Helen Warren Honored at ICA Banquet

More than 40 ICA members from near and far gathered Sunday to celebrate Helen Warren, for her decades of contributions to Illinois and United States chess. While Warren is best known among current ICA members because her name is attached to the state program she founded for Illinois’ top junior players, her contributions over the years were much broader and far-reaching.

She served as the longtime editor of what at the time was the highly regarded Illinois Chess Bulletin, and held numerous leadership roles in the United States Chess Federation. Past ICA president Fred Gruenberg, the banquet’s keynote speaker, praised her organization and running of the Midwest Masters tournaments in the 1980s, which brought top chess players from around the country and the world to Chicago. “Those tournaments were run to perfection, as was everything she did,” Gruenberg said.

Two past USCF presidents, Tim Redman and Steve Doyle, who couldn’t travel to the banquet, submitted tributes that were read to Warren. Redman said she had a “brain that launched a thousand ideas,” together with the “will and effort to put them into practice.” Her lifelong dedication to chess excellence manifested itself most tangibly in the high-level masters invitational events she organized with her husband Jim Warren in the 1980s and 1990s.  The tournaments had dozens of players with average ratings in the 2200 to 2300 range.

The banquet was held at Buca de Beppo restaurant in Lombard, and ICA members came from as far as Springfield to attend. Some top Illinois players were also in attendance, including GM Yury Shulman, IM Florin Felecan, and FM Albert Chow. Two current Warren scholars, Conrad Oberhaus and George Li, both among the top players in the country for their age, were on hand to play blitz with guests. ICA President Tom Sprandel presented Warren with an engraved plaque that read, "Presented to Helen Warren: Founding member and guiding spirit of the Illinois Chess Association, in appreciation for a lifetime of service to American chess."

Many banquet-goers, as well as those who couldn’t attend, made contributions to the ICA Warren Program in Helen’s honor, and more than $1,200 was raised. Thanks go to Daniel and Helen Pradt, Vernon and Marge Stamm, Joe and Jody Delay, Roy Benedek, Mitchel Sweig, Kiran Frey, Mike Cardinale, the Kings and Queens Chess Club, Daumants Hazners, Sangeeta and Rakesh Vohra, Tom Panelas, Carl Dolson, Tom and Marie Sprandel, Mark Nibbelin, Larry Cohen, Bill Brock, Jim Egerton, Jim Brotsos, Garrett Scott and Frederick Rhine.

Below is a game between Dmitry Gurevich and Joel Benjamin, that was voted the best game of the 1986 Midwest Masters tournament that Warren organized.