Nigro was so impressed with Fischer's play that he introduced him to the club and began teaching him. Fischer noted of his time with Nigro: "Mr. Nigro was possibly not the best player in the world, but he was a very good teacher. Meeting him was probably a decisive factor in my going ahead with chess."

Emily Griffith was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on February 10, 1868. She grew up very poor. Griffith left school after the eighth grade to help support her family. At the age of seventeen, she took a job as a teacher in a sod house school in Nebraska.