Emory Andrew Tate Jr. (1958–2015) was one of America’s most feared tactical fighters, a five-time U.S. Armed Forces Chess Champion and an International Master renowned for creating brilliancies in real time. His uncompromising style produced a trove of celebrated sacrificial games, including wins against multiple elite grandmasters such as Walter Browne, Leonid Yudasin, and Józef Piątek. Tate earned the “The Great” moniker from peers who saw his board vision as almost orchestral, improvisational, yet precise. A fixture of American chess from the 1980s through the 2010s, he left a legacy of fearless creativity, inspiring generations of players who studied his combinations like dispatches from a battlefield of ideas.