The story of how a young boy from Lithuania, Victor (Vytas) Palciauskas, living in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Augsburg, Germany for five years, became a world champion chess player, an expert mathematician and a renowned physicist is nothing short of a miracle. In addition, for seven years, he was a member of the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board advising Congress regarding the Yuca Mountain nuclear disposal waste site.
Born in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II, his family escaped Communism by fleeing to allied occupied Germany. Without a country, without passports, his family waited for a country to adopt them. That happened in 1949, and they finally emigrated to the USA, settling in Chicago where they had relatives. The city had the largest Lithuanian community outside of Lithuania. Here he received his elementary and high school education, attended the University of Illinois at Urbana majoring in Mathematics and Physics and then attained a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.
An expert on the geology of nuclear waste, Victor’s research paper in 1986 won a US Government award. Together with a French scientist, Yves Gueguen, he published a book, “The Physics of Rocks” which has been translated into multiple languages. He produced four technical papers and twenty-three others that are considered as seminal studies on the subject. But as much as he has had an amazingly successful academic and professional career, it is as a chess player that he has received international accolades.
Although the most cerebral of games, chess is generally played in the physical world: the site of the match, the pieces, the players squaring off across a board. But apart from a handful of postcards, Correspondence Chess—a long distance competition form of the game—takes place entirely in the mind. Says Palciauskas, “You play your first move—which you then send to your opponent, usually by post card. Your opponent replies. You take up to three days to analyze a counter move. You make the move, then mail it back to him.” A match of ten moves could take a player thirty days or longer, depending on the mail service and the locations. It all seems so old-fashioned and improbable in today’s environment of limited and irregular mail delivery. As we talked, I asked him about being able to do it all now via email, text, or with Zoom, and with a computer or handheld device. He just smiled.
He first learned chess from his father and uncle while in the DP camp when he was five years old. But it was while living in the Lithuanian community in Chicago that he was introduced to the United States Chess Federation. Several men were Lithuanian past Masters. A brilliant mathematician, he did not start to play chess seriously until the age of thirteen. He achieved a Candidate Master rating in his first tournament at age sixteen and became a Master at twenty-one when he took 5th place in the US Open. But needing more time to spend on his career and preparation for his Ph.D, where he was studying Theoretical Physics, he abandoned playing regular chess in favor of playing Correspondence Chess.
In 1970, he read an article that outlined the process by which a person could advance to become World Correspondence Chess Champion. The winner is based on a points system, mainly the number of games won. It would be a long and tedious path, but having made the decision to do so, Victor excitedly announced to his lovely wife Aurelia, “I have decided to go for it.” After listening patiently, she then asked, “And how long will this take?”
“About twelve years if I win every required tournament for the first time.”
“Twelve years! I’ll be dead by then!”
He was almost right on target and became the 10th World Correspondence (WC) Chess Champion in 1984 as well as a member of the World Chess Hall of Fame. President Ronald Regan sent a letter of congratulations. After reaching the pinnacle of the WC chess world, Victor continued to compete and, in 2003, tied for second place in the “Champion of Champions” tournament for the International Correspondence Chess Federation’s Golden Jubilee. It was later in Poznan, Poland, at the ICCC Congress that Victor Palciauskas received the title of International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster.
Regarding correspondence versus face-to-face chess, he says, “I enjoy the fact that there is no clock. I love this kind of chess because it has played a major role in my life, providing joy , sometimes grief, but always excitement. And I have the opportunity of meeting and corresponding with people from all over the world.” And Victor is your amazing neighbor. He lives just down the road in Walnut Creek.
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