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Main
Date: 14 Aug 2008 18:44:02
From: [email protected]
Subject: This Crazy World of Chess
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FROM JIM RENDEK, NEW BEDFORD, MA.
I'm not a player of any real strength but have been re-infected by the
chess bug which bit me in my youth.
I recently read THIS CRAZY WORLD OF CHESS and greatly enjoyed it.
Thanks to GM Larry Evans for all the articles he has published.
Whenever his name is attached, I always take the time to read it.
HAS THE CHESS WORLD GONE CRAZY?
14 March 2008 Written by New In Chess
This Crazy World of Chess is the title of Grandmaster Larry Evans' new
book.
It is a collection of 101 entertaining dispatches from the back door
of chess: fun, intrigues, bizarre anecdotes, scandals, great games,
and high-level gossip.
Inevitably, there is a lot of Bobby Fischer in this book, as Evans was
Fischer's best friend during a crucial period in his life.
But quite a few other celebrities turn up in this swinging volume:
Garry Kasparov, Charlie Chaplin, Anatoly Karpov, Artie Shaw, Sammy
Reshesvky and Ray Charles.
There is another intriguing aspect of this 294 pages book: it costs
only EURO 11.50! Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
how
Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
In short: an extremely entertaining read at a ridiculously low price.
http://tinyurl.com/2u4u85
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Date: 18 Aug 2008 12:38:00
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
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ADDRESS PROVIDED SEPARATELY
As a friend of GM Larry Evans, I thought you could put me in touch
with him. I am a long time club player ( 7 years older than GM Evans)
and have benefited greatly from his books and columns in Chess Life.
Here I am acting for the editor of "Popular Chess", a UK magazine
devoted to club players. I am a US contributor to this magazine. The
editor from London, Victor Mathias, is traveling to the SW United
states and will spend several days in Las Vegas, NV during October
2008. He is a great admirer of GM Evans, is keen to interview him for
Popular Chess, and prepared to travel to Reno if required.. He is not
on the internet, but needs a mailing address to contact GM Evans to
arrange an interview.
If you can help, it will be most convenient to e-mail a reply to me
and I shall airmail the information to Victor Mathias. I hope you can
help,
Sincerely,
Walter Unterberg
USCF Member
The 5-time U.S. champion is giving a free lecture at the 25th Western
States Open in Reno on October 16, 6pm at the Sands Regency Hotel-
Casino. All those faceless cowards like Rynd/Dowd, who forged my name
on a university website, sniping at him on this forum are welcome to
confront him with their barbs and questions during the Q&A session --
if they dare.
SBD wrote:
> On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
> > how
> > Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
> >
>
> Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
> even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
> send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
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Date: 18 Aug 2008 16:25:56
From: Chess One
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
Dear Lawrence of Malaysia,
Is it true that only older people are pioneers, are brave? Know more than
they say, prefer it that way? Know what battles are still worth fighting?
Here is a little snippet of news about another strong player - he is a 70
year old master, and I read about him this week and had these reactions:
---
I read about a chess in the prisons program in the following article
http://www.explorehoward.com/news/10787/chess-helps-inmates-put-pieces-order/
The program began in April when Carolyn Young, a counselor and
classification administrator at the jail, decided that the maximum security
prisoners, in jail for violent crimes, had little to do.
Young brought in a chess coach she knew from her church. He taught at the
jail briefly and then recommended Ken Clayton, 70, of Columbia, as his
replacement. Clayton is a master level chess player who previously taught
chess in jail settings and as far afield as Vietnam.
Clayton said he volunteers at the jail to help the players turn their lives
around. "These guys made a mistake, they're going to have to pay for it, but
they deserve a chance to do something differently," he said.
Jeremiah Lewis, 21, who was in jail on a violation of probation charge, said
he had learned chess in school but was beginning to master the game through
Clayton's lessons.
"It helps me use my brain more. I won't be so quick to lash out," Lewis said
of the class. Lewis, who was released from jail Aug. 7, said he plans on
pursuing the game further.
So this Parrot contacted Dave Rudel, author of the new Zuke-Em! title on the
Colle-Zukertort, and said,
"Hey Dave, would you consider giving.."
"How many copies you need" answered Dave straightaway.
I then contacted the journalist who wrote the article and asked him to
contact the chess teacher at the prison and find out...
---
Now, here is real jungle networking in chess, and someone [otherwise obscure
except fro this journalist's notice of him, except of course to those he
directly connects with on the inside ] taking an initiative which many of us
would shrink from actually performing, yet few of us would deny the worth
thereof - in fact, more worth than we contribute?
