Frank Brady

By Bill Wall

Frank Brady was born on March 15, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York.

He got his B.S. at State University of New York (SUNY).

He got his MFA (Master of Fine Arts in writing) at Columbia University.

He got his M.A (film). and his Ph.D. (Communications) at New York University.

He got started in chess by forming a chess club in the Brooklyn/Queens border. He got a club affiliation with the USCF by going over to Kenneth Harkness’s (1896-1972) house and getting supplies. At the time, Harkness was the business manager of the USCF.

Brady first met Bobby Fischer in January, 1956, when Fischer was 12. It was at a tournament on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (252 West 76 Street). It was the Greater New York (City) Open Championship Tournament at the Churchill Chess and Bridge Club on January 21-26, 1956. Fischer was playing blitz chess. William Lombardy won the event on tie-break over Dr. Ariel Mengarini. Both scored 6-1. Arthur Feuerstein took 3rd, tied with Edgar McCormick at 5.5-1.5 Fischer scored 5-2 (winning the class B prize) and shared 5th with Anthony Saidy. Brady scored 4-3. The entry fee was $5. There were 52 entrants. First prize was $50. It was 7 rounds. After the event, Fischer’s rating was 2157.

Brady helped direct the U.S. Amateur with Harkness.

After a couple of years, Harkness asked Brady to be his full-time assistant at $60 a week. At the time, Brady was making $175 a week at an ad agency. In 1958, Brady was running the USCF office as Harkness was going around the world as a bridge instructor on luxury liners. Brady came up with the idea of turning Chess Life from a newspaper to a magazine and put it into effect. Harkness formally retired and Brady was now both business manager and editor.

From 1958-1961, he was the business manager of the USCF.

In 1958, Brady ran into Fischer near the New York Chess and Checkers Club (Flea House). Fischer asked Brady if he could borrow some money for the movies, etc. Brady got Fischer to play some 5-minute chess at the Flea House under a disguise. Fischer won $50 a left for dinner and a movie. Everyone knew it was Fischer anyway, and there was no reason for a disguise.

In 1958, Lisa Lane came to a tournament that Brady directed. She had pre-registered. She was late and he had started her clock. When she got there, she was furious, but it started a long friendship that they maintained over 40 years.

Bobby Fischer would visit Brady’s house and read all the latest chess magazines that Brady was getting from around the world.

In 1959, Brady had his first formal meetings with the Fischer family. Regina Fischer was looking for financial support for Bobby to play in the Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia.

In 1960, Brady co-refereed with Hans Kmoch the 1960 Rosenwald tournament at the Empire Hotel in Manhattan.

In 1960, he was the founding editor of Chess Life magazine (previously, it had been a newspaper). Brady was editor from 1960 to 1961.

In 1963-64, he directed the US championship, instead of Hans Kmoch (1894-1973), in which Fischer won 11-0. It was held at the Henry Hudson ballroom. There were as many as 300 spectators when Fischer was playing.

In May, 1961, he wrote the introduction for the Dover edition of The Soviet School of Chess by Kotov. His name did not appear in the book because, as an active Democrat in the 1950s, he was so concerned about being thought of as a communist.

On March 9, 1963, Brady organized a 20th birthday party for Fischer. Fischer didn’t want to come unless he was paid.

In 1963, Brady left as the USCF business manager due to the Fischer-Reshevsky controversy. Brady backed Fischer. The USCF president, Fred Cramer (1913-1989), did not want Brady to cover this in Chess Life because they did not want to lose the Piatigorsky’s patronage.

When Brady was broke, Fischer sometimes asked if he needed any money. Fischer realized he and his wife were struggling. Fischer and Brady got along. They liked each other. Fischer brought back gifts from his world travels and gave some to Brady.

After the USCF, Brady went to Eros magazine (first published in 1962 and lasting until 1963 with four issues). He met Ralph Ginzburg (1929-2006) after Ginzburg did a Fischer interview for Harper’s magazine in 1960. Ginzburg also interviewed Brady. Brady stayed there for one year. The Ginzburg article turned Fischer off of the media.

He was editor of Chessworld Magazine (unfortunately lasting only three issues). His intent was to capture the lore and history of chess. He was always interested in historical aspects and the personalities of chess.

