History
The beginnings of the club are a little bit in the dark as nobody from that time is still around. If you have any information from that time, please contact us.
The chess club founder was Henry Shipin and he died in the mid 2000s. He worked in the aerospace industry was running a chess club at his company. To make chess available to the public he started a club near his work at Alondra Park. This was in the early 1970s as a result of the Fischer boom. The match with Spassky was held in 1972.
The USCF tournament database got destroyed in 1991, so there are no records for the previous years. But there are news paper articles from that time available on the internet.
In an article from the Los Angeles Times from July 14, 1988 titled Chess Clubs : Membership Opens Opportunities for Competition the Alondra Park Chess Club was list as one of 10 opportunities to play chess in the Southland. Interestingly, the meetings lasted till 11:30. Nowadays the park closes much earlier. Henry Shipin in cited saying “This group has run 99 tournaments between 1973 and 1986, in which almost 5,000 players have participated.”
In another article from February 1973 published in Chess Life & Review, page 98 it says "As its first annual open event the Alondra Park Chess Club of Lawndale, held a six-round Swiss over the weekend of June 16-18. Champion is John Grefe. ..." Since the article was published in February of 1973, the tournament must have been held in June of 1972. By the way, John Grefe was also US Champion in 1973, together with Lubomir Kavalek.
The chess club founder was Henry Shipin and he died in the mid 2000s. He worked in the aerospace industry was running a chess club at his company. To make chess available to the public he started a club near his work at Alondra Park. This was in the early 1970s as a result of the Fischer boom. The match with Spassky was held in 1972.
The USCF tournament database got destroyed in 1991, so there are no records for the previous years. But there are news paper articles from that time available on the internet.
In an article from the Los Angeles Times from July 14, 1988 titled Chess Clubs : Membership Opens Opportunities for Competition the Alondra Park Chess Club was list as one of 10 opportunities to play chess in the Southland. Interestingly, the meetings lasted till 11:30. Nowadays the park closes much earlier. Henry Shipin in cited saying “This group has run 99 tournaments between 1973 and 1986, in which almost 5,000 players have participated.”
In another article from February 1973 published in Chess Life & Review, page 98 it says "As its first annual open event the Alondra Park Chess Club of Lawndale, held a six-round Swiss over the weekend of June 16-18. Champion is John Grefe. ..." Since the article was published in February of 1973, the tournament must have been held in June of 1972. By the way, John Grefe was also US Champion in 1973, together with Lubomir Kavalek.
