Tribune Profiles 104-Year Old Civil Rights Advocate Leighton

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Harvard-educated lawyer George Leighton was a civil rights advocate... a legal inspiration to Barack Obama... a jurist on several judicial levels... a chess aficionado... and the namesake of the Chicago courthouse at 26th and California.

Mr. Leighton turns 104 this weekend and his long-time passion for chess was front and center in a Tribune profile currently posted at http://mobile.digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5caf7f4a-c550-455f-ad1e-f31ec318da3c.

Sadly the article reveals the retired judge recently had to give up chess -- but is still "vibrant", living in the Boston area, and includes his favorite chess board among his dearest mementos -- along with a gold watch given him by mobster Sam Giancana, a former client.

Reporter Steve Schmadeke indicates Leighton was a regular at the North Avenue Beach chess pavilion and a long-time member of the Chicago Chess Club.

Even when "warned by federal agents that a terrorist group might try to assassinate him" he continued to play at the pavilion. According to a long-time friend: "Chess was such an important part of his life that he disregarded that advice and continued to play there."

According to Schmadeke, "Leighton was an accomplished chess player who ranked as high as an “expert” and once defeated a Russian master at a Chicago tournament in 1982, according to a Chess Life profile."

Sadly the US Chess web-based MSA only goes back as far as 1991, showing Leighton with a peak rating of 1951 after playing in the 1992 Illinois Open. He was regularly playing tournaments until 1997, a full decade after he had retired from the federal bench. He also played in the 2002 US Masters in Oakbrook shortly before turning 90.

"One of Leighton's chessboards now sits in an enclosed glass space near the entrance to the Leighton Criminal Court Building, a spot thousands of people walk past every day. Few know or appreciate its history."

Schmadeke's piece profiles amazing civil rights advancements indicating that when Leighton moved to Chicago in 1946, "African-Americans weren't allowed to join bar associations or rent office space downtown." 

If members of the Illinois chess community have recollections of meeting Mr. Leighton (hopefully at the chessboard and not as a defendant in court), we'd love to add your thoughts to this piece. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Addendum: Bill Brock was nice enough to share this 2010 posting from his Chicago Chess Blogspot:

http://chicagochess.blogspot.com/2010/07/honorable-george-neves-leighton.html

[Hat tip to Kevin Cahill for alerting us to this article]