In 1964, when he left Chess Life, he thought Chess Review’s days were numbered. He had sensed the loss of energy in I.A. Horowitz. He advertised Chessworld Magazine in Chess Review. Horowitz wanted $500 for the ad. Horowitz thought that Chessworld would knock out Chess Life. At the time, hw was not working and his wife was a school teacher. Saul Rubin co-signed a personal note and Horowitz would be paid back if he ran it on credit. Rubin was the president of the Marshall Chess Club, an attorney, and a good friend of Brady. He got hundreds of subscriptions from the ad. He then placed the add in Chess Life. He thought he was going to get 20,000 subscribers. He sent out mailing to other chess clubs. He took out a small ad in the New York Times Book Review section. It cost $1,000 and did not work. He only got a dozen subscribers from that. He got a large mailing list from Dr. Albrecht Buschke, a New York chess bookseller and historian. He ended up with 5,000 subscriptions. At the time, The American Chess Quarterly by Larry Evans had about 2,500 subscribers. Subscription was $10 a year. Chess Life had 8,000 subscribers for $5 a year. Chess Review had 8,000 subscribers at &6,50 per year.

The problem was that it cost too much. Mailing it out was expensive. Brady never made a penny from Chessworld. His wife was supporting it on her school teacher’s salary. They operated out of their apartment. Donald Walter was his all-around employee. The rest of his staff was his wife, Maxome Kalfus, and Anabel Brodie and art director Leonard Lowy. A big expense was typesetting. One of the early supporters was Bobby Fischer. Fischer came up with the idea of an article on the ten greatest masters, which he did with Neil Hickey, Lisa Lane’s husband. His office was the one Frank Marshall used at the Marshall Chess Club. He and his wife then moved to Greenwich Village to a one bedroom apartment that they made into an office and living quarters. Fischer came to his office all the time as did Raymond Weinstein. He and Fischer would often go to dinner alone and then play 5 minute chess at the Marshall.

Brady was running out of money and he went to potential investors. He settled on an ad agency, J.B. Rundle. They gave him $20,000 to continue. By the third issue they decided that Brady wasn’t going to make it and was not bringing in enough income. So it ended. He had to declare bankruptcy. They could barely pay rent on the apartment.

Brady was going through the NY Public Library asking for every single chess book and getting ideas about chess articles.

Articles that never appeared included on the psychology of a chess player. A psychologist, Dr. Norman Cantor from Mt. Sinai, was assigned, but he never finished it during the first three issues.

Brady had planned on writing an article called “Do the Russians Cheat at Chess” but it never appeared.

Brady wanted an article on chess and education. Milton Hanauer, a chess master and educator, had agreed to write it, but did not.

Brady wanted to write an article on the Hollywood crowd, but never had the time.

He was going to have an article written by one of the country’s top mathematicians that could prove that computers would never play well.

He met David Lawson (1886-1980), and his wife Rosalind, at his home in Brooklyn Heights and got a lot of material about Paul Morphy, Lawson had the original score sheet of the Game of the Century between Fischer and Donald Byrne. Dawson had autograph letters from Steinitz and Tarrasch. Brady once took Fisher over there. Fischer saw the cast of Morphy’s hand. Fischer put his hand on it and he engulfed Morphy’s hand.

Dawson’s original price for Brady to use Morphy’s material was $250, but later he wanted $1,000. They finally agreed on $500.

When Hermann Helms (1870-1963), editor of the American Chess Bulletin (ACB), had died, he left everything to his assistant who had worked with him for 50 years, Catherine Sullivan. After that, she was hit by a car and killed a short time later. Their attorney called Brady up and he bought the ACB estate for $500.

He worked as editor for Ralph Ginzburg and Hugh Hefner. He went to Playboy after working on Chessworld. He got that job due to the skills he showed producing Chessworld magazine, and also, because he had written Profile of a Prodigy.

Brady edited VIP Magazine for Playboy Club keyholders.

Brady remembered that Fischer would sometimes visit his office at the Marshall Chess Club where Fischer would eat a sandwich of brown bread and red caviar, and drinking a Lowenbrau at the club, even though alcohol was not allowed in the club. Brady couldn’t tell Fischer to stop, and technically, they were in Brady’s office and not the club.

In 1964, when Brady wrote Profile of a Prodigy, he let Fischer read it before it was published to check for errors. The only comment Fischer made was why did Brady say that Fischer was Jewish. Fischer said he was a Christian and followed the Worldwide Church of God. Their relationship soured after that.

Profile of a Prodigy was first published in 1965.

In 1965, Brady started as the referee when Fischer played by teletype in the Capablanca Memorial Chess Tournament held in Havana. The teletype was set up in the Marshall Chess club and cost $100,000, paid by the Cuban government. Fischer later asked for a different referee each round.

In 1969-70, he had moved on to publishing Avant Garde magazine (16 issues from January 1968 to July 1971).. The editor was Ralph Ginzburg.

In 1970, he and his wife went on an extended trip to Africa in Europe and ended up living and teaching in Spain in the Balearic Islands. He taught drama, mostly Thornton Wilder.

