Career
Walter Muir was also a philanthropist and benefactor, and former president of the Roanoke Valley Chess Club. The annual Walter Muir Chess Tournament is held in his honor. Both of Walter Muir"s parents were Canadian citizens.
He surveyed the right-of-way between Albany, New York and New York City for the New York Power and Light Company between 1931-1932.
Walter Muir was a resident of Salem, Virginia and Roanoke, Virginia for many years. He had also been an employee with General Electric for 46 years.
He was known for wearing a white dinner jacket and bow tie during tournaments, and was very fond of the Evans Gambit with white. Walter Muir was a renowned international openings theoretician on many double king pawn openings.
Many of his chess games between 1933 and 1987 were recorded and are still available for study and review online.
He began to play correspondence chess in 1925. Walter Muir was known as "The Grand Old Manitoba of Correspondence Chess". "lieutenant is probably not an understatement to say that Walter Muir has been the single most influential person in the development of correspondence chess in the United States.
He has been a dominant force in postal play on a national and international level for almost five decades.
He fully deserves recognition as the "Dean of American Correspondence Chess."
Awarded the rank of International Correspondence Chess Master in 1971. The Walter Muir Memorial Invitational Correspondence Chess Tournament is named in his honor, and is supported by both the ICCF United States.A. and the Canadian Correspondence Chess Association.
