![]() A chess club later formed at the high school in the early 1970s. He said, ‘Well, we’re not going to have a chess club, then.’ That disappointed both Frank and me. He and I approached the principal in 1960 when we were seniors and asked if we could start a chess club at the high school and his response was, ‘Who’s going to take it over after you two graduate?’ and we said we didn’t know. “My best friend at Fitchburg High School, Frank Hacker, taught me the game. Who do you think influenced you the most to start playing chess? Mirijanian is a music lover, especially classical music, and is a former pianist who took lessons at the Fitchburg Music Store in the 1950s, owned by local icon and legend Gerry Martel, who recently died at 91. Mirijanian met in 1975 when she joined the WCC, which was meeting at the Fitchburg YMCA on Wallace Avenue at the time. Lingner was the former vice president of the Massachusetts Chess Association and the New England regional vice president for the U.S. Mirijanian’s companion of 43 years, Gail Sandra Lingner of Fitchburg, who died at 76 on Sept. Lingner Memorial Tournament, in honor of Mr. Last week, WCC, which meets in the McKay Complex at Fitchburg State University, held the first Gail S. Mirijanian was also the chief obituary writer at the Sentinel & Enterprise from 1993 to 2002, but still kept chess at the forefront of his life directing chess tournaments. opens held every summer, his first when he was in college in 1964, and also played in open tournaments in Germany while residing there for a short time. He traveled all over the country competing in U.S. Mirijanian, has the highest attendance of any other weekly chess club in the country that meets at a college or university. He is a Class A chess player (he beat chess masters and was only 14 points away from attaining the title of chess master) and a former nationally rated expert who won the WCC championships 17 times, more than anyone else in the club’s history. He also worked in several of his father’s businesses since high school, including his dry-cleaning business on Lunenburg Street. He also learned to speak multiple languages over the years, including German, Russian, French, Spanish and Vietnamese, and taught Russian and German as a private contractor from 1969 to 1982 at the 10th Special Forces Language School at Fort Devens to Green Berets training in the Special Forces upon returning from Vietnam after serving with a construction engineers battalion in the U.S. He has played ever since, encouraging others along the way, producing a chess program “Chess Chat” on the local cable station Fitchburg Access Television since 2006 and writing a weekly chess column for more than 30 years. Mirijanian, 75, joined the Wachusett Chess Club in high school after his best friend taught him the game.
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