Bailey king of the chess board — again
By Tom Carr
Traverse City Record-Eagle (Traverse City, Mich.)

MESICK, Mich. — Gregory E. Bailey is the king of Michigan Chess Association’s senior division for the second time.

Bailey, 55, won the organization’s championship last month for those 50 and older. He had won the same competition in 2004.“My life is kind of wrapped up in the game of chess,” said Bailey, who owns an insurance agency in Mesick and is a lifelong chess enthusiast.

Bailey took the title with three wins and a draw and by defeating two former Michigan Open champs, Thomas LaForge and Gary Kitts.

When Bailey was 6 years old and living in Mesick, he had already become a pretty good checkers player, having learned the game from his mother. He’d seen people play chess, knew about legendary champion Bobby Fischer and was curious about the game.

“I scraped up a dollar and bought a plastic set in Manton,” he said. It became one of his “most prized possessions.”

Here is the full story.

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