It’s not every year that you get birthday notes from a mayor, a premier and a prime minister, but it’s not every day that you become Canada’s oldest man.
On Tuesday, Zoltan Sarosy of Toronto turned 110, gaining him admission to the world’s tiny club of super centenarians.
Sarosy’s long life has been defined by his love of chess.
Born in Budapest in 1906, Sarosy learned to play while attending university in Vienna, Austria. Back in his native Hungary, he went on to win several championships in the 1930s and was named to the level of chess master in 1943. Following a move to Canada in the 1950s, Sarosy played by mail and was national correspondence chess champion in 1967.
Much later, after the advent of the internet, Sarosy took his game online -- at the age of 95.
“[I] bought a computer, took two lessons and bought some books and started to play.”
According to Sarosy’s grandson, Peter Mello, the secret to the man’s longevity is simple.
“For him, waking up every morning and just wanting to get on with his day is what brought him to be 110.”
Sarosy, however, won’t reveal the real reason for his miraculously long life.
“I’m still working on the formula,” he told CTV News Toronto. “But when I find it out, I’m not going to tell you -- I’m going to patent that.”
With files from CTV Toronto
