Grand Dame of Chess at US Open
She might just be the Grand Dame of the chess world, but to me she is still much more, though I only met her once.
When I was quite young and had been a member of the US Chess Federation for about a year I was playing in as many weekend tournaments as I could in and around San Diego and now and then in Los Angeles. One beautiful Saturday morning I entered a swiss event in the Mira Mesa area of San Diego, not far from the Miramar Naval Air Station of Top Gun fame. The Navy left that facility years ago but I heard the Marines took over at that location.
The tournament was not huge but there were enough entries to fill a good size facility, pretty average for San Diego weekend events in the 70‘s. Before the first round started, my eye was drawn to the most beautiful woman in the room, a small brunette who looked to be a few years my senior. To my very pleasant surprise, when I found my board to play my first game, seated across from me was this same lust inspiring lady. As I shook her hand before the game and we wished each other good luck, I felt a strong, almost electric energy from her touch.
We settled into our game, me with the white pieces, and I was able to steer the game into a Ponziani, which in 1975 was pretty much unheard of. I had read a few books and learned the ideas behind the Ponziani and used it as my “secret weapon” when I played those with ratings far higher than mine and it had served me well, likely why my rating was over 1200 though I was otherwise more like an 1150 player.
I didnt expect much and frankly just sitting at the table with such a gorgeous woman was making it hard to concentrate. But as it seems, she was not playing her best and neither of us could find a way to get a clear advantage. As our clocks ticked down, I had a time advantage but she had a slightly better position on the board. I offered a draw and she contemplated for a short time and accepted.
After looking in on a few games, I don’t think there were any masters in the tourney but there were several experts, the woman came up to me and asked if there was a place nearby where we could get lunch. I suggested a Denny’s a couple of miles south on I-15 and so off we went, with me scoring a lunch date and a drawn game with an uncommonly pretty chess player rated more than 600 points higher than myself. It was a red letter day for me for sure.
During lunch I got to know a little bit about Julie Desch, and learned that she was married, had been playing in tournaments for a few years and was in town just for the tournament. She was a pretty serious paladin. In fact, she went on to win the rest of her games and the tournament, with the draw to me the only blemish on her unbeaten record.
Julie went on to become a big wig in the USCF (I think she was USCF president for a while) and I went on to become a cop.
She was married a couple more times and moved around the country, finally settling in Arizona. She rarely plays chess anymore, but I was pleased to see that she made it to the US Open in Palm Springs this weekend. She didnt manage to win any games yet she probably lit up the lives of those fortunate enough to be paired against her.
