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Well, up she went, and (god bless you people) the letters began to come in. Eventually (I will omit the maze-like details), I found my way to the man I’d wanted to contact from the start, Mr. Don Wedding! Don Wedding was a long-time friend and CC opponent of Claude Bloodgood; in fact, when Bloodgood passed away in August 2001, it was Don Wedding who wrote the obituary article (see note below). Here then, for the first time giving a detailed interview, Don Wedding provides us with some recollections into that fascinating enigma that was his friend, Claude Bloodgood.
Robert Tuohey: How did you met CB? Any background on yourself you'd like to give would be interesting, as well. Don Wedding: I was in graduate school and was a fanatical devotee of the "Grob" opening. I was particularly drawn to The Tactical Grob by Claude Bloodgood. I wanted to contact him and ask him some chess-related questions. This was around 1991 or so, and the internet was not widely available. So it took a long time to track him down. I was surprised to find that he was in prison for murder. I wrote to him and he wrote back with some analysis and game scores. We continued to exchange letters and after a while he would phone me and we would talk chess. RT: You mention in your article that CB left a number of unpublished books. Could you give us some details on these? Also, are CB's papers now stored at the Cleveland Public Library? DW: The manuscripts are all in the Cleveland Public Library's John G. White Chess Collection. Many people have contacted me and I have made the trek over there and photo-copied the documents for people. Claude always hoped they would get published. So I tell people that if they want to publish the books, then they may do so. They can even add themselves as an author if they add material to the books. All they need to do is mention that Claude Bloodgood was a co-author of the books. They don't need to pay any money to his estate or anything like that. I'm the executor of his estate. Let me warn anybody who is interested, that publishing a chess book is a labor of love. Claude usually received $200 plus 50 free copies of the book. As for all of his papers, they are also at the Cleveland Public Library (CPL). Over the decade that I knew Claude, he would send me tons of documents. Claude was a pack-rat and would save everything. I probably received maybe 10 large manila envelopes a week and maybe another 10 smaller envelopes. He would send me everything from chess game scores to his shopping list at the prison canteen. He didn't throw anything away. He also had an amazing memory. He would call me up and ask for me to find some insignificant paper that he had sent months or years earlier. He knew it's exact location and could usually tell me the approximate post mark date. It was always right where he said it would be. He had a remarkable memory. Right now I would say many of his papers are at the CPL, because after he died I started tossing out boxes and boxes of documents because I had no idea anybody would care about things like laundry lists and complaints about how the guards served Claude tomatoes instead of carrots (his other hobby was filing grievances and law suits against the prison). Anyway, I went to the CPL one day and mentioned Claude in passing. The director of the collections said he wanted all of the documents. So I packed up about 15 computer boxes with papers and gave them to the CPL. I probably had tossed out another 15 boxes or so. But I didn't toss out any chess documents. I saved all or most of that. That is all at the CPL. RT: I believe you played CB face-to-face several times: could you describe his OTB manner, and playing style? DW: I visited Claude about 4 or 5 times and played chess with him on all occasions. I am a class C or B strength player, and face people in my clubs who are expert and master class strength. I usually get pounded, but occasionally can squeak out a win or draw. Claude was clearly better than expert or maybe master. I did defeat him over the board a few times, but that was always after we had played for several hours and his strength was then giving out. Claude had lung cancer and asthma and had an oxygen tank by his side. He was in very bad health. Even so, he was an outstanding player. Particularly at speed chess. Very aggressive, tactical play. He was a total gentleman over the board and would usually tell me when I had made a terrible blunder. He'd then invite me to make a different move. On one occasion he was spending a really long time in a non-speed chess game trying to decide where to place a rook. I was confused because the rook had only two squares where it could move and it would be hanging in either case. I said, "Hey Claude, what's the hold up? If you move that rook it's going to get taken." He said to me, "Ya, but I touched it. I play touch- move." I felt really bad because all those years he had been telling me to take back moves and he was holding himself up to a much higher standard. The one thing that I can say is that Claude was scrupulously honest about chess. RT: Did CB have interests outside of chess? DW: Claude was working on some World War II era spy novels. They were partially completed and they were pretty good. They had quite a bit detail that indicated that he was an expert on the topic. He mentioned that he also liked war-simulation games such as the type that Avalon Hill used to make. I think he used to write reviews on war-simulation games for a magazine, but I'm not sure about that. RT: You mention CB's great sense of humor, can you give us an example or two? DW: Claude's humor was very dry and usually involved the current situation. I'd be on the phone talking to him and he would make some really funny comments about whatever we were talking about. After I'd hang up, I'd tell my wife and she'd give me a blank stare. It really lost a lot in the translation. I suppose I could give you examples