Lyman, Chess Team Need Funds for World Tourney

Travel expenses of $2500 are needed if Shelby Lyman '59 and three other American college chess players are going to enter the third World Student Chess Championships at Upsala, Sweden, next month.

Lyman, however, on contacting the Dept. of Athletics, was told that no funds were available for chess. The only contribution from Harvard so far is a small donation for the Chess Club.

Half of the necessary sum has been pledged and the colleges attended by the other three members of the team have managed to raise nearly $1000 between them, leaving a small gap before the goal is reached. The sponsors of the team the Intercollegiate Chess League, had counted on the University to fill the gap.

"Sports Illustrated" has called Lyman a "brilliant but uneven player who has a disconcerting habit of jumping up after he has made a move, as though he had to catch a train." He comes from a Dorchester family that is famous for defeating world masters when they come to Boston on tour.

Lyman is one of the top players at the Boylston Chess Club in Boston and has played for the Club in its matches with rival chess clubs throughout the country.

Communist-Sponsored

This marks the first time that a team from the United States has entered the tournament, the Olympics of chess. The meet is sponsored by the International Students Association, a communist organization, with the Swedish Chess Federation and the International Chess Federation as co-sponsors.

Teams from fifteen nations will compete in the Championships, including several from countries behind the Iron Curtain, led by the defending champions from the Soviet Union. Other nations represented will include Hungary, Rumania, East and West Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the Netherlands.