Kenneth
Maurice Grover, Sr. died 9/6/1993 at the age of 85, at Taholah, Washington State.
He died of kidney failure. Grover was amongst the most respected American
crossboard players for several decades. Grover won the World 11 Man Ballot
Championship from Newell Banks in 1969, and defended it until losing to Asa Long
in 1975. He was also an analyst, author, and exhibition player.
Date: 09-21-1943 Kenneth
Grover, formerly of New York, and now with the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding
Corporation, issued a challenge to Tacoma's checker players - he would compete
against 40 players simultaneously and would even take on 4 of the 40 blindfolded
at the U.S.O. club at 415 13th Street. Mr. Grover, author of "Chess" and "Let's
Play Checkers" and the US crossboard checker champ, opened the competition to
chess aficionados as well. He is pictured (standing, far left) on September 21,
1943, examining the checker moves of Pierce County Sheriff Lee Croft, member of
a local checker club. Several other opponents await their turn. Unfortunately,
the results of this challenge were apparently not reported in the local
newspapers.
Date: 07-19-1943
Description: Workers at the Seattle-Tacoma shipyards came from all walks of
life and at least two of them had "checkered" careers. Kenneth (Mighty Mite)
Grover, seated left, and Jesse (Bonaparte) Hanson, seated right, would be
playing one another Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1944, for the Pacific Coast
Checker Championship. Kenneth Grover, employed at Sea-Tac as an electrician, was
a U.S. crossboard checker champion, who played as high as 60 opponents at one
time or six blindfolded. A published authority on checkers, he was the runner-up
in the previous year's US checker championship. Jesse Hanson, who was a
graveyard worker in the labor section at Sea-Tac, was the current Pacific Coast
champion and had played in Europe, Mexico, Guatemala and every state in the
Union. The three observers are not identified. (Sea-Tac Keel, Vol. III, No. 2,
pg. 7; January 19, 1944 issue)
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