Master Roy Hoppe won the Class B prize at the World Open, it was revealed today.

Hoppe was one of Northern California's leading masters during the mid-1960s. He is perhaps best remembered for his game against future grandmaster Duncan Suttles in the 1964 National Open in Las Vegas, which was later annotated by Hans Kmoch in Chess Review Magazine. (The original game score was provided to Hans Kmoch by this writer.) However, Hoppe had long since given up chess for the more intellectually stimulating game of bridge.

After 25 years away from any active chess tournament competition, Hoppe suddenly felt a craving to play chess again. However, he rightly felt that it would be presumptuous and unfair to the other masters for him to claim to still be a master player, so Hoppe decided to enter the class B section of the World Open instead. In a thrilling comeback, Hoppe managed to win the $8,000 Class B prize, overcoming the fact that his mind had been numbed by 25 years as a professional bridge player, during which he had not played a single officially rated game of chess.

It was not revealed exactly which year Hoppe won this $8,000 prize or the name under which he played.

[Event "National Open"]
[Site "Las Vegas (USA)"]
[Date "1964.??.??"]
[White "Hoppe Roy L "]
[Black "Suttles Duncan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "A10"]

1. c4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 d6 4. Nc3 Bg4 5. d5 Nce7 6. e4 g6 7. Be2 Bxf3 8. Bxf3 f5 9. Qa4+ Qd7 10. Qxd7+ Kxd7 11. exf5 gxf5 12. Bd2 Nf6 13. O-O-O Rg8 14. g3 Rg6 15. Rde1 a6 16. Bg2 b5 17. b3 Rb8 18. f4 e4 19. Ne2 Ng4 20. Ref1 Bg7 21. h3 Nf6 22. g4 c6 23. dxc6+ Nxc6 24. Ng3 Ne7 25. g5 bxc4 26. bxc4 Rc8 27. Kb1 d5 28. gxf6 Rxg3 29. Bxe4 fxe4 30. fxg7 d4 31. f5 Rxg7 32. f6 Rg2 33. fxe7 Rxd2 34. Rd1 Rxd1+ 35. Rxd1 Rxc4 36. Kb2 d3 37. Kb3 Rc2 38. a4 Kxe7 {} 0-1