Unbillable Hours: Maryland lawyer a major player at Fells Point Chess Club
CARYN TAMBER
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer
December 28, 2008 7:27 PM
For Peter H. Gunst, chess is many things: social outlet, intellectual workout, even physical exercise. Gunst, a partner at Astrachan, Gunst & Thomas P.C., usually plays five times a week at the Fells Point Chess Club, getting his exercise by walking from his downtown office out to Aliceanna Street, where the club meets.
Back in 2003, the club was about to lose its building when Gunst intervened, putting together a limited liability company that bought it and kept the club operating.
He said the club attracts an offbeat cast of characters ranging in age from 8 up to 70.
“Chess players particularly, the better oftentimes they are, the more eccentric they are,” he said.
He told of one Russian chess genius who lived in Baltimore for a time and came to the club to deliver lectures.
He “had a fondness for vodka, and you could tell when he’d had too much because he started giving the lectures in Russian,” Gunst said.
Then there was the man who rose to tell everyone about his strong feelings for chess.
Here is the full story.
Nice guy.