Claude Bloodgood

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Claude Frizzel Bloodgood (born July 14, 1937 in La Paz , Mexico as Klaus Bluttgutt , † August 4, 2001 near Richmond , Virginia ) was an American murderer and chess player .

Life

Nothing specific is known about his youth. He himself claimed to have been born in 1924 and to have come to the USA as a spy in a German submarine during the Second World War . According to his own statements, he was a professional chess player in the 1950s and allegedly played against numerous famous people.

In 1958 he founded a correspondence chess organization , the All Service Postal Chess Club (ASPCC). In the 1960s he came into conflict with the law several times and served several sentences for theft and fraud .

In 1969 he murdered his stepmother, whom he strangled in an argument about forged checks, and was sentenced to death in Virginia in 1970 . During his time on death row, he played over 2,000 correspondence chess games. After six postponed executions, he was pardoned in 1972 and given a life sentence . He was allowed to leave the prison under guard to take part in chess tournaments. In 1974 he used such an opportunity to flee with an accomplice and was only caught again after several weeks. As a result, he was only allowed to play chess against fellow prisoners. All of these several thousand games, almost all of which he won against weak opponents, he submitted to the United States Chess Federation for evaluation . This resulted in the curious situation in 1996 that, with a rating of 2702 on paper, he was the second best player in the USA behind Gata Kamsky , although his actual playing strength was far below. Formally, he would have had a right to participate in the US state championship, but neither the chess federation nor the prison administration wanted to get involved. Instead, he was allowed to take part in the 15th US Correspondence Chess Championship, which began in June 2000. He could not finish this tournament because he died of lung cancer on August 4, 2001 in the Powhatan Correctional Center.

Works

Bloodgood published three books on his favorite chess openings :

  • The tactical coarse . Chess, Sutton Coldfield 1976.
  • Nimzovich attack: the Norfolk gambits, 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 c5 3 e4 or 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 Nf6 3 Bb2 c5 4 e4 . Chess Digest, Grand Prairie 1997. ISBN 0-87568-289-8 .
  • Blackburne-Hartlaub gambit: 1 d4 e5 2 dxe5 d6 !? (together with Donald K. Wedding). Chess Digest, Grand Prairie, 1998. ISBN 0-87568-292-8 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bloodgood, Claude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bluttgutt, Klaus; Bloodgood, Claude Frizzel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American murderer and chess player
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH La Paz , Mexico
DATE OF DEATH August 4, 2001
Place of death near Richmond , Virginia