now, but then I'd get the same blank stares from your readers that I got from my wife. All who knew him, thought he was very bright, a very loyal friend, and had a good sense of humor. He was also generous with his friends. For example, towards the end of his life, Claude started getting a small disability check from the veterans administration. It was something like 70 or 80 dollars a month. Not a lot of money but it covered his postal chess expenses and he could buy candy and soda from the prison store. Still he had a little left over each month. He would usually send it to me and ask me to forward it to the prison accounts of his some of his elderly inmate friends who were in interred in the medical unit. He didn't have a lot, but he was generous with what he did have. He even purchased chess sets and chess clocks for some of the elderly prisoners who could not afford to purchase them. RT: In your article, you don't go into CB's early life (1924 - 1945), or give any comments on his version of this time. Would you like to express any opinions on it now? DW: I never believed that he was secretly a Nazi spy. I did find records stating that he was born in 1924 and 1936 and 1937. Claude claimed that he was actually born in 1924 to German nationals in La Paz Mexico. I did believe that. He looked older than my Grandmother, so the 1924 date was easy to believe. If he were born in 1936 he would be younger than my dad, and there was no way that was true. His prison counselor said to me that 1937 was accurate and told me that prison-stress ages you twice as fast. I did not believe that. Also, Claude spoke fluent German and also could speak several other languages such as Russian. I thought maybe it was true about his German heritage. After his death, I was contacted by many relatives of his. They said that 1937 was the actual date of his birth. So the prison official was correct. One close relative said that Claude used to go to the library and get books and records on foreign languages while he was young and would be able to learn any language that he wanted to learn without any effort. So that is why he could speak fluent German. So none of that was true. However, in hindsight I think that Claude actually believed the stories he told. He invented a fantastic history with intricate details and believed every word of it. That's why he had so many people fooled. The one thing that he told me that I absolutely never believed was that he was secretly married to the Hollywood movie star Kathryn Grayson for a few weeks. I even told him that he was crazy. Years later I acquired Claude's FBI file via the Freedom of Information Act. In the file, the FBI made mention of the fact that Claude did know Kathryn Grayson and might have been married to her for a brief period of time. Go figure. The file is currently in the Cleveland Public Library. RT: You're quoted in the Marc Davis article (see note below) as saying, "If you look at Claude's whole life, he would always look for the easy way around -- burglary, forgery, con man. I think he liked the thrill of outsmarting people." Do you think this attitude connected with CB's playing style? (particularly, I mean his specialization in gambits.) DW: No question about it. Every opening he played involved sleazy traps that would snare people who were unprepared and made "good moves" in the unfamiliar opening. He would play people for money and catch them in traps. As soon as they figured out the refutation of the opening he'd go on to the next sleazy opening. When he ran out of openings, he’d get up and leave. I wonder what would have happened if he had concentrated on good openings like the Ruy Lopez. RT: Can you share a game or two between yourself and CB? Any notes you would like to add would be very beneficial. DW: Here are some postal games. We probably played several hundred postal games over the years. He won most of the time. (Only thing I can say is that these games prove that I don't use a computer in postal chess !!!) Wedding,D - Bloodgood,C 1.g4 g6 2.d4 d5
3.h3 Bg7 4.Bg2 c6 5.c3 a5 6.Bf4 Nd7 7.Nd2 a4 8.Ngf3 Qb6 9.Qc2 Ngf6 10.0-0
0-0 11.Ne5 Ne8 12.Ndf3 Nxe5 13.Nxe5 Nd6 14.Qd2 Bxe5 15.Bxe5 Nc4 16.Qh6 Nxe5
17.dxe5 Qxb2 18.f4 Qxc3 19.e4 dxe4 20.Bxe4 Qe3+ 0-1 Wedding,D - Bloodgood,C 1.g4 d5 2.Bg2 e5
3.c4 dxc4 4.Qa4+ c6 5.Qxc4 Be6 6.Qc2 Qd7 7.h3 Ne7 8.Nc3 Na6 9.a3 Nc7 10.Nf3
Ng6 11.d3 Bc5 12.Ne4 Bb6 13.Nc5 Bxc5 14.Qxc5 Na6 15.Qc3 0-0 16.Nxe5 Nxe5
17.Qxe5 Rfe8 18.Qh5 f5 19.g5 g6 20.Qh6 Bb3 21.h4 Qxd3 22.0-0 Qxe2 23.f4 Rad8
24.h5 Qxh5 25.Qxh5 gxh5 26.Bf3 h4 27.Kf2 Nc5 28.Be3 Nd3+ 29.Ke2 Nxf4+ 30.Kf2
Nd3+ 31.Ke2 f4 0-1 Wedding,D - Bloodgood,C 1.g4 e5 2.d3 Bc5
3.Bg2 d5 4.h3 Qh4 5.e3 c6 6.Nf3 Qf6 7.Nc3 Bb4 8.Bd2 Nd7 9.a3 Ba5 10.0-0 Ne7
11.Ne2 Bc7 12.e4 dxe4 13.dxe4 0-0 14.Ng3 Nc5 15.Bg5 Qe6 16.b4 Nd7 17.Nh4 Ng6
18.Nhf5 Nf6 19.Bxf6 gxf6 20.Nh6+ Kh8 21.Ngf5 Nf4 22.Qb1 Qc4 23.Qb3 Qxb3
24.cxb3 Be6 25.Rab1 Rad8 26.Rfd1 Rxd1+ 27.Rxd1 Rd8 28.Rxd8+ Bxd8 ½-½ Bloodgood,C - Wedding,D 1.Nf3 d5 2.b3 c5 3.e4 dxe4 4.Ng5 Nf6 5.Bb2 Bg4 6.Be2 Bf5 7.Bb5+ Nbd7 8.Qe2 h6 9.Bxf6 exf6 10.Nxe4 a6 11.Nd6# 1-0 * Comments? How about "Ouch!" RT: Any final comments you'd like to add (e.g., something I missed, something you always wanted said about CB, etc.) DW: Nothing that I think hasn't been covered elsewhere. He was an interesting and colorful person. He was a good friend and I am lucky to have known him. Notes: The article by Mr. Wedding can be read at http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic354.html Don Wedding's e-mail is dwedding@adelphia.net. The article by Marc Davis, The Convict Who Would Be King, , from The Virginian-Pilot newspaper, (c) October 29, 2001, is found at various sites for example, http://www.chess-iecc.org/journaltxt/oct02.txt
Again, I would like to thank Mr. Don Wedding for his tremendous cooperation!
The Life and Legend of Claude F. Bloodgood: Part
III: The Legend
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The Chessville
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