Local Chess Community Morns the Loss of John Moldovan 

Obituary submitted by David Lazarus

On Monday April 10 the chess community 

 lost long time Chess  Director at Westfield, John Moldovan at the way too young age of 62. 

John was more than a talented Chess Director who showed much originality in figuring out different ways to keep the tournaments. Interesting. He developed an interesting concept called the OCTO where eight players would play. John presided over the huge growth and success of Westfield and was Houdini at figuring out pairings that would accommodate everybody. 

John was very accommodating, and sometimes even too accommodating because a lot of times people would come late and they would keep coming, and our start times would always be pushed back, which annoyed John to no end. We made it through many successful Sundays together until abruptly we were shut down on March 8, 2020 by the pandemic and did not reopen till March 2022. 

By that time Westfield was a much different place and unfortunately John was a lot less healthy, battling follicular cancer. He made a very brave and impassioned recovery and seem on his way to better health when the second of a terrible one two punch hit him with a brain tumor, which was inoperable. John was not at Westfield much in 2023, fighting his battle, which, unfortunately he lost last night. I will miss the man for many reasons. He was a very good chess player, and very innovative, and a very tough competitor over the board. 

He was also a long time  president of the Kenilworth Chess and he also managed the website .

He  WAS Kenilworth after founder Mike Wojcio and John will be greatly missed by anybody who knew him.

John was also a very accomplished chess player who was renowned for his opening knowledge, especially of the French, Dutch and Nimzo Indian. He was an extremely strong correspondence player. 

Over the board, John leaves us with an 1884 rating and a first place and undefeated performance in his final tournament.