator, commentator or acted in some official capacity. He also played a two-game play by email match against Deep Thought, winning both games. Mike Valvo died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

. He was eulogized by long-time friend, colleague and computer scientist

Ken Thompson Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943) is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programmi ...

in the December 2004 issue of the International Computer Games Association Journal.

External links

The Chess Games of Michael Joseph Valvo
on his 2-0 victory over Deep Thought {{DEFAULTSORT:Valvo, Michael 1942 births 2004 deaths American chess players Chess International Masters 20th-century chess players Columbia University alumni