What is the most famous player you have met? I was wondering what is the most famous player people here have met in person, or even played against.
Mine arent too impressive. Ive played against Peter Keevil, who is a master (I managed a draw, which was disappointing as I had the advantage for much of the game) and met Raymond Keene.
My tops I've met Tiviakov (2631) many years ago; I've played (and lost to :) GM's Sergio Mariotti and Lexy Ortega.
cyrano met Tal! and probably some others to.
i met bruce pandolfini, ummm... hikaru nakamura... oh, and i know me!
I played against David Bronstein and Ilya Smirin.
I have been dinning with the late Anthony Miles and discussed some chess as well. I played and lost against the former World Champion in CC, Jorn Sloth. I met Bent Larsen several times and finally I played and held a draw in a simul-game against Nigel Short, back in the eighties, when he scored his last GM-norm in the Vesterhavs-tournament in Esbjerg.
Ha I met myself, and I'm going to be famous.
and now you met me all aswell.
I MET IN PERSON. INTERNATIONAL MASTER ERIC TANGBORN(1975)HE WAS 14 AND THE 9TH STRONGEST PLAYER UNDER 21 AND I ALMOST BEAT HIM IN A CHAMPIONSHIP CHESS TOURNAMENT.
GRANDMASTER YASSER SIERAWAN(1975)AT THE TIME TOP PLAYER IN THE UNITED STATES AT AGE 14 A MASTER.
GRANDMASTER VICTOR KORCHNOI(1978)HAD A DISCUSSION WITH HIM ABOUT THE KGB CHASING HIM BECAUSE OF HIS DEFECTION FROM THE USSR.
AT THE TIME HE WAS THE 2ND STRONGEST IN THE WORLD AND A CHALLENGER FOR THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP!PLAYED KARPOV FOR THE 1975 WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP!
I KNOW TWO FAMOUS CHESS MASTERS WHO PLAYED FISCHER TO A DRAW!(1)PLAYER OFFICIALLY DREW HIM IN(1963)IN A OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT AND FISCHER OFFERED HIM THE DRAW!(2)AND THE OTHER PLAYER DREW FISCHER IN A SIMO IN 1964.
(1982)PLAYED INTERNATIONAL MASTER NORMAN WIENSTIEN IN A SIMO AND BEAT HIM.
THERE ARE MANY OTHERS WHO I HAVE MET!
ABOUT TANGBORN (1975)I ALMOST BEAT HIM!LAST GAME OF THE TOURNAMENT ROUND 5 BOTH OF US HAD 4 WINS EACH! VERY INTENSE GAME AND ATMOSPHERE A PACKED CROWD SURROUNDED US!I WAS UP MATERIAL! A PAWN AND A VERY OPEN POSITION!I HAD TO BE VERY VERY CAREFULE TO KEEP THE PAWN!MY FIRST TOURNAMENT DEBUT AFTER A 2 YEAR ABSENCE FROM OFFICIAL COMPETITION!
TIME RUNNING OUT I HAD(7)MINUTES HE HAD SLIGHTLY LESS THAN(5)MINUTES!I FROZE UNDER PRESSURE AND LOST!
yes i also "almost beat a master:)" i've played Tim Krabbe and Dimitri Reinderman, both when they gave a simultaneous during a big tournament.
i've seen a lot of the top players of holland there, included timman.
quite lot Every year in Pardubice , Czech republic is bigest chess festival on the world. there arent top 10 players, but you can meet many grandmasters, eg Movsesian (I beat him, but in football:), who lives in Pardubice.
And during the summer was in Prague Eurotel Chess trophy (or so) where played all top players (Kasparov, Kramnik, Karpov, Anand, Ponomariov, J. Polgar) and you can met them in foyer.
and I'm almost certain it was really him.
Most famous players I have met would be Michael Adams, Nigel Short and Eugeny Bareev.
I played a homeless guy once in San Fransisco who looked like Tal...and every third move he'd take a swig out of a bottle in a brown bag ,so it probably was him..
hehehe..... I have met IM Calvin Blocker, and played IM Jonathon Schroer 90 moves in a simul., but I lost! Good game though!
Drove with pal I drove with Pal Benko and some other players who wanted to force me out of the car because I had played so badly in a tournament.
Pal Benko wouldn't let them - he froze them with a look.
notop Did you ask Pal about the slapping incident,you know when he slapped Bobby like a bi##h. I believe it was at the candidates tournament in 1962. For some strange reason they became friendly after that.
not aware I'm not aware of this incident and don't know if it happened. My car incident happened at about that same time. (give or take a year or two either way - memory is fog).
Pal Benko has a great force of personality - he is nobody to be trifled with. If he actually slapped Mr. Fisher, I suspect he had great cause.
National Master John Bartholomew I see John a few times a year, although he does not know me! nor have we every played.
(a) Sat down on his bed and cried like a girl.
(B) Complained to his second.
(C) Knocked out Benko's two front teeth.
Actually Actually I knew a lot of them - when i was young and played at the manhatton chess club.
There was Hans Kmoch - director. He as a distinuished man, always dressed perfectly. He wrote one of the classic works "Pawn Power in Chess." New players still read it.
But his vanity didn't always serve him. With a match against the Marshall Chess Club (8 boards), he suddenly forfeited the 8th board because he thought our 8th board was too young and too poor a player. I knew our 8th board and he was inexperienced but enthusiasitic - we lost the match by that one point. We might not have done better with a full team, but we could not have done worse.
And there was William Lombardy. The most arrogant man I've ever met. At a tournament he pushed a pawn and his opponent grabbed his forehead and gasped and W.L. said "Shh!"
Like it was disturbing people.
W.L. eventually became a priest. Their loss - our gain.
And there was Abe Turner. He is one who taught B. Fisher quite a lot about chess. He was more a hustler than a chessplayer. He would play chess, poker, scrabble, go. You name it. If you have the money - he has the clock. He was a large man - eventually he was murdered and his body parts were stuffed inside a safe.
And Asa Hoffman. He was the best rapids player I've ever seen. He was well-dressed - well-educated (Columbia graduate) and always extremely polite. One day he told me how he loved to play, but that for him chess was a trap - he knew he could never reach the top - he wanted a career, wife, family etc.. He was not going to become a "chess bum." He became a chess bum.
James Gore - a common partner of Asa Hoffman. I watched so many games with JG playing the Winawer against AH. Results varied - but JG left the chess scene to obtain a life.
Bernard Zuckerman - won many Manhatton championships. When I played him - he defeated me easily - but he carefully and politely analsysed the game - just like he was playing somebody. I don't know what ever happened to him.
There were so many interesting chess people back then - but this is all 40 years ago. I think that those that put too much of their lives in chess have the most to regret.
Thanks nottop I enjoyed reading your pen portraits of the Manhattan Chess Club players, it was a very interesting read and gave a good insight into all the differing personalities that are drawn into the great game of