'Mr. Kentucky Chess' found stabbed in Jtown

As world chess champion Garry Kasparov's designated greeter at the National High School chess championship in Lexington one year, Steve Dillard walked in with the famed Russian to a standing ovation.

"Garry turned to me and said, 'Mr. Dillard, I didn't realize you were so famous,'" Dillard later recalled, upon his election to the Kentucky Chess Hall of Fame.

The crowd was cheering for Kasparov, of course, but to Kentucky chess players, Dillard also was a true champion.

The Jefferson County math teacher introduced chess into some of Jefferson County's most beleaguered public schools, bought thousands of chess sets for Kentuckians who couldn't afford them, and last year was given the U.S. Chess Association's life achievement award for directing more tournaments – 3,000 — than any American.

Dillard, 55, who also fostered troubled children, was found beaten and stabbed to death Friday in his Jeffersontown home, and police charged one of his former foster kids with murder.

Ronshai Jenefor, 21, was being held in Jefferson County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond. He was found about a half-mile from Dillard's home walking in the rain, drenched and with blood on his hands, according to Jeffersontown police.

Dillard's body was found at about 11 a.m. by his sister, police said.

Jefferson County deputy coroner Rita Taylor confirmed Dillard's identity on Saturday but his death was announced by the Kentucky Chess Association on its website and confirmed by its officers, including vice president Ryan Velez.

Dillard was supposed to attend a scholastic chess championship Saturday in Lexington; instead, about 1,000 people were mourning his death, Velez said.

"He was the biggest single promoter of chess in the country — and that's a fact," Velez said. "You can't find a single chess person in Kentucky he hasn't helped."

Dillard, known as "Mr. Kentucky Chess," learned the game from his father as an 8-year-old and was introduced to tournament chess as a student at Atherton High School, according to a biography that accompanied his election into the Kentucky Chess Hall of Fame.

He began promoting chess in the schools in 1982 as a math teacher at Western High School, and eventually directed tournaments in Kentucky and 30 other states. He helped grow the state chess association from 300 members to more than 5,000, according to his Hall of Fame nomination.

In 2001 he told The Courier-Journal that he saw chess as "a great equalizer."

"Inner-city schools have a poor reputation sometimes, but their students are tremendous when you see them at the chess board," he said. "They tend to be confident and stronger academically. No one will look at the color of their skin or the type of clothes they are wearing, because winning at chess, on equal ground, is something that can't be taken away."

He taught as many as six credit courses in chess a day at Kammerer Middle School, where he also was a math teacher. He had transferred a little more than a week ago to Carrithers Middle School, said Principal Marcella Denise Franklin-Williams.

Dillard was single and never married, Velez said.

Dillard paid for thousands of national chess club memberships for children to compete in sanctioned tournaments, and was just as dedicated to his foster children, many of whom were deeply troubled, Velez said.

"He never looked at a rap sheet as a reason not to help someone," Velez said.

Eric Yussman, who has written about the history of chess in Louisville and was a friend, said, "Steve was the kindest, gentlest person I've ever known."

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189.