Bill Dempler died July 5 of complications caused by kidney failure.  He had been
in the hospital for seven weeks.  He is survived by his wife Joanne.

Bill had played for Phalanx in the Pittsburgh Chess League the last few seasons,
but his history in Pittsburgh chess goes back much further.  Bill Hughes recalls
that in 1967, when Dempler was a sophomore at Pitt and Hughes was a freshman,
they revived the Pitt Chess Club, which had been dormant.  For years they
studied chess together, so closely that they had something like a joint opening
repertoire; I remember knitting my brow over their flank openings and over the
Nimzovich Sicilian (1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nf6).  I also remember dropping in on them
once when they were analyzing together.  They addressed each other as "Billy"
and "Willy".  So I asked, which one is which?  But they didn't know.

In the late 70's and 80's, Dempler played on the Gateway teams, organized by
Kimball Nedved, that dominated the League.  In the early 80's Bill maintained a
USCF rating around 2200.  He won a prize of several hundred dollars in the
under-2200 section of the 1986 World Open.  I think that he won several thousand
dollars in the same section in a different year, but neither his wife nor I
could remember the year, so I can't be completely sure.  Bill was very proud of
these results.  I remember going over his games with him on one of these
occasions; I was struck by the calmness andosteadiness of his play under trying
circumstances.

His kidney failure began in late 1991, and by 1994 he quit his job as a
psychiatric nurse.  In the past eleven years there were two attempted kidney
transplants, but both ultimately failed.  In spite of this Bill found the
strength for chess, and many of us were not even aware of his health problems.
He took up bridge; his regular partner was Mike Shefler, whom old-timers will
remember as a tournament chess player of class A strength in the 1980's.  Bill
became a Bronze Life Master at bridge, signifying that he had accumulated 500
Master points.

Here are three of his games.  Two of them are losses; if anyone submits a
memorable win I would be happy to print it.  The first game, against me, was
played when Bill was class A and I was class B, so it may show signs of
cluelessness here and there, but it influenced me strongly at the time.  My
opponent won this game with nothing but endgame skill.  It was something new
for me, and not easy to fully understand.

White: Bill Dempler, Pitt
Black: Bruce Leverett, High School All-Stars
Pittsburgh Chess League, round 8, May 1969
French Defense, Tarrasch variation

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 c5 4 Ngf3 Nf6 5 exd5 Nxd5 6 dxc5 Bxc5 7 Nb3 Be7 8 Bc4 Nb4
(8 ... Nc6 or 8 ... O-O would be fine) 9 Qxd8+ Bxd8 10 Nbd4 Bd7 11 c3 N4c6
12 Be3 O-O 13 O-O Nxd4 14 Bxd4!? Nc6 15 Rfd1 Nxd4 16 Rxd4 Bc6 17 Ne5 Bb6?
(17 ... Rc8 or 17 ... Be8 was necessary) 18 Nxc6 bxc6 19 Rd6 c5 20 Rad1 Rfd8
21 Kf1 Kf8 22 Ke2 Rxd6 23 Rxd6 Ke7 24 Rd1 Rd8 25 Rxd8 Kxd8 26 Kd3 Kd6 27 Bb3 Bb6
28 Kc4

Diagram:  8/p4ppp/1b1kp3/2p5/2K5/1BP5/PP3PPP/8

From this square White's king, which cannot be dislodged, commands the whole
board.  His apparently modest play since move 18 has been driven by this crucial
insight.

28 ... Kc6 29 Ba4+ Kb7 30 Be8 f6 31 Bd7 e5 32 Kd5 Kc7 33 Bb5 Kc8 34 c4 Kb7
35 Ke6 Bd8 36 Kd7 Bc7 37 Bc6+ (37 Ke7 is simpler and better) Kb6 38 Be4 g6
39 Ke6 f5 40 Bc2 e4 41 h3 Bf4 42 Kf6 g5?

Black's kingside pawns are doomed, but he should play 42 ... Ka5 or 42 ... Bh6
or 42 ... Bc1 to force his opponent to find accurate moves.

43 Kxf5 e3 44 fxe3 Bxe3 45 Kg4 Kc6? 46 Bxh7 and White won.

Max Zavanelli, who is well-known to postal chess players for his support of
ICCF-US, lived in Pittsburgh for a few years in the 1970's.  He submitted this
game with Dempler, which decided first place in the last round of the
tournament.

White: Bill Dempler
Black: Max Zavanelli
Paul Keres Memorial, round 6, June 1976
Gruenfeld Defense, fianchetto variation (by transposition)

1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2 d5 5 d4 O-O 6 O-O c6 7 b3 Nbd7 8 Bb2 Ne4
9 cxd5 cxd5 10 Nc3 Ndf6 11 Rc1? Bh6! 12 Nxe4 (12 e3 Nxf2!) dxe4 13 Ne5 Bxc1
14 Qxc1 Be6 15 Qf4 Bd5 16 Nc4 Rc8 17 Ne3 e6 18 g4 Rc6 19 f3 exf3 20 Bxf3 Qe7
21 g5 Nh5 22 Bxh5 gxh5 23 Qe5 Qc7 24 Qf6 Qd8 25 Qh6 Qa5 26 Qxh5 Qd2 27 Ng4 e5!
28 Nf6+ Rxf6 29 gxf6 Kh8 30 h4 Rg8+ 31 Kh2 Rg2+ 32 Kh3 Qe3+ 33 Rf3 Qg1 and
Black mates.

Around that time Walter Browne gave a simultaneous exhibition on 45 boards in
Pittsburgh.  Bill Dempler took a board, and they played into what used to be
the sharpest line of the Nimzovich Sicilian, the countergambit with 3 e5 Nd5
4 Nc3 e6 5 Nxd5 exd5 6 d4 Nc6 7 dxc5 Bxc5 8 Qxd5.  Some spectators, including
Mike Goodside and myself, noticed this and stuck around to watch the tactics.
After listening to some particularly bad advice from us, Bill said, "with three
Experts working on this, that should be at least equivalent to one B-player."

Dempler's last rated game was against Tom Martinak, only a few weeks before his
final illness.

White: Bill Dempler, Phalanx I
Black: Tom Martinak, Pitt I
Pittsburgh Chess League, round 7, March 17, 2002
Symmetrical English Opening, Rubinstein variation

1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bg2 Nc7 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.O-O
e5 8.a3 f6 9.d3 Be7 10.Qc2? Be6 11.Bd2 Nd4 12.Nxd4 cxd4 13.Na4
Bd5 14.Rfc1 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 Qd5+ 16.Kg1 Ne6 17.Qc4 Qxc4 18.dxc4
e4 19.b4 f5 20.c5 Rc8 21.Nb2 O-O 22.Nc4 Rfd8 23.Bf4 Nxf4 24.gxf4
Rc7 25.Kf1 g5 26.fxg5 Bxg5 27.Rd1 Be7 28.Rac1 Kf7 29.f4 Ke6 30.Na5
Bf6 31.Nb3 Rg7 32.c6 Rdg8 0-1