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Michael Valvo [1] Michael (Mike) Joseph Valvo, (April 19, 1942 – September 18, 2004)

was an American International Chess Master since the 70s dedicated to computer chess. He was Tournament Director of most ACM North American Computer Chess Championships, as well as ICGA World Computer Chess Championships and World Microcomputer Chess Championships until WCCC 1995, when he was later succeeded by Jaap van den Herik. He also acted as moderator and commentator at the tournament sites and wrote various tournament reports. From November 1988 until March 1989, he played a Correspondence match against Deep Thought, and won 2-0 [2]. Michael Joseph Valvo died of a heart attack at September 18, 2004, in Chanhassen, Minnesota at age 62 [3] .

ICGA Journal

Quote by Jaap van den Herik from The Battle of Games, from the same ICGA Journal issue, Valvo was eulogized by his long time friend Ken Thompson [4] :

For a while I would like to continue with other parts of the contents of this issue. With much regret I would like to have your attention for Ken Thompson’s contribution on the passing away of Mike Valvo. For many years, he was the Tournament Director of our tournaments: the [North American Computer-Chess Championships](ACM_North_American_Computer_Chess_Championship "ACM North American Computer Chess Championship") (NACCCs), the [World Computer-Chess Championships](World_Computer_Chess_Championship "World Computer Chess Championship") (WCCCs), the [World Microcomputer-Chess Championships](World_Microcomputer_Chess_Championship "World Microcomputer Chess Championship") (WMCCs), and the [Computer Olympiads](Computer_Olympiad "Computer Olympiad") (COs). He did a very good job and made a real community of our group. He shall be missed. Personally, I would like to thank him publicly for the many lessons learned and I would like to state that I feel privileged to have succeeded him in some of his tasks. Thank you Mike for our long-standing cooperation.

Pennswoodpusher

From the Pennswoodpusher a Quarterly Publication of the Pennsylvania State Chess Federation: Crossing The Bar. February 2005 [5]:

Born in [Albany, New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_New_York), Michael Valvo was a graduate of [Columbia University](Columbia_University "Columbia University") and spent much of his life working with computers. He is perhaps best known to the public for his job as commentator for the Kasparov versus [Deep Blue](Deep_Blue "Deep Blue") Matches in 1996 and [1997](Kasparov_versus_Deep_Blue_1997 "Kasparov versus Deep Blue 1997"), but he accomplished many things in a chess career going back to the late 1950s.


Valvo learned the game from his father Frank, who was also a [USCF](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Chess_Federation) master. Michael made quick progress and in 1964 was a member of the U.S. team that competed in the 11th Student Olympiad in [Cracow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krak%C3%B3w), Poland, in 1964 along with [Bill Lombardy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lombardy), [Raymond Weinstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Weinstein), [Charles Kalme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kalme), [Bernard Zuckerman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Zuckerman) and Mitchell Sweig. The Americans finished in fourth place behind the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He quit playing chess in 1969, but came back with a big bang by earning a [FIDE](FIDE "FIDE") rating of 2530 in the late 1970s after an excellent performance in a NY Futurity. FIDE awarded him the IM title in 1980.


A respected opening theoretician Valvo played 1.e4 for much of his career before adding the [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Opening) to his repertoire. He was a life-long fan of the [Dragon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Defence,_Dragon_Variation) and a early pioneer (1963) of a [Benko-gambit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benko_Gambit) type approach - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 a6 followed by ...c5 with ...b5 to follow d4-d5. He tested many of his lines in correspondence chess throughout his career. Valvo was a co-author of a book on the [1990 Kasparov-Karpov match](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_1990) and was the technical editor of [Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#Under_Fischer.27s_name) along with [Raymond Weinstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Weinstein). He did the game annotations for the 1966/67 US Championship bulletin.

See also

Selected Publications

[6]

Forum Posts

1989

1990 ...

External Links

References

  1. ↑ Michael Valvo at the Deep Blue vs. Kasparov match in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, photo by Monroe Newborn, 1996, from The Computer History Museum
  2. ↑ Valvo-DT CC-games by Hans Christian Lykke, CCC, July 18, 1998
  3. ↑ Michael Valvo from Wikipedia
  4. ↑ Ken Thompson (2004). Obituary: Michael Joseph Valvo (1942-2004). ICGA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 4
  5. ↑ The Pennswoodpusher, A Quarterly Publication of the Pennsylvania State Chess Federation, February 2005 (pdf)
  6. ↑ ICGA Reference Database
  7. ↑ Karpov vs. DEEP THOUGHT Cambridge, Massachusetts reported by Darren Bedwell, Compuserve 73

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