Frank Anderson

Frank Ross Anderson (1928–1980) was a Canadian chess master and writer. He twice won the gold medal at Chess Olympiads for the best score on Board 2. He also tied for first at the 1953 Canadian Chess Championship and won the title again in 1955. Biography Anderson learned to play chess while bedridden as a child with rheumatoid arthritis in Toronto. He began with correspondence chess, at which he quickly became a strong player. He was encouraged by chess promoter Bernard Freedman (who became his first sponsor), his good friend Keith Kerns, and later by John G. Prentice, who served as Canada's FIDE representative. Anderson graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in the sciences. Anderson's first noteworthy result was in the 1946 Canadian Championship at Toronto. He scored 10/13 in the preliminaries, just missing qualification for the top section finals; he won section 2 of the finals. He won the Toronto Championship six times (1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1958). In 1948, he tied with future grandmaster Arthur Bisguier for first place in the US Junior Championship at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Anderson won the Ontario Open Championship in 1948, 1949, and 1951. He twice won the Canadian Chess Championship. At Arvida in 1949, he tied for 3rd-4th, after Maurice Fox and Fedor Bohatirchuk. In 1951, he took 2nd, behind Povilas Vaitonis, at Vancouver. In 1953, he tied for 1st with Daniel Yanofsky at Winnipeg. In 1955, Anderson topped the field at Ottawa. In 1957, he tied for 3rd-4th with Miervaldis Jurševskis, after Vaitonis and Géza Füster, at Vancouver.