William Lombardy

William James Joseph Lombardy (December 4, 1937 – October 13, 2017) was an American chess grandmaster, chess writer, teacher, and former Catholic priest.

He was one of the leading American chess players during the 1950s and 1960s, and a contemporary of Bobby Fischer, whom he seconded during the World Chess Championship 1972.

Lombardy won the 1954 New York State Championship with a score of 9/11 (+7−0=4), and tied for first with Larry Evans at the 1956 Canadian Open Chess Championship.

He then played and lost a match versus grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky by the score of 3½–2½, and, in the same year, played second board for the World Student Team Championship in Uppsala, Sweden, going undefeated, and scoring 7/9.

He won the World Junior Championship in 1957, the only person to win that tournament with a perfect score.

In 1957, Lombardy became the first American to win the World Junior Chess Championship.

He won the tournament in Toronto with a perfect score of 11–0.

He was the first U.S. citizen since Steinitz to win an individual world chess title.

Based on his performance, he was automatically awarded the International Master title.

In 1958, he played in the Mar del Plata tournament and went "undefeated in second place", scoring 11/15.

In 1959, he took first place in the U.S. Log Cabin Invitational, scoring 7/10.

Lombardy led the U.S. Student Team to Gold in the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad.

Lombardy was born to an Italian-American father and Polish-American mother.

Lombardy grew up at 838 Beck Street, Bronx, New York City, in an apartment with his parents and two other families.

"Bill recalls that his family had financial problems when he was young. His parents both worked and they all shared an apartment with his grandmother, an aunt and a cousin, until his second year in grammar school, when they moved to their own apartment."

Shortly after World War II, Lombardy and his family moved to 961 Faile Street.

Lombardy recalled of his new apartment: "I remember the winters were very tough in that apartment. My room used to sweat from the cold. The moisture used to seep through one wall. I used to have to get extra blankets to cover me at night so I wouldn't wake up with pneumonia in the morning."

It was at his new home that Lombardy became friends with an Orthodox Jewish boy named Eddie Garlerter who taught Lombardy how to play chess.

When Lombardy was about 10 he went to Lion's Square Den Park to play stronger chess players.

It was there that a kind, old, Jewish man gave Lombardy a booklet "that would change [his] life."

Lombardy elaborated on this: "He took out a marble design notebook from a brown paper bag. 'Here,' he said, 'I'm finished with it.' I thanked him for the book, put it in the bag and played chess with the man. When I got home, I looked at my book ... Back in those days, there were five or six newspapers that carried a chess column. Over many, many years the old man had studiously pasted some two thousand of those chess clippings into his book. I had never asked him whether he had actually played over the games in those clippings. I was about to do what he himself may not entirely have done."

Lombardy did not become a member of the Marshall Chess Club until several years later (at the age of 14), when he started to get serious about his chess playing.

After attending the City College of New York for three years, Lombardy received his B.A. in philosophy, an M.A. in ethics, and an M.Div., all from Saint Joseph's Seminary (Dunwoodie).

He also studied educational psychology at Saint Louis University.

According to Jack Collins, "Bill's chess ability developed rapidly."

In 1960, he was awarded the title of International Grandmaster.

Lombardy finished second in the 1960–61 U.S. Championship behind Bobby Fischer and ahead of Raymond Weinstein in a star-studded field.

With this result, Lombardy qualified to compete in the Interzonal tournament to be held in Stockholm for the right to advance to a match for the world championship.

However, Lombardy decided to retire from tournament competition and become a Roman Catholic priest.

Before retiring, he lost a match to Larry Evans by the score of 5½–4½.

Lombardy played first board for the U.S. Team that won the 1960 World Student Team Championship in Leningrad, USSR.

At the 1961 Zurich Chess Tournament, Lombardy tied for fourth place with Svetozar Gligorić, scoring 6½/11

In 1962, Lombardy tied for second at the U.S. Open, then won the New England Championship, and, shortly thereafter, gave a lecture at the Manhattan Chess Club in which he analyzed the game: Lombardy–Lyman, New England Championship, Haverhill, September 1962 Ruy Lopez [C93](1–0).

In 1963, Lombardy won the U.S. Open Chess Championship, along with Robert Byrne, scoring 11/13.

Lombardy also became U.S. Speed champion.

In 1965, Lombardy tied with Byrne for first at the Western Open in St. Louis, and shared first place with Pal Benko at the USA Open Championship in Puerto Rico.

In 1966, Lombardy took clear first at the Southern Open in Atlanta, and tied with Ivkov for second at the Canadian Open.

Lombardy was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in June 1967.

In 1969, Lombardy tied for second with Vlastimil Hort, going undefeated at Monte Carlo, scoring 7/11.

In the same year, Lombardy tied for second with Benko and Mato Damjanović at Netanya, Israel.