Brady returned to America and secured a job as an account executive with Metromedia with KSAN in San Francisco. He became friends with Robert Burger and Guthrie McClain, editor of the California Chess Bulletin.

In 1972, he went to Reykjavik as a reporter for ABC Wild World of Sports, as well as for PBS, feeding to Shelby Lyman. He also worked on a BBC documentary and a columnist for an Icelandic newspaper. He was also a paid, yet uncredited, contributor to Harold Schonberg’s reports to the New York Times. He was making $2,000 a week from chess during that period. He spent three months in Iceland.

Brady last spoke to Fischer in 1972, in Reykjavik, on the day he left. Fischer told his bodyguard, “I guess that Brady is the last person in Iceland.”

In 1972, he was awarded the FIDE International Arbiter title at Skopje, Yugoslavia during the chess Olympiad.. He served as arbiter of international chess tournaments in 2001 and 2004 in New York

In 1973, Brady updated Profile of a Prodigy.

After the Fischer-Spassky match, he returned to the US and for 5-6 years, was a free lance writer and wrote books and started seriously to go to school.

In 1978 he began teaching as an adjunct at Columbia and later at City College, NYU, and St. John. Finally, St. John offered a full time position where he became a full professor and chairman of the communication and media studies department.

In 1978-79, Brady wrote a series for Chess Life called “Chess in the Cinema.”

He has been elected to, and serves as an active voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and PEN, the international writers’ organization.

He has been an Adjunct Professor of Journalism for the past 25 years at Barnard College of Columbia University. He taught a course on magazine journalism.

He has been involved with radio and film projects.

In 1993, he was a consultant for Searching for Bobby Fischer. He was also a consultant for the reissuing of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil.

Brady once worked on Hollywood with George Lucas on a radio adaptation of Star Wars.

He used to play chess on the net on the Game Zone.

He was chairman of the committee for the Cramer Awards.

His wife, Maxine Kalfus, also write books.

He is the Chairman of the Department of Mass Communications, Journalism, Television and Film at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. He is Professor of Communications Arts and Journalism at that University. He oversees a mult-million dollar budget, 60 faculty, and 900 students.

Brady voted on the USCF board to revoke Bobby Fischer’s membership after Fischer made ant-Semitic comments on the air after September 11, 2001. The USCF said that because of Fischer’s deplorable public remarks in support of terrorist actions, his right to membership in the USCF is cancelled.

Brady has Fischer’s birth certificate ad does not believe that Paul Nemenyi is Fischer’s father, but rather Hans Gerhard Fischer.

He was Secretary of the USCF from 2003 to 2005.

In 2004, he directed the US Women’s Championship in New York.

In April, 2005, Brady resigned from the USCF Executive Board because of his work at St. Johns University. He was on the Board for four years.

On June 18, 2007, Brady was elected President of the Marshall Chess Club, at 23 West 10th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues.

On September 11, 2007, Brady gave a lecture on “Bobby Fischer, the Enigma: the Pride and Sorrow of chess” at the Marshall Chess Club. It was filmed and put on YouTube by Larry Tamarkin.

In 2007, he sold the film rights of Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy to Home Box Office (HBO). He will serve as consultant on a long-planned docudrama, called Fischer-Spassky, on the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972. The film is slated for 2009.

In January, 2008, Brady said that one of Fischer’s people approached Brady about helping with My 61 Memorable Games.”

On March 9, 2008, Brady organized a memorial for Bobby Fischer at the Marshall Chess Club. One of the speakers was Dick Cavett.

He is also collaborating with documentary maker Liz Garbus on a film chronicling Fischer’s entire life.

He has written the following:

Chessworld, Volume 1, Number 3 (May-June 1964)

Bobby Fischer, Profile of a Prodigy (1965 and 1973)

Hefner

Onassis, an extravagant life (1978)

Barbra Streisand, an illustrated biography (1979)

Brady and Lawless’s favorite bookstores

Chess, How to Improve Your Technique (1974)

Citizen Welles, a biography of Orson Welles (1990)

Paul Block, a life of friendship, power, and politics

How to get rich with a 1-800 number (1997)

His wife has written the following:

The Monopoly book: Strategy and tactics of the world’s most popular game

Bloomingdale’s

Brady is currently rated 1762. He has been rated at 1917. He is a Senior Tournament Director of the USCF.

You Tube - Dr. Frank Brady lecture at the Marshall Chess Club, September 11,2007. He traveled with Fischer. Brady went to a funeral and a party with Fischer.

Brady spent 10 years writing the biography of Orson Welles.

Brady says that he has played or played over at least one game of chess virtually every day of his life.

Brady edited Kasparov’s book, Kasparov Against the World.

Brady once helped Marcel Duchamp find space at the St. Denis on 80 East 11th Street.