Jul-14-05
 | | Joshka: Anyone have any info on what happened to this former Junior Champ? Collins called him a prodigy! |
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Aug-14-06
 | | Peligroso Patzer: All I can tell you, <Joshka>, is he was Player of the Day at CG.com today (14 Aug 2006). If I recall, Matera liked to use the Closed System as White against the Sicilian, but the games database here is so small (for example, seemingly no games where he had White and opened with 1. e4), it does not show up in his Most played openings. |
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| Aug-14-06 | | Caissanist: He seems to have made his career on Wall Street, as have many top American masters. For a while he was a vice president at a company called Government Securities Clearance Corporation. |
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| Aug-14-06 | | belgradegambit: Sal was a classmate of mine at Columbia. In 1971 he was first board on a team with Gary Klein, Robert Gruchacz, and J Loftson which won the Pan American Intercollegiate (I was a weak 2nd teamer). Its really too bad that there are no games in the database from that tournament. He was a great trash talker during our blitz games (I never beat him). |
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| Dec-27-06 | | Caissanist: Matera was one of the chess players who worked for Bankers Trust in the early nineties. This came about after Norman Weinstein convinced his employer to place an ad in Chess Life, seeking titled players who would like to pursue an investment banking career. |
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Aug-14-10
 | | perfidious: Matera was the first titled player I ever faced, as a 1900 player, at the 1978 Hartford Open. I well remember how nervy I was. |
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| Aug-14-10 | | chopin4525: Judging from the name and the surname, I really thought he was an Italian player unknown to me. I was wrong. :) |
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Sep-16-10
 | | GrahamClayton: <Joshka>Collins called him a prodigy! <Joshka>,
You are referring to Collins' book 'My seven chess prodigies", which listed Matera along with Fischer, Byrne, Lombardy, D Byrne, Weinstein and Cohen. |
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| Jan-08-11 | | Avner Mart: Met Matera in the USA vs Israel, first round of the 1969 Students Olympics,in Dresden, East Germany. Luckily for me I won :) |
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Jul-13-24
 | | Fusilli: He registered to play the 2024 US Senior Open: https://www.kingregistration.com/en.... The tournament is ongoing right now. I don't think there are results posted online yet. |
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Jul-13-24
| | Fusilli: <perfidious: Matera was the first titled player I ever faced, as a 1900 player, at the 1978 Hartford Open. I well remember how nervy I was.> Did he wipe you off the board, or were you the equivalent of the grossly underrated youth of today? |
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Jul-13-24
| | perfidious: <Fusilli>, same as my first heads-up meeting with John Curdo in January of that year, it was a daunting experience and I felt very much overmatched. Matera splattered me. Believe Sal opened 1.Nf3 and we wound up in some sort of Catalan cum Dutch setup after I went in for ....Ne4 and ....f5. This pointed up a weakness in my opening repertoire, as I was not then comfortable facing that complex of close openings and never really saw much of it in junior days. I was far from being one of those vastly underrated junior players; I played a great deal and, then as now, had an excellent memory, but seldom worked at the game away from the board, the opposite of my approach to poker in recent years. |
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| Jul-13-24 | | Granny O Doul: Couldn't do much with Matera in our handful of rapids games at the old MCC. I did once take his jacket, but I'm pretty sure it was by accident, since my own was the same albeit several sizes larger. |
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Jul-13-24
| | perfidious: In my opinion, Matera would certainly have earned the GM title had he gone to Europe for a time, such opportunities then being almost nonexistent for American aspirants who did not play overseas. |
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| Jul-14-24 | | Granny O Doul: An irresponsible rumor-monger posted something about Matera and Normam Weinstein being among the "missing" post-9/11. Matera in fact had "finger notes" on the ICC somewhat like "living and working in NYC, skyscrapers and all!" which was pretty eerie for the month or so until his next log-in. |
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Jul-14-24
 | | HeMateMe: didn't he play for the Oakland As? |
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Jul-17-24
| | Fusilli: He scored 3 points in five games at the US Senior Open (+2 =2 -1). Did not play round 6. Tournament crosstable:
https://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMai... |
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Mar-08-25
| | GrahamClayton: Matera made his tournament debut in the 1959 US Amateur Championship at Asbury Park, NJ, aged just 8, scoring just 3 draws, having learned the game in December 1958. |
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Kibitzing
