Gary Gifford is 66 years old and is from Mentor, Ohio. He has a wife, four children, 1 dog, 1 cat, 3 grand kids and another on the way! He was a Sr. Technical Writer & Nuclear Submarine Electrician. Gifford earned a BA in Telecommunications (TV,radio) from Kent State University & an MBA from Lake Erie College. Gary learned how to play chess from a barbershop in 1959, at the age of 3! He would learn the rules of chess as he spectated barbers playing chess. Ever since then, he continues to play chess to this very day! Gary taught chess for ProgressWithChess prior to COVID-19. Since COVID-19, he has played at a chess club at the Willoughby Library. In addition, Gary has written several chess books, a chess-related novella, and chess variant books. Besides chess, Gifford enjoys playing stringed instruments, building Cigar-Box-Guitars, wood carving, macro-photography (mostly insects & arachnids!), writing books, creating computer art, building tanks out of cardboard, playing chess variants, etc.
Accomplishments:
-Tied for 2nd at the World Open in 1980 (1400-1600 Section)
-1st in two ChessVariants.org Tournaments; Invented over 50 chess variants!
-Directed several USCF Rated Tournaments
-Editor for Unorthodox Openings News (UON); illustrated covers, wrote articles, book reviews. Interviewed Alexandra Kosteniuk (Former Women’s World Champion)
-Wrote Several Books: Hippo System Mongredian Edition (co-authored w/ Eric Biffoz), Winning with the Krazy Kat & Old Hippo (co-authored w/ Davide Rozzoni and Bill Wall), Makruk and Ouk Chatrang (Thailand and Cambodian Chess), The Nakhmason, A Super Aggressive Gambit, Stafford and Boden-Kieseritzky, A Gambit for Black, A Gambit for White, Beating the Smith Morra Gambit, Gifford’s Chess Variants, Catapults of Troy Edition (first book in a series), and The Angry Chess Player, A Novella.