The Herald-News Passaic, New Jersey Sunday, December 26, 1982 - Page 72
An Irreplaceable Loss to the Game
The death of Ed Edmondson in October is a tragic and irreplaceable loss for world chess. His diplomatic and other efforts in behalf of Bobby Fischer ultimately contributed to a drastic quantitative and qualitative alteration of chess life on our planet.
“More than anyone else he was responsible for getting Bobby Fischer to the World Championship,” remembers Don Schultz, U.S. member of the Executive Council of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
“He achieved virtually all concessions from FIDE that Bobby wanted — right down the line. No one else could have achieved the concessions he achieved. He had great support in Europe, the Communist countries and the Third World.”
Although the Fischer-Spassky match and the subsequent world-wide chess explosion were Edmondson's ultimate monument, his achievements in behalf of U.S. chess were also prodigious. The years of his leadership (1963-1977) — when he was first president and then executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation — was the greatest period of growth in U.S. chess history.
His physical and moral support of talented U.S. chess players were notable. He did much to spur the creation of high-level tournaments for them — in particular, the National Open and American Open championships. And he vigorously supported their efforts to play in tournaments abroad.
At the recent FIDE Congress in Lucerne, Switzerland, Ed Edmondson's life and memory were honored with a minute of silence. That same tribute was paid to former world champion Max Euwe and to Leonid Brezhnev.
“Edmondson was a not-so-serious person,” recalls Schultz. “He was always joking. He enjoyed life. Very significantly, he died playing chess on the beach. Ed had told people earlier that was the way he wanted to die.”
Below is a skillful victory by U.S. co-champion Walter Browne over Lajos Portisch of Hungary in the Tilburg Interpolis Tournament.
