The Honorable George Neves Leighton

George Leighton (more on Wikipedia) graduated from Howard University in 1940, was a Captain in the U.S. Army during World War II, graduated from Harvard Law in 1946, and had a incredibly impressive legal career culminating in his appointment to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, in 1976.   He served on the Federal bench until 1987. (Oh, and he beat me in the 1991 National Open.)

In this 1982 game, Judge Leighton was 69 years old and paired against a recent Soviet émigré who had become Chicago's top-ranked player, Leonid Kaushansky.  (Leo would later share the 1994 U.S. Open title with Albert Chow and Dmitry Gurevich, among others.)  One might expect a blowout.  Indeed, the game was rather one-sided:

At his peak, Judge Leighton was a strong expert.  Still more on his chess career at The Chess Drum.

October 22 will be Judge Leighton's 98th birthday!