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Bangor Daily News...May 10, 1975. Roger Lacroix of
Old Orchard Beach has done it again, defeating five in a row to become the 1975
Eastern Maine Champion. This is Roger's first Eastern Maine title, and
gives him one of the most prestigious trophies on his already groaning shelf. .
. .
An annual feature of the Eastern Maine Open has been the George Cunningham Best
Game Award, donated several years ago by the members of the Bangor and UMO
clubs. Any kind of victory against good defense can win the award, but the
tendency among the various judges over the years has been to reward games with
tactical flair...
Dan Gutman's strong positional style is worthy opposition to any tactician such
as Roger.....
Here is the first combinational touch. It seems that 15 R-Q2 is a
slight positional error, an "inexactitude" that is exploited by
black's next few moves. The resulting unbalanced position is better for
Roger's combinational style than for Dan's positional play. The ensuing
complications seem to be native territory to Roger. Dan's 27 BxRP turns
out to be another inexactitude, actually the falling into a trap cleverly baited
by the tempting RP.... White resigns because he cannot counter the threat of
Q-KR8.
Combined with all his other victories recently, Roger Lacroix's clean sweep of
the Eastern Maine ought to push his rating near 1900, an improvement of a
class and a half already in 1975....
Bangor Daily News...February 20, 1973. The University of Maine at Orono walked off with individual and team honors last weekend at the New England Intercollegiate Chess Championship at Harvard University. The UMO team scored 16 out of a possible 20 points in the once a year tournament for New England college chess players. The Harvard A team came in second with 14½ points; the Harvard B team third with 12; Brandeis University, 11; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9. The top individual scorer was Graham Cooper, a UMO freshman from Augusta . . . at 4½-½. Four players were tied for second place, 4-1, including. . . Roger Lacroix, a UMO senior from Old Orchard Beach. . . .
[Special Note. . . Harvard and MIT each sent 16 players to this tournament and Maine sent only 5 players. Each college's "A" team was determined after the tournament was finished so Harvard and MIT compared their best 4 out of 16 results against Maine's best 4 out of 5 results.]
Maine Sunday Telegram...April 4, 1976. Maine
Wins Interstate Match. Maine has defeated New Hampshire in a
hard-fought interstate match, coming from behind to pull out the double round
event at Somersworth, NH, 10½-9½. Due partly to a forfeit loss on Board
Two when Skip Hansen failed to appear. . ., Maine fell behind 5½-4½ after the
first round.
Round Two was a different story, however. Maine recruited Steve Allen as a
numerical replacement for Hansen, shuffled its lineup accordingly, and scored a
6-4 triumph to emerge victorious overall.
. . . Of the five players (three for Maine and two for New Hampshire) who
achieved 2-0 results, Roger Lacroix turned in the most impressive effort.
Playing on Board 3 in the first round he defeated veteran George Bart, then
moving up to Board 2 in the second round he scored again over Hal Terrie. . . .