Cover Story / Harold Dondis
Saving Boston’s landmark chess club Dondis’ revered Boylston Chess Club is the largest in the Boston area
and one of the oldest in the U.S. But, like a lot of clubs, it sometimes found itself in financial straits. “When the club was forced out of its Clarendon YMCA Street location, Harold discerned that since the ‘Y’ had received HUD [Department of Housing and Urban Development] money, it had to provide moving funds to the club,” a nest egg of $15,000, Chase said. According to Chase, when the club had to move yet again, “Dondis drew up a trust whose sole purpose is to send a check to the club’s landlord every month.” Harold made a significant donation to that trust and coordinated with another major donor to provide five years of such funding. “Without this money, the club would have been in trouble. Its stuff
would have either ended up in storage (while we kept looking for a new place as we were under some time pressure to get out) or we would have had to go further out of the city than the membership wanted.” Earlier, in 1999, on the death
of his friend and fellow club benefactor Harry Lyman, Dondis had set up a separate fund in Lyman’s name, administered by the U.S. Chess Trust, that pays the Boylston Club annual proceeds. One of the last communications from Dondis to this writer came as an e-mail a few days before Harold’s death, making sure the annual donation from the Lyman Trust would be sent to the club. Harold helped the club in big
VIENNA GAME (C27) Robert James Fischer Harold Dondis
Fischer Simul Tour (1964) ·
1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bc4 Nxe4 4. Qh5 Nd6 5. Bb3 Nc6 6. d4 Nxd4 7. Nd5 Ne6 8. Qxe5 c6 9. Nc3 Qf6 10. Qxf6 gxf6 11. Nge2 Nf5
position he retained for the remainder of his life. “The death of Harold Dondis means US Chess has lost a great
supporter,” former US Chess president and current US Chess Trust Chairman Harold Winston said. “U.S. Chess recognized his long services by the Distinguished Service Award in 1985. He will be greatly missed by all the trustees of the Chess Trust and by chess organizers and players. Harold was always positive and friendly and wanted the best for chess in America.” The US Chess Trust continues to operate as Dondis created it. Its
Beating Fischer
trustees act without compensation to bring the benefits of chess to all ages with programs like Chess for Youth and Chess for Vets, providing free chess sets and US Chess junior memberships. Among the US Chess Trust’s most prominent ongoing charitable initiatives are the Samford Fellow ships—which supports promising young players with a goal of bringing the world championship title back to America—, the Denker Tourna ment of High School Champions, the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions, and the National Girls Tournament of Champions.
Expansive interests No one should be left with the impression that Dondis
ways and small. “When he’d come home and say he’d won a prize, I’d tease him and ask ‘where’s the money,’ ” Claire laughed. “He’d always say he gave it back.” In recognition of his stalwart help, the Boylston Club decided to name one of its rooms in his honor. Charac- teristically, however, Dondis shunned such recognition, suggesting instead that the club memorialize Lyman instead. The club followed his wish. But it’s certain that Dondis’ memory will live on in Cambridge. “After Harold died,” club member Tony Cortizas, Jr., said, “the Boylston Chess Club decorated the standalone one-board table he always played at. We set up a position from the Fischer-Dondis game at a 1964 simul.” There’s sure to be many more memorials.
Founding the US Chess Trust Harold’s contributions went far beyond Boston. For 75 years before
a recent change in its federal status, donations to US Chess were not tax-deductible. In 1967, Dondis saw a way to help the mission of the frequently cash-strapped organization. He donated a symbolic dollar to then-US Chess Executive Director Ed Edmondson and formed the US Chess Trust, creating a way for donors to take deductions. Harold himself followed up his dollar with tens of thousands more, serving as Chess Trust Chairman until 2000 and then as Chairman Emeritus, a
narrowed his interests to chess and law. Those were his passions, but he had expansive interests. Throughout his life, he loved opera. “Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’ was his favorite,” Claire said. As he did with films, in opera, “He preferred the old chestnuts.” And he had a special love for literature. His favorite book was Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson. “He would go around the house quoting William Shakespeare or Edna St. Vincent Millay,” Claire said, and Dylan Thomas. And he loved Charles Dickens, particularly Bleak House, whose plot revolves around a lawsuit. He shared literary tastes with the most exalted judges. “When he first read Gabriel García Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude, Harold gave me the book and said, ‘This man is going to win the Nobel prize.’ ” Former US Chess president Dr. Tim Redman, a professor
12. g4 Nfd4 13. Nxd4 Nxd4 14. Be3 Nxb3 15. axb3 d5 16. Rxa7 Rxa7 17. Bxa7 Bxg4 18. Bd4 Be7 19. Kd2 c5, White resigned.
of literature at the University of Texas at Dallas, shared literary discussions with Dondis. “He loved poetry,” Redman said. “We would meet at U.S. Opens or at his law office in Boston (where he would take me afterwards to lunch at the Harvard Club) to read poems aloud and talk about them.” As Claire found out, her husband had a comprehensive com - mand of the English language. “If I couldn’t find a word in the dictionary, I’d ask Harold—off the top of his head, he
knew what it was.” He wrote his own works as well. His “Chess Fables” appeared in Chess Life in the February 2015 issue, after which Dondis told the magazine, “I am so flattered and thrilled by [their publica tion],” for which he refused payment. “Harold would have been embarrassed by all the fuss at the Boylston
Chess Club the night he died,” Chase told me, “with everyone getting up to try to help.” Dondis was a self-effacing man. Chase used to tell him that he needed assertiveness lessons. “That was funny because he dealt so effectively with so many unpleasant people in his work.” Harold Dondis could play a mean game of chess, and not just in
simultaneous exhibitions—he once drew former U.S. Champ GM Arthur Bisguier in a real tournament game. But otherwise, “mean” was Harold’s antonym. “He just didn’t have an enemy,” Chase said. But he earned a legion of friends and admirers. Dondis is survived by his wife Claire Louise Dondis and his sister-
in-law Esther Dondis of Rockland, Maine, as well as his nieces Jo Dondis of Camden, Maine, and Lynn Dondis of Washington, D.C.
www.uschess.org 25
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