FM Alex Dunne 1942-2023

[Simon Rogers]

The sad news has been reported that American FIDE Master, Alex Dunne died on 16th January, after an extended illness, at the age of 81.
He was born in Sayre, Pennsylvania, USA, on 3rd January 1942.
Alex was the US Chess Correspondence Director from 2005 until retiring in 2020.
He started the "Check is in the Mail" column in Chess Life magazine in the December 1981 issue, and it ran continuously through to May 2006, when it moved to Chess Life Online. His final column appeared in February 2021.
Alex wrote a number of chess books, including "How to become a Candidate Master." This book was reviewed on 10th July 2021 by Richard James in British Chess News.
RIP

[Tim Harding]

Sorry to hear that. Alex was the author of several books including "Correspondence Chess in America" (published by McFarland) whose title was somewhat misleading as it was really the history of one club (the CCLA) and its precursors. It was a solid piece of research and writing nevertheless.

In February 2003 he suffered a family tragedy, returning home from a chess tournament to find that his wife and grandson ahd died in a house fire.

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.c ... BRrA?pli=1

I believe he may have remarried but I am not sure.

[Tim Spanton]

I have the original How To Become A Candidate Master - thoroughly enjoyed it, as I did his How To Become An Expert (title may not be exact). Unfortunately I lent the latter to someone and never got it back.

[John Moore]

He also wrote Great Chess Books of the Twentieth Century in English - not in itself a bad book, but he did include his own How to be a Candidate Master!