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Garland Best
01-19-2009, 11:30 PM
I enjoyed your article on your early days in Ottawa.

FYI, while going through a cardboard box at the back of the RA chess club storage closet, I found several old records from the 50's and 60's, including some of your old games. Let me know if you are interested in seeing them.

Cheers,
Garland Best
RA Chess Club

Lawrence Day
01-20-2009, 04:37 PM
That would be cool. I know that during high school I wrote up R.A. club activities for the CSRA newspaper, I even kept one column.
Something interesting from before I arrived was the visiting Soviet embassy member who got turfed for spooky reasons. I think his name was Zaitsev. Lucky for me they didn't end all non-civil servant memberships, just the political ones. My dad worked in the "private sector", CJOH and then CTV.

Jonathan Berry
01-21-2009, 04:26 PM
Lawrence,

Lev Zaitsev (whom I liked to think of as "Colonel Zaitsev", though his official embassy creds did not reflect any secret police affiliations) was an Expert and member of Ron Rodgers' club, the Ottawa Chess Club, when I came to Ottawa in 1975.

It's just a vague recollection, but weren't there three Soviet staff involved, and didn't one or two of them get sent back to the Motherland? The name Usaty or Usaaty sticks in my mind. Of course, that all happened 20 years before my chess time in Ottawa.

My bicycle route from the first office I set up for the CFC (at 10 Percy Street, now demolished) to Box 7339 in Vanier, went past the Soviet Embassy at Laurier and Charlotte. One day I happened to meet Colonel Zaitsev outside the embassy and we had to talk about the latest chess news (some from "64" magazine), at length. A few days later, I had a call from the RCMP.... of course, the Soviet Embassy was under surveillance.

While I lived in Ottawa (1975-84), another spy scandal happened, though it had nothing to do with the RA Chess Club.

My brother Chris works in television (e.g., the music program Rez Bluez 2 on aptn) as a cameraman. However, he never worked in Ottawa. Wilf Dagenais of the RA Chess Club was a sound man for CBC.

Garland Best
01-21-2009, 04:51 PM
Now this is a story I would like to see. - "The Great Canadian Chess Spy Scandal". Awesome! Can we do it?

Egidijus Zeromskis
01-21-2009, 04:53 PM
A few days later, I had a call from the RCMP.... of course, the Soviet Embassy was under surveillance.

How long have you been under surveillance? :rolleyes: