White Knight Review September-October- 2010
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Chess Magazine Online E-Magazine Volume 1 • Issue 1 September October 2010 Nobel Prize winners and Chess The Fischer King: The illusive life of Bobby Fischer Pt. 1 Sight Unseen-The Art of Blindfold Chess CHESS- theres an app for that! TAKING IT TO THE STREETS Street Players and Hustlers White Knight Review September-October- 2010 White My Move [email protected] Knight editorial elcome to our inaugural Review WIssue of White Knight Review. This chess magazine Chess E-Magazine was the natural outcome of the vision of 3 brothers. The unique corroboration and the divers talent of the “Wall boys” set in motion the idea of putting together this White Knight Table of Contents contents online publication. The oldest of the three is my brother Bill. He Review EDITORIAL-”My Move” 3 is by far the Chess expert of the group being the Chess E-Magazine author of over 30 chess books, several websites on the internet and a highly respected player in FEATURE-Taking it to the Streets 4 the chess world. His books and articles have spanned the globe and have become a wellspring of knowledge for both beginners and Executive Editor/Writer BOOK REVIEW-Diary of a Chess Queen 7 masters alike. Bill Wall Our younger brother is the entrepreneur [email protected] who’s initial idea of a marketable website and HISTORY-The History of Blindfold Chess 8 promoting resource material for chess players became the beginning focus on this endeavor. His sales and promotion experience is an FEATURE-Chessman- Picking up the pieces 10 integral part to the project. Publisher /Editor/ Creative My background has always been in printing, Director graphics, and publishing so I’m the hands on Gerald Wall BIOGRAPHY-The Fischer King: The Illusive 12 man. There are many great chess sites out there (including ours) as well as chess publications [email protected] Life of Bobby Fischer Pt. 1 but what we wanted to do was bring the information to the visual forefront in a digital Nobel Prize Winners who Played Chess 22 form. An e-magazine enables us to bring a quality product in the most affordable manner. Production/ Marketing This Magazine is totally interactive. That means that you can click on e-mail addresses to Steve Wall CHESS! There’s an app for that 26 open your e-mail program and send an e-mail. [email protected] You can click on URL links and be sent to the website. You can even click on all ads and HUMOR-Excuses, Excuses 28 automatically be sent to their website. Please For Subscription visit our ad sponsors because they enable this to [email protected] be a free subscription. Also visit our own NEWS - Chess News around the world 29 website and chess store at www.offthewallchess. com. ©Copyright 2010 ANNOTATED GAME - Spassky Vrs Polugaevsky 30 The world of Chess is rich with information All Rights Reserved. to help players excel at any level. Hopefully this Unauthorized reproduction, publication will serve to inform, enlighten, in any manner is prohibited COMMENTARY- “Ask Bill” 31 instruct and improve the reader in all things without expressed permission chess. from the Author or Editor. INTERACTIVE CONTENTS Click on title to move directly to page. Click on “White Knight Review” on Gerald (Jerry) Wall www.offthewallchess.com the top of each page to return to Editor Table of Contents. 3 White Knight Review September-October 2010 White Knight Review September-October- 2010 don’t want you playing chess all who played at Washington Square quick game. I’ve only been playing a TAKING IT TO THE STREETS night.” Park include Joel Benjamin, Roman year.” “OK.” “Five a game?” “Two.” Another hustler is Junior, who Dzindzichashvili, Kamaran Shirazi, “Come on, man. That’s not even by Bill Wall always wears a baseball cap and talks Bruce Pandolfini, Hikaru Nakamura, minimum wage. Three.” hess is played on the streets in trash as he chain-smokes is way Maurice Ashley, Asa Hoffman, Inexperienced chess opponents New York, Atlanta, New through his chess games. William Morrison (known as the are easy to spot. They are the ones Orleans,C Boston, San Francisco and Master Rock (Leonard) is a exterminator and became an that fumble the pieces, or uses one other major cities. Some are hustlers part-time chess hustler in New York. International Master), and Bobby had to move the pieces and the other and some are strong masters. His normal job is in the billing Fischer in the 1950s. hand to hit the clock, which is Technically, for most areas, playing department at Manhattan Total Josua Waitzkin wrote that he against the normal rules of chess. chess for money on the streets is Health. began playing at six years of age in For hustlers, a crucial part of the unlawful gambling, but not enforced For regular New York chess Washington Square Park. His first game is not to win too quickly, or get very much. Some police officers and players in Union Square Park, opponents were chess hustles, a losing position, but win on time. lawyers say that since hustlers were Washington Square Park and St. ex-cons, drug dealers, foul-mouthed This allows the opponent to think he not taking a cut of the stakes, that it Nicholas Avenue and 141st Street, gamblers, big jokers, and crafty almost won, and will usually try to may not be illegal like gaming the game of chess is fast and can be tactical players who tried to lure a play another game. The games have houses, who do take a cut at the lucrative to some of the chess passerby into a game of chess for 50 to be close and hustlers do not want stakes. It is also difficult to see any hustlers who thrive on blitz chess cents or a dollar. to crush their opponent. They try to money changing hands. Don’t flash (mostly 5-minute games played with In Washington D.C., “Jo-Jo” has leave their opponent’s ego intact and the money. The cash is supposed to chess clocks). Some of the blitz chess been playing and hustling chess for try to convince the opponent that he be inconspicuous. The winnings are players try to make a living, or at over 20 years at Dupont Circle Park. almost won, because the hustler usually exchanged in a handshake. least pocket money, from hustling. He is homeless and spends most of wants to keep his opponent coming Hustlers say they have never had Chess hustling is a city game, played his time at the park where he plays back. any problems with the police. And is with chess clocks (analog or digital), chess to make quick cash. When The returning opponents are it really hustling? After all, the that is fast and gritty. On the street, playing chess, the conversation is known as regulars, or customers. opponent does not know the hustler’s the bets are usually $5 a game, often loud, with a few mock insults Chess hustlers have their regulars strength, and the hustler doesn’t usually 5-minute chess. Good chess thrown at each other. Jo-Jo estimates and like to play the same people over know the opponent’s strength. Either hustlers can make up to $200 on a that he makes $100 a week hustling and over again, inspiring their one could be a master or good day, but most hustlers make chess, which he uses for food, customers to feel that they are just on grandmaster. Now that’s hustling if it much less than that. cigarettes and brown-bagged beer. the verge of beating the street chess is some grandmaster, either as During the 1980s, Israel Zilber, a In Toronto, the most famous chess player. opponent or hustler. former Latvian chess champion (he hustler was Polish native Josef Most customers lose $10 to $20 During the Depression, actor once beat former world champion Smolij. He played chess on the before quitting. Sometimes they get Humphrey Bogart, perhaps an expert Mikhail Tal) in 1958, hustled chess in sidewalk along Gould Street. He lucky and take a game from these chess player, would hustle chess for Washington Square Park. He was would lose a game maybe once every chess hustlers. Some customers have 25 cents a game in Times Square and homeless (he slept on a bench in the two week. He would unleash a admitted losing many or all their Coney Island. park at night) and made his money barrage of Polish-accented bravado games to these hustlers, but also Arnold Denker and Al Horwitz hustling chess. To chess players and that infuriated his opponents, but admitted that the hustlers helped were also chess hustlers during the tourists, he offered a choice: for a entertained all those that stopped by improve their game, especially blitz Depression. He seemed to have been dollar he would pose for a to watch. When his opponent would chess. a chess hustler on and off from 1929 photograph (the man who beat Tal) make a blunder, Smolij would say, To survive as a chess hustler, you through 1933. or play you in a game of chess. “In Russia they send you to Siberia have to be a fighter and play In the 1960s, director Stanley Sweet Pea (Bobby Plummer), who for that one. Yes, is true. Player aggressive chess. Defensive chess is Kubrick played lots of chess against was $1 an hour), Jude Acers at the Gazebo, on the lives in Brooklyn, is another chess scared to make bad moof in Russia.” too slow. You also have to handle many of the street chess hustlers in On any given day, except for snow sidewalk of Canal Street between hustler in Washington Square Park The games provided Smolif his sole any kind of distraction, from boom Washington Square Park in New storms and rain outs, one is likely to Baronne and S.