Lawrence S. Tamarkin recently celebrated his 50th birthday. He was thrilled to discover that he was now automatically qualified to play in numerous New York senior tournaments against the other old dogs that he had beaten in the past.

Larry owes his life in chess to both Bobby Fischer (whose exploits brought him into the game) and his dear dad, who criticized him and chess, day after day, until the day he died! ("When are you going to realize what a waste of time this chess-crap is? Quit it, and get a real job!"). The more dear old dad put him down for playing chess, the more Larry focused on it, trying hard to prove dad wrong -- A classic Freudian connection! Larry became a rated Master in 1986 and became one of the first players to receive the coveted USCF Life Master title in 1987.