I hope to be able to supply this guy with whatever he needs, and indeed,
other in-prisons chess teachers too. Can campaign on subject.
---
This is better than our, and I do mean to include myself, all of our little
differences here. It shades it entirely, it renders it inconsequential when
here are lives which can be reclaimed by the efforts of their owners -
owners who need tools and resources to do so, and who learn via the hard
road the need to constructively channel aggression.
Cordially, Phil Innes
<[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> ADDRESS PROVIDED SEPARATELY
>
> As a friend of GM Larry Evans, I thought you could put me in touch
> with him. I am a long time club player ( 7 years older than GM Evans)
> and have benefited greatly from his books and columns in Chess Life.
>
> Here I am acting for the editor of "Popular Chess", a UK magazine
> devoted to club players. I am a US contributor to this magazine. The
> editor from London, Victor Mathias, is traveling to the SW United
> states and will spend several days in Las Vegas, NV during October
> 2008. He is a great admirer of GM Evans, is keen to interview him for
> Popular Chess, and prepared to travel to Reno if required.. He is not
> on the internet, but needs a mailing address to contact GM Evans to
> arrange an interview.
>
> If you can help, it will be most convenient to e-mail a reply to me
> and I shall airmail the information to Victor Mathias. I hope you can
> help,
>
> Sincerely,
> Walter Unterberg
> USCF Member
>
> The 5-time U.S. champion is giving a free lecture at the 25th Western
> States Open in Reno on October 16, 6pm at the Sands Regency Hotel-
> Casino. All those faceless cowards like Rynd/Dowd, who forged my name
> on a university website, sniping at him on this forum are welcome to
> confront him with their barbs and questions during the Q&A session --
> if they dare.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> SBD wrote:
>> On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
>> > how
>> > Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
>> >
>>
>> Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
>> even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
>> send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
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Date: 16 Aug 2008 14:54:19
From: help bot
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
On Aug 16, 3:11=A0pm, "Chess One" <[email protected] > wrote:
> > Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
> > even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
> > send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
>
> And they do, in substantial numbers, and even though it may only be
> half-good as its worst critics say, the other side of the coin is
> consequently that it is really not half bad!
>
> Compared with the candid critique of insiders
>
> [who I have to tell you write at extraordinary length about themselves an=
d
> why they as poor officials resent the hell out of chessplayers - look at =
the
> ex culpa current shown on the USCF chess blog, written by Tom Braunlich, =
and
> citing Joel Benjamin* see below]
>
> What Evans has done to Chess Politicos is what Orwell did to the Soviet
> Union. In closed societies there is limited access to information, and yo=
u
> can't play by those rules. So even half-bad stuff is so refreshing compar=
ed
> to the entirely uncritical official Pravda versions of anything.
>
> Phil Innes
>
> *Joel Benjamin wrote about senior European TDs and other opinion expresse=
d
> at Chessbase, and their opinion of the Women's US final:-
>
> =A0 =A0 "The criticism directed at the U.S. Championship organization for=
the
> unfortunate events of the Armageddon playoff is ridiculous and overblown.
> People may not like what happened, but the playoff procedure was fairly
> standard and spelled out for the players, despite the contentions of many
> Internet 'commentators'." This contrasted sharply with many of the online
> statements, which flatly declared the playoff method was "boneheaded,"
> "degrading," or "demeaning to chess."
>
> Benjamin does not explain to people that he himself did not play this yea=
r
> because of organisational resentments he had, nor admits the irony that h=
e
> himself is an 'internet commentator', or why he thinks the means of
> commentary more important than the content!@.
It seems he is not necessarily attacking the
medium (the internet), but specifying that this
is where much of the criticism originated.
That's a handy way on not naming names, and
of taking a broad swipe at critics themselves,
rather than directly address their criticisms.
You may recognize this approach from the
"work" of such great ad hominists as Mr. Parr
and his idol, Mr. Evans.
> He doesn't mention my questioning of Braunlich, Berry et al, and their 4,=
000
> word response which instead of being answer, merely covered 1 question of=
4
> I put to them, no more than 50 words in all.
Quite possibly JB never heard of you, has
no clue who you are, and is quite happy that
way.
> The entire long-winded defensive article never mentions /players/ at all =
-
> with the single exception of Benjamin's dismissal of them, as cited in fu=
ll,
> above.
>
> One respondent asked about what level of critique is actually invited by
> publishing such an article?
>
> "It appears the forum has devolved to the same ol' glad-handers and
> back-slappers. Rarely is read a contrary viewpoint. Is that not be the po=
int
> of a forum?"
Is that not be for to make-um good communications?
(Injun no savvy.)
