William Scott honored in March 2025 Chess Life!

William Scott III was featured in the latest issue of Chess Life in a wonderful six-page tribute written by Mark Taylor. It is the most comprehensive account of his life. Previously, we only had his obituary written by a relative. Here was an excerpt from that lengthy account.

“W.A.” was studying Business Administration and Mathematics at Morehouse College, and waiting to marry his childhood sweetheart Marian Willis, when he was called up for the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. He served from 1943 to 1946. He and Marian married on August 28, 1944, just before he was shipped overseas. Scott served as a photographer with the 318th Airbase Squadron and the 183rd Engineer Combat Battalion, While with the 183rd in Germany. Scott was one of the first Allied soldiers to enter Buchenwald. After the war he returned to Atlanta, and completed his education at Morehouse. He began his married life with Marian. and in 1948 became Circulation Manager of the Atlanta Daily World. During the years Scott covered many events of historical significance occurring in this area, sometimes as the lone African-American walking into a Southern hamlet to investigate a lynching. In 1984, he became Public Relations and Advertising Manager, a post he held until his death.

While the obituary was a fitting account of Scott’s life, Taylor’s account filled in intricate details, specifically his military service and his breaking the “color barrier” in chess.

“This is a fantastic game.”

~William A. Scott III

Scott lived an extraordinary life, marrying his childhood sweetheart, but most notably seeing combat in World War II. This was no minor footnote in history for a Black man given the military was still segregated. Incidentally, Scott was in the unit who went into clear the Nazi concentration camps in Buchenwald, Germany. He saw two camp prisoners playing chess and became intrigued. This inspired the quote, “This is a fantastic game,” leading to Scott’s chess player journey.

It was a conversation with a white man from Georgia that encouraged him to fight in the face of adversity and seek out chess tournaments. At this time, tournaments were decisively white and male. To make matters worse, segregation was taken very seriously in the “Deep South.” Taylor’s account highlights the challenges of playing tournament chess during segregation. He went to the 1950 Southern Chess Association Championship with the idea of competing and initiating a conversation about segregation.

By the next year, the SCA had split into factions, with the larger one favoring Scott’s inclusion. It was not until 1961 that Georgia relented, and Scott was able to play in his resident state, but he was still barred from the 1962 Georgia Closed Championship. To add insult to injury, the media also participated in freezing him out of the limelight.

In 1963, Scott was the top Gerofia finisher in the Georgia Open in Columbus. The April 1963 Geogira Chess Association newsletter, however, failed to mention his name in their tournament report, only mentioning the overall tournament winner, Milan Momic, of Alabama.

Scott blazed the trail later, followed by Walter Harris, Frank Street, Leroy Muhammad, and Kenneth Clayton. Although he was rated 2000-2199 at his peak, this was very respectable in his day. Not mentioned in this article was his chance meeting of Bobby Fischer, reported by Michael Bacon. It was an awkward encounter as Scott reminded Fischer that he had finished ahead of him in 1956. Fischer probably had not seen many Black players and had no idea of the distinguished statesman that Scott was. However, Fischer had had as his mentor Archie Waters, another Black journalist, who had accompanied him to Reykjavik, Iceland. What a significant intersection of history!

What was missing in this piece was that Scott finished his education at Morehouse upon returning from Europe. After that, he began to make a name for himself as a journalist with the Atlanta Daily World, a Black newspaper founded by his father. The article presented several of his games, including the swindle of the famous Ken Smith, during the 1959 U.S. Open in Omaha, Nebraska. A pioneer of the Smith-Morra Gambit, Smith came undone after falling to a tactical shot.

There is a small bit of trivia surrounding this game: Walter Harris also played in the 1959 U.S. Open (7/12), where he beat IM Raymond Weinstein but lost to IM James Sherwin. Harris would become the first Black player to earn the National Master’s title. It is not clear if Harris and Scott had any interaction. Rogelio Ortega, the Afro-Cuban champion, was also in the field (8.5/12).

In 1966, Scott played Sherwin at the Peach State Open. According to Chess Life writer GM William Lombardy, this encounter was accentuated by the fact that Scott was 40 minutes late. Scott was the President of the Atlanta Chess Association and certainly would not have ducked out as the host.

During the course of the game, Sherwin observed that his opponent had disappeared! The clock had already been running some 40 minutes and Scott was nowhere to be found. Was he on special assignment for the newspaper of which he is editor? Not exactly. Scott later revealed that he had promised to drive his daughter to the airport. “She’s only a freshman at Barnard,” he said with fatherly concern. He felt that this game would be a breeze for Sherwin and so he could safely make the trip to the airport, losing such valuable time. Needless to say, the round trip to the airport was sufficiently refreshing to spur him on a splendid victory in what was a see-saw battle.

~GM William Lombardy in the February 1967 Chess Life

This Accelerated Dragon was definitely a thrilling encounter. Maybe Scott’s lateness unsettled Sherwin, but it was a great result!

What a great article by Taylor! It is rare to see such a tribute about a player, let alone with such class. Despite Harris, Street and Clayton all making the cover of Chess Life in the 60s, these types of stories were rare. For Black players looking for inspiration, such a tribute is for the ages. It not only inspires players of the African Diaspora, but it should inspire players who will learn that one can have a life full of purpose despite facing many challenges.