Emory Tate

Emory Andrew Tate Jr. (December 27, 1958 – October 17, 2015) was an American chess player who held the FIDE title of International Master (IM). He won the United States Armed Forces Chess Championship five times and the Indiana state championship six times. Over his career, he recorded roughly 80 tournament wins against grandmasters, and earned a reputation as one of the most feared tacticians on the American tournament circuit. Grandmaster Maurice Ashley described him as "a trailblazer for African-American chess." Before devoting himself to chess professionally, Tate served in the United States Air Force, where he worked as a linguist and was fluent in Russian and Spanish. He reached a peak FIDE rating of 2413 in 2006 and received the International Master title in 2007. He was inducted into the Indiana State Chess Hall of Fame in 2005. He is the father of internet personalities Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate. Tate died in 2015 from a heart attack while playing chess at a tournament in Milpitas, California.