How a prison inmate manipulated his ratings to reach #2 in the U.S.

Claude Bloodgood was born in 1937. In the 1950's Bloodgood was a active tournament organizer. He was the rating statistician for the Virginia State Chess Federation and he had a rating of 1956. 

He served prison time in Delaware in the 60's from two counts of burglary and forging. Nine days after he was released from prison in 1969, he murdered his mother by rolling her body in a carpet and leaving it in a nearby swamp. He claimed he murdered his stepmother. After the 1972 ruling Furman V. Georgia, his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence since that ruled the death penalty was unconstitutional. 

In prison, he played games by mail and with fellow inmates. He published three books on the Grob opening. 

In 1974, he and a fellow inmate were given permission to leave for a chess tournament but they overpowered their guard and escaped. 

Late in life, Bloodgood made a variety of claims that seemed designed to obtain a release from prison. For example, he claimed to have been born in 1924 and asked for a furlough based on old age. He claimed to have been born in Germany or Mexico and asked to be extradited to those countries or to be involved in prisoner exchange. He also claimed to have been a Nazi spy during World War II. He often gave interviews, trying to convince the interviewer that he was completely innocent of his crimes and a victim of mistaken identity. Bloodgood died in Powhatan Correctional Center of lung cancer on August 4, 2001.

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