Carol Jarecki

Chess career

Jarecki began her involvement in chess as a "ChessMom," accompanying her son John to tournaments across the country; John became the youngest chess master in the U.S. at age 12 in 1981. She later obtained certification as a tournament director at the highest National Tournament Director level and continued directing after her son retired from competition. She served as Head Tournament Director at several U.S. Chess Championships, SuperNational Scholastic Championships, National Elementary Championships, and World Opens in Philadelphia.

Jarecki was recognized as an International Arbiter by FIDE in 1984 and regularly worked at the World Chess Olympiad, sometimes as Head Arbiter. She was the chief arbiter at the Bermuda International Open for over 20 years. She served as Chief Arbiter at the PCA World Chess Championship match in 1995 between Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, held at the top of the World Trade Center. Jarecki was arbiter and referee for the 1997 Kasparov–Deep Blue match and for two Intel Grand Prix matches.

She was head arbiter for the HB Global Chess Challenge in Minneapolis 2005, which had the richest prize fund for an Open tournament in chess history.

Personal life and death

Jarecki married physician Richard Jarecki in 1964; he died in 2018. They had three children. In the 1970s, she and her husband won over $1.2 million using a system on biased roulette wheels in Monte Carlo and Sanremo, before being barred from Italy; the ban was later overturned.

Jarecki was a licensed pilot with over 4,200 cumulative flight hours. She lived in Las Vegas and Boulder, Colorado. She announced a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in December 2020 and died six months later at age 86.