I had not been in touch with Bob Ciaffone for many years, but this USCF Master and very strong poker player was an important figure in my teenage years. I played countless blitz games against him, expert Dean Yarbro, and FM and former US Junior Champion Craig Chellstorp in the mid-'80s. Their styles and repertoires were all very different, so it was good to run that gauntlet.
Ciaffone was a very principled positional player. Some of you may have seen his short book on the Smith-Morra Gambit. He would happily accept the gambit, a big believer in static advantages like material and space; much less in the initiative. As a player who enjoyed the initiative, it was useful for me to see just how much I could get away with against him, especially knowing that he was always well-prepared in the opening (when it came to opening research in those pre-engine days, he was far stronger than rating). My results against him were very good - being young and fast made a difference - but he was always a challenging opponent.
Anyway, as good as he was in chess, he was apparently much better in poker, where his most notable result was a third-place finish in the WSOP no limit main event back in 1987. And something I didn't know about him until just now is that he was also a Life Master in bridge. He was an impressive gamer, and always a nice guy to me, despite my teenaged obnoxiousness. I'll remember him fondly.
Rest in peace, Bob.