Allan Troy was born April 23, 1932, in Las Vegas, was raised in Tucson, and moved to El Segundo, CA at age 13. He was on the state championship water polo team at El Segundo High School.

After graduating from the University of Redlands, Troy, as he was known to everyone, worked as a manager at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles for 25 years. This was his most active chess period, when he earned a master�s rating and won tournaments in California and other Western states. He also established a reputation as an outstanding speed chess player. Fast chess was his specialty.

On the side, he and his family ran Troy�s Chess Shoppe in Torrance in the 1960s and 1970s. His store sold chess books and equipment and offered customers a unique thrill: the chance to play speed chess against Troy, the California speed chess champion in the mid-1960s. He also published books, including John Watson�s famous four-volume series on the English Opening.

Troy moved back to Arizona in 1980. He continued to sell chess merchandise but operated several other businesses: a truck repair center, Troy�s Billiards, and Troy�s Corner (which sold Mexican imports). In the last few years of his life, he built La Entrada de Tubac, a 45,000-square-foot shopping complex in Tubac, Arizona. He also returned to college and earned a degree from the University of Arizona.

Troy was an energetic man who made friends easily and kept them for decades. Friends and family referred to him as �the big man with the big heart.� He and his wife Carolyn celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary recently. He died May 12, 2005, in Tubac. - Jack Peters