Principal is national chess phenom
December 28, 2008
From Submitted Reports
BOLINGBROOK — More times than not, if you hear Angelo Armistead say “check”, he’s not asking his staff at Hubert H. Humphrey Middle School to make sure their security radios are working.
Instead, the principal, who is a ranked player in the U.S. Chess Federation, is most likely putting the finishing touches on another victory on the chess board.
Armistead’s latest victory came a few months ago when he won the Harvey Public Library District’s Juneteenth Chess Tournament, a USCF competition launched two years ago in his honor.
“I started playing when I was 12,” said Armistead, who grew up on the south side of Chicago but now lives in Aurora. “This was before computers. We played all the time.”
In fact he played so much, and played so well in tournaments, that by the time he was 18 or 19, he was rated an “A” player by the USCF. He played in regional tournaments throughout Northern Illinois. He played in tournaments throughout the Midwest. He even played in some tournaments across the country.
After graduating from college, he taught English and Spanish at Thornton High School in Harvey and that’s where he began sharing his talents with others by forming a Chess Club. And what a success it was. So successful that the Harvey area now holds a tournament is his honor.
“I love working with kids,” Armistead said as he recalled field trips and great friendships he developed through the Thornton Chess Club. “We had a great rapport with the parents and the community.”
When he arrived at Humphrey Middle School he helped launch another chess club. One of his dreams is to have a Valley View districtwide chess tournament next summer that he says “is going to be big.”
As for his own chess playing, other than a few recreational games and the tournament in Harvey, Armistead doesn’t have a lot of time to spend contemplating his next move on the chess board. But then again you know what they say about chess: once a great player always a great player.
Source: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com
Class A = phenom?
Angelo was a friend of mine coming up in Chicago.
Class A as a teen in those days really meant something, but I think people writing about chess do not understand subtleties and often get it wrong.