Athletes - John W. Donaldson

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	Athletes - John W. Donaldson

William John Donaldson (b. September 25, 1958, in Los Angeles) is an international master of chess. He has been an IM since 1983. He is one of the most popular chess personalities in the world. In addition to being a strong player, he is an author, organizer, journalist and chess politician. He was Captain of the US Team in six Chess Olympiads from 1986 to 1996, including the 1986 World Chess Olympiad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and again at the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki (also called Salonica), Greece. At the latter event, Donaldson performed a special service which brought about the defeat of the leading Soviet Woman's Team, by marrying their top performing player in the town hall of Thessaloniki

and helping her immigrate to the United States. The departure of Elena Akhmilovskaya who thereby became Elena Donaldson, three rounds before the Olympiad was over, caused the Soviet team to fall from first to second place.

While a few news reports described the departure as a defection

, that term connotes a political motivation which was not in evidence in the reports and which the Donaldsons denied having . Soviet player Inna Izrailov according to the New York Times claimed "It's a real love match — a marriage, not a defection" . The Toronto Star quoted anonymous U.S. players as saying that "they did not see Akhmilovskaya's action as a political defection because she was motivated by love for Donaldson and not by ideology."

See the article Elena Donaldson for some further details about the incident.

In 1990, Donaldson was elected to the Policy Board of the United States Chess Federation. He also became an editor of Inside Chess magazine published by Yasser Seirawan. After the magazine folded, he moved to San Francisco where he became chess director of the San Francisco Mechanics Institute. He is constantly writing and producing chess books, mostly biographies of chess historical figures. He qualified to play in the 2002 and the 2003 U.S. Chess Championship. He has achieved two grandmaster norms, Lindsborg 2002 and Stratton Mountain 2003.

He recently appeared as a guest on the Fred Wilson Show.

Books

The Unknown Bobby Fischer. ISBN 1879479850
Alekhine in Europe and Asia. ISBN 1879479125
Elmars Zemgalis: Grandmaster without the title. ISBN B0006RZ3N6
Olaf Ulvestad: An American original. ISBN 188871011X
Legend on the Road (about Bobby Fischer
's 1964 simul tour) ISBN 187947915X

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for John W. Donaldson ]

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