Here Dick Vandenburg helps my daughter in a chess game at Girls State in 2007.
Here is an historical note from an interview with Dick Vandenburg, former Scholastic Director whom died in 2010:
"I started in high school in about 1945, so I've been at it for around 65 years (I'm 80 now). Glen Buckendorf and I played in the first actual Idaho championship that I know of, in 1947. It was won by C.H;.Stewart, who was the strongest player in Idaho since he moved here somewhere in the teens (maybe about 1916?). "Charley" played in the Utah and Nevada championships fairly regularly, but I don't think there was an Idaho event previous to 1947, maybe because there was no one to run one. Charley apparently wasn't one to run things. I think he was born in the 1880s, so in 1947 he was about 60 years old. He kept playing until lhe died in his 80s. Other players, such as Lloyd and Laverle Kimpton became regulars, with Laverle winning the Idaho title a time or two before he moved out of state (I think).
I won my first Idaho title in 1955 and was kind of lucky to do it, at age 25. I was playing an experienced fellow from Utah or Nevada who figured I would screw up the end game. I offered him a draw, but he refused it. Finally, he was the one to make a mistake and I won the game and the tournament.
When I got back to town permanently in 1953, after graduate school, I began directing many and probably most events. I believe while I was away to college there were some events held, but I don't know anything about them. Maybe Glen does? He was (is) like Charley and wanted (wants) to play, but I don't remember him directing a tournament?"
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