One of the most popular chess personalities in Georgia chess history was Gary Roger Southerland. Gary had the rare ability to get along with practically everyone. Gary was also a tireless worker, and his remarkable work ethic earned him the thanks and respect of his peers.

 

Gary was born on June 07, 1950 in Knoxville, TN and was raised in the Atlanta, GA area. He was beating his father at chess regularly by age ten. He graduated from Lakeside High School in the late 1960s. The first mention of Gary in Georgia chess publications is when he played as an unrated player from Atlanta in the 1969 Augusta Open. The next mention of him finds him playing with a 1709 rating in both the 1978 Atlanta Open and 1979 Southern Congress.

 The January-February 1981 issue of Southeast Chess shows Gary as the 20^th highest rated player in Georgia with a 1992 rating. The same issue cites him as having gained 202 rating points from January 1980 (1790) to January 1981.

 Since Gary played sparingly in weekend tournaments, it must be assumed that he played rated games at chess clubs on weekdays. Nonetheless, he progressed.

 His greatest single moment as a player was when he beat Stuart Rachels at the 1982 Atlanta Open. Rachels had gained the title of USCF Master the year before at age eleven. When they played, Rachels outrated Southerland 2232 to 1974. Gary played a classic bishop sacrifice to chase Rachels’ king and his bold gamble paid off. [Rachels later became a FIDE Master in 1985, became a FIDE International Master in 1989, and tied for 1^st place (3-way) with GMs Roman Dzindzichashvili and Yasser Seirawan at the 1989-1990 U.S. Closed Championship.]

 

Gary did not have any significant success with his tournament results, but he continued to play occasionally. The 1986 Winter Congress crosstable showed Gary achieving Expert with a rating of 2016. The January-February 1991 issue of Georgia Chess shows Gary at the end of 1990 as the 10^th highest-rated player in the State of Georgia with a rating of 2076. He achieved his peak rating of 2120 in 1993; the end of year rating list for 1993 ranked him 21^st in the State of Georgia. Gary also achieved his peak Quick chess rating of 2123 the same year. Gary also made Expert in correspondence chess with a USCF postal chess rating of 2114.

 

Gary never had a FIDE rating. Gary stopped playing rated chess in 1999. Gary never had a USCF Blitz rating, but his friend Stephen Whiteman stated in his Georgia Chess eulogy that Southerland achieved a rating over 2300 in the now defunct World Blitz Chess Association.

 

Gary contributed to the Georgia Chess Association (GCA) in the way of service. He was elected GCA secretary in 1992 and vacated his office in 1993 to become GCA President until 1994. Gary was elected GCA President in 1996 and served until 1998. Gary also stepped in to serve as Acting Editor for Georgia Chess for the June 1998 issue when the actual Editor was unable to fulfill his duties. Gary then formally became the Editor for one issue (the Fall 1998 issue) before resigning because of time constraints. (a new Editor was found at the very end of 1998, whose first issue was the February-March 1999 issue. The new Editor just happened to be 2024 GCA Hall of Fame Inductee, Dan Lucas!). Gary was also elected as GCA 2^nd Vice President in 2004 and served until his untimely death in August 2005.

 

One of Gary’s two true gifts and his greatest contribution to Georgia chess was his skill as a USCF Tournament Director (TD). The USCF website’s electronic records do not show history prior to 01/01/1991, but they do show that from January 1992 to June 2005, Gary directed 154 tournaments and 330 total sections. GCA 2024 Hall of Fame Inductee, Scott Parker, recalls that for many years, most of the tournaments in Georgia were directed by either Gary Southerland, Rich Bellezza, or himself. The USCF website no longer shows Gary’s TD certification level, but Parker stated that Gary was a USCF Senior TD. Southerland directed many of Georgia’s most important and prestigious tournaments [such as the Emory Castle Grand Prix (from 2001 to 2005), Georgia State Championship, Georgia Open, Peach State Open, Georgia Senior Open, and Atlanta Open].

 

Wayne D Lauzon of East Coweta high School recalled in Georgia Chess, “Gary seemed to be at every scholastic tournament, and I remember his level-headedness and patience as he dealt with parents that didn’t understand the rules of chess. He was so kind, knowledgeable, and volunteered so much of his time so our kids could enjoy competitive chess.”

 

David Woolf recalled in Holly Crenshaw’s obituary, “Gary could practically recite the United States Chess Federation 350-page rule book backward and forward.”

Gary was the first Manager for about two years for Thad Rogers’ Atlanta Chess Club when it opened in 1992.

Gary’s other true chess gift was his ability to teach and coach chess.

Scott Parker states that Gary taught chess for five years at the Emory Castle chess camp.

Holly Crenshaw stated in her obituary for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “He taught after-school classes at Chamblee High School, Paideia, the Atlanta School, and other campuses throughout DeKalb and Fulton counties, and offered private teaching sessions nights and weekends.”

In the same obituary, GCA President, Ted Wieber, Sr., stated, “Being a good chess player doesn’t always translate into being a good teacher. You can have a brilliant grandmaster championship player who can’t teach squat and who can’t bring themselves to convey information to other people. But Gary really had a gift, and he had a very low-key and non-threatening manner of taking it step by step.”

In the same obituary, David Woolf stated, “Gary had an almost uncanny ability to know what people needed to learn and they needed to do to progress. No matter how many times he explained something, it never mattered. He would always just start over, like you were asking for the first time. You were never embarrassed to ask a question and never felt bad when you got the answer from him.”

Mark Hanson-Kahn recalled in Georgia Chess, “I remember Gary as the gentle, genuine chess coach who truly cared about chess and the kids that he taught. Gary had a tough life, but he didn’t let it make him cynical or callous. Instead, he was dedicated to Georgia chess and the clubs that he led. Gary was always there to run the tournaments, the Castle Grand Prix at Emory, the Scholastic nationals at the Atlanta Hilton. Gary coached both the Kittredge and Oak Grove School teams at the Scholastics in Portland. He was a dependable, caring coach, and I have many fond memories of him.”

Ted Wieber, Sr. states that Gary Southerland was devoid of any ego problems.

 

Stephen Whiteman stated in Georgia Chess, “Several years ago Gary heard you could make a living teaching chess. Not having found his vocational niche, he was running a check cashing store at the time. While he was good at it, it was a dangerous job, and he hated it. Intrigued at the possibility of working at something he actually enjoyed, he unloaded his sidearm, set aside his skepticism, and quit to give the Chess Guy life a try.”

 

“He loved it from the beginning. He loved the teaching, and he (mostly) loved the kids. He was certainly dedicated to them, spending untold hours at his computer developing lessons ….”

 

“The only trouble was that, despite what he had heard, he never was quite able to make it pay well enough – his finances were always shaky. Of course, much of the reason was his teaching philosophy and non-materialism. His friends encouraged him to charge more for his time, not give free lessons, not direct tournaments for free, run more camps. But if somebody needed a lesson, Gary was there, regardless of the finances.

He always shied away from more lucrative opportunities – [such as] taking on large classes of marginally-motivated beginners, say – in favor of those where he could teach fewer and more serious students in a more personal and professional way.I'm not sure if people realize how generous Gary was with his time. … Many, many of those [tournaments he directed] were children's events for little or no pay. And even if he wasn't directing, if there was a kids' tournament going on you could always find him there, analyzing games or just helping out, all on his own time.”

 

Whiteman continued, “I know from experience that serving as an officer of the Georgia Chess Association is a genuinely thankless task. Over the years Gary was one of the true rocks of the GCA, taking his various positions very seriously despite their frustrations. He spent a great deal of time dealing reasonably with sometimes unreasonable people.”

Gary also had other interests. He was an avid juggler and a member of the Atlanta Jugglers’ Association. He was also an enthusiastic Atlanta Braves baseball fan. Whiteman continued, “We had lower-deck tickets for late July [2005], but he had to cancel out – because he was sick.”

 

Gary Southerland was found dead in his apartment in August of 2005. He had been complaining of abdominal discomfort. The cause of death was unknown. It was too late for an autopsy to be performed.

 

Gary Roger Southerland achieved USCF Expert in both over-the-board and correspondence play. He made significant contributions to Georgia Chess in the areas of service, tournament directing, teaching, and coaching. He bettered chess in the State of Georgia.

 

 

Sources:

Georgia Chess Association Chess-Letter;

The Chessman; Southeast Chess; Georgia Chess;

USCF website at uschess.org;

FIDE website at FIDE.com;

Atlanta Journal-Constitution obituary,Holly Crenshaw;

Scott Parker, personal interview;

Ted Wieber, Sr., personal interview and e-mails.