Summary:

• Author, Publisher, Chess Historian, English Professor

• Editor of Georgia Chess from 2008 until 2013

• Long-time Archivist for the GCA

• Author of dozens of articles about chess history in Georgia

 

With great pleasure, the Georgia Chess Association nominates Professor Mark Norman Taylor for its Distinguished Service Award.

Professor Taylor has an extensive background and has made invaluable contributions to the Georgia Chess Community in different roles, but mainly as an editor, author, guardian, and organizational architect of the many memories of Georgia Chess history -- stamped in multiple publications.

Professor Taylor began his incursion in the Georgia Chess scene when his son Paul Taylor, began playing chess in the summer of 2001. The next year his elementary school chess club coach introduced them to the Atlanta Chess Center. Late in 2002, he wrote an article for Dan Lucas which was published in the January 2003 issue of Georgia Chess. That article generated some controversy, but Dan kept inviting Prof. Taylor to write for the magazine, which he did in a unique and paramount way. In 2006 he assisted David Woolf in editing the magazine and then took over as Senior Editor in 2008 until the end of 2013. Prof. Taylor claims in an interview, “I just tried to maintain the standards set by Dan Lucas and David Woolf. We were awarded 'Best State Magazine' by the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) four years in a row, 2010 – 2013."

Professor Taylor in his final years with the GCA collected every one of the old issues of GCA newsletters and magazines he could find and created an electronic collection of over 200 issues, plus other ephemeral publications.

He also began gathering historical material on the GCA and chess in Georgia. He was able to make some improvements in our knowledge, (for example, he discovered that the GCA -- then called GSCA -- and its first state championship happened in 1941, not 1947 as previously thought).

Prof. Taylor was Senior Editor of The Chess Journalist 2010–2014 (and served as Awards Judge 2010-2021). He served on the Board of Castle Chess in GA in the years of 2007-2010.

Prof. Taylor takes pride in taking part as a contributor, editor and architect of the following books and publications that have received local and national awards in the United States. 

These include :

The Best of the Best: Third Annual Georgia State Closed Scholastic Championship Tournament Book. Atlanta: Georgia Chess Association, 2005, 56 pp.

“Foreword” [2700-word critical essay on chess fiction motifs]. Masters of Technique: The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction. ed. Howard Goldowsky. Mongoose, 2010, pp. 9–16

These articles won awards from the Chess Journalists of America (plus two other photo-essays) :

“The White Collection: Exploring the largest chess library in the world.” Chess Life (Dec 2012): 30–35 [Cover story, awarded 2013 “Best Feature Article” by Chess Journalists of America]

“Bobby Fischer’s Shoes, or, The Absolute Truth” (fiction). Georgia Chess (May/June 2012): 18–20 [Awarded 2012 “Best Humorous Writing” by Chess Journalists of America]

“The Dragon Vacation” Georgia Chess (Sep/Oct 2004): 6–7, 38 [co-authored; awarded 2005 “Best Human-Interest Story” by Chess Journalists of America]

Prof. Mark Taylor has published over 200 articles in Georgia Chess. He also wrote a number of articles for Chess Life (about 10), The Chess Journalist (17), The British Chess Magazine (2), and a few others and online.

Prof. Taylor published two scholarly articles on chess in the Middle Ages:

“How Did the Queen Go Mad?” in Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: A Fundamental Thought Paradigm of the Premodern World (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture). Ed. Daniel O’Sullivan. De Gruyter, 2012, pp. 175–189

“Chaucer’s Knowledge of Chess” The Chaucer Review 38, 4 (2004): 299–313

Prof. Taylor also organized a conference panel, -Chess in the Middle Ages- for the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, in May 2004.

On a personal note, Prof. Taylor mentioned that his time serving the chess community in Georgia and GCA has been quite rewarding, due mainly to the number of great people that he has gotten to know.  Of course, it was also a great way to bond with his son, Paul, and watch him grow up. 

Prof. Taylor, or Mark as his friends call him, has pretty much retired from chess activities and writing since 2014.  Occasionally, he still comes out of retirement. In March 2025, his article on Georgia player William A. Scott III appeared in Chess Life. His wife, Melinda Matthews, serves as Safe Play Manager for US Chess. Mark’s son, Paul, now grown, works in finance and lives in Philadelphia, PA. Prof. Taylor still has his day job as Associate Professor of English at Berry College. 

With his outstanding contributions in journalism and publishing, Prof. Mark Taylor has bettered chess in the State of Georgia.

Sources:

   Georgia Chess Magazine Archives 2001-2013;

   Interview by WIM Carolina Blanco.