Ricardo Szmetan, 1952-2010

Sad news.  Sevan Muradian writes:

For those of you that may have known him, I just learned that Dr. Ricardo Szmetan, originally from Barbados, passed away on December 31, 2010.

Ricardo had a PhD in Latin American Studies and recently completed a MS in Library Sciences at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. He was also a FIDE Master.

While Szmetan was indeed the 2002 national champion of Barbados, he was of Argentinian descent (not sure where he was born--were his parents part of the Central European Jewish diaspora?).  His Midwest tournament victories included the 2008 Greater Peoria Open and the 2007 David Mote Memorial, and he played in numerous master-level events in Chicago over the decades.