> And that is a good point in my opinion. Naturally the goold 'ol glad-hand=
ers
> rounded on him asking him what /status/ he had to express his views, and
> none of them addressed what he had to say.
After consistently losing at odds to a mere chess
engine, I would guess his status is not what it once
was. But it's not really about status, unless you are
desperately seeking an idol-- someone who can do
all your thinking for you, while you merely parrot
what /they think/ (since you cannot).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Some folks are easily tired or bored by the many
chess books which focus on the technical aspects
of chess, on memorizing lines of variations, or
rows, or lines and rows which make no sense--
except perhaps to the author who created them.
These people welcome change; they welcome
such works as Mr. Evans', where the focus is not
on rote memorization of chess openings, but on
the world of imaginary conspiracies and the
promotion of men such as Bobby Fischer to gods
of a sort: invincible, all-knowing and obsessed.
It also makes a refreshing change from the
routine world of poor game annotations-- which
have long dominated our game's publishing arena.
I only wish that Mr. Evans had more imagination;
that he could invent stories about all the great
figures, not just a few. For instance, what about
Mr. Steinitz? His match record puts everyone
else to shame, and his contributions to the
world of chess far exceed those of many others,
yet he is often neglected, nearly forgotten.
-- help bot
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Date: 17 Aug 2008 16:35:33
From: Chess One
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
"help bot" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:1c51a404-da23-4510-a6ab-5eacca3c9e7e@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
On Aug 16, 3:11 pm, "Chess One" <[email protected] > wrote:
> > Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
> > even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
> > send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
>
> And they do, in substantial numbers, and even though it may only be
> half-good as its worst critics say, the other side of the coin is
> consequently that it is really not half bad!
>
> Compared with the candid critique of insiders
>
> [who I have to tell you write at extraordinary length about themselves and
> why they as poor officials resent the hell out of chessplayers - look at
> the
> ex culpa current shown on the USCF chess blog, written by Tom Braunlich,
> and
> citing Joel Benjamin* see below]
>
> What Evans has done to Chess Politicos is what Orwell did to the Soviet
> Union. In closed societies there is limited access to information, and you
> can't play by those rules. So even half-bad stuff is so refreshing
> compared
> to the entirely uncritical official Pravda versions of anything.
>
> Phil Innes
>
> *Joel Benjamin wrote about senior European TDs and other opinion expressed
> at Chessbase, and their opinion of the Women's US final:-
>
> "The criticism directed at the U.S. Championship organization for the
> unfortunate events of the Armageddon playoff is ridiculous and overblown.
> People may not like what happened, but the playoff procedure was fairly
> standard and spelled out for the players, despite the contentions of many
> Internet 'commentators'." This contrasted sharply with many of the online
> statements, which flatly declared the playoff method was "boneheaded,"
> "degrading," or "demeaning to chess."
>
> Benjamin does not explain to people that he himself did not play this year
> because of organisational resentments he had, nor admits the irony that he
> himself is an 'internet commentator', or why he thinks the means of
> commentary more important than the content!@.
It seems he is not necessarily attacking the
medium (the internet), but specifying that this
is where much of the criticism originated.
That's a handy way on not naming names, and
of taking a broad swipe at critics themselves,
rather than directly address their criticisms.
**Welcome to USCF - as you see from my addendum, someone pointed this out at
the USCF forum and was castigated for it.
You may recognize this approach from the
"work" of such great ad hominists as Mr. Parr
and his idol, Mr. Evans.
**I do not. You do, but then again, you are an abstract obsessionalist with
pretty well-defined fixations. S'far as I can see oth parr and Evans would
agree with what we both conclude above to be real and actual behaviors of
people - not 'talk' as such cheap stuff as that.
> He doesn't mention my questioning of Braunlich, Berry et al, and their
> 4,000
> word response which instead of being answer, merely covered 1 question of
> 4
> I put to them, no more than 50 words in all.
Quite possibly JB never heard of you,
**Actually, I ensured his paper on Scholastic Chess got huge circulation and
he recently thanked me for it!
> has
no clue who you are, and is quite happy that
way.
** But I think considering Greg Kennedy's endless negative speculations
about others, it is probably time to end the post here, and indeed, since
the rest of this, having got started on v a g u e negativity will
get no better. I looked ahead. I am right.
Phil Innes
> The entire long-winded defensive article never mentions /players/ at all -
> with the single exception of Benjamin's dismissal of them, as cited in
> full,
> above.
>
> One respondent asked about what level of critique is actually invited by
> publishing such an article?
>
> "It appears the forum has devolved to the same ol' glad-handers and
> back-slappers. Rarely is read a contrary viewpoint. Is that not be the
> point
> of a forum?"
Is that not be for to make-um good communications?
(Injun no savvy.)
> And that is a good point in my opinion. Naturally the goold 'ol
> glad-handers
> rounded on him asking him what /status/ he had to express his views, and
> none of them addressed what he had to say.
After consistently losing at odds to a mere chess
engine, I would guess his status is not what it once
was. But it's not really about status, unless you are
desperately seeking an idol-- someone who can do
all your thinking for you, while you merely parrot
what /they think/ (since you cannot).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Some folks are easily tired or bored by the many
chess books which focus on the technical aspects
of chess, on memorizing lines of variations, or
rows, or lines and rows which make no sense--
except perhaps to the author who created them.
These people welcome change; they welcome
such works as Mr. Evans', where the focus is not
on rote memorization of chess openings, but on
the world of imaginary conspiracies and the
promotion of men such as Bobby Fischer to gods
of a sort: invincible, all-knowing and obsessed.
It also makes a refreshing change from the
routine world of poor game annotations-- which
have long dominated our game's publishing arena.
I only wish that Mr. Evans had more imagination;
that he could invent stories about all the great
figures, not just a few. For instance, what about
Mr. Steinitz? His match record puts everyone
else to shame, and his contributions to the
world of chess far exceed those of many others,
yet he is often neglected, nearly forgotten.
-- help bot
|
| |
Date: 16 Aug 2008 08:11:46
From: SBD
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected] > wrote:
> Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
> how
> Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
>
Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
|
| | |
Date: 16 Aug 2008 15:11:32
From: Chess One
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
"SBD" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
>> how
>> Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
>>
>
> Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
> even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
> send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
And they do, in substantial numbers, and even though it may only be
half-good as its worst critics say, the other side of the coin is
consequently that it is really not half bad!
Compared with the candid critique of insiders
[who I have to tell you write at extraordinary length about themselves and
why they as poor officials resent the hell out of chessplayers - look at the
ex culpa current shown on the USCF chess blog, written by Tom Braunlich, and
citing Joel Benjamin* see below]
What Evans has done to Chess Politicos is what Orwell did to the Soviet
Union. In closed societies there is limited access to information, and you
can't play by those rules. So even half-bad stuff is so refreshing compared
to the entirely uncritical official Pravda versions of anything.
Phil Innes
*Joel Benjamin wrote about senior European TDs and other opinion expressed
at Chessbase, and their opinion of the Women's US final:-
"The criticism directed at the U.S. Championship organization for the
unfortunate events of the Armageddon playoff is ridiculous and overblown.
People may not like what happened, but the playoff procedure was fairly
standard and spelled out for the players, despite the contentions of many
Internet 'commentators'." This contrasted sharply with many of the online
statements, which flatly declared the playoff method was "boneheaded,"
"degrading," or "demeaning to chess."
Benjamin does not explain to people that he himself did not play this year
because of organisational resentments he had, nor admits the irony that he
himself is an 'internet commentator', or why he thinks the means of
commentary more important than the content!@.
He doesn't mention my questioning of Braunlich, Berry et al, and their 4,000
word response which instead of being answer, merely covered 1 question of 4
I put to them, no more than 50 words in all.
The entire long-winded defensive article never mentions /players/ at all -
with the single exception of Benjamin's dismissal of them, as cited in full,
above.
One respondent asked about what level of critique is actually invited by
publishing such an article?
"It appears the forum has devolved to the same ol' glad-handers and
back-slappers. Rarely is read a contrary viewpoint. Is that not be the point
of a forum?"
And that is a good point in my opinion. Naturally the goold 'ol glad-handers
rounded on him asking him what /status/ he had to express his views, and
none of them addressed what he had to say.
|
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Date: 16 Aug 2008 15:47:51
From: Brian Lafferty
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
SBD wrote:
> On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
>> how
>> Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
>>
>
> Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
> even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
> send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
>
Troll.
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Date: 16 Aug 2008 11:12:06
From: Kenneth Sloan
Subject: Re: This Crazy World of Chess
|
Brian Lafferty wrote:
> SBD wrote:
>> On Aug 14, 8:44 pm, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Being a chess publisher myself, I fail to understand
>>> how
>>> Cardoza, Evans' publisher, manages to make any money on this.
>>>
>>
>> Take a bunch of crappy, poorly conceived newspaper articles, don't
>> even take the time to properly edit the diagrams, slap it together and
>> send it to the world, hoping suckers will buy it?
>>
> Troll.
Leprechaun.
--
Kenneth Sloan [email protected]
Computer and Information Sciences +1-205-932-2213
University of Alabama at Birmingham FAX +1-205-934-5473
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 http://KennethRSloan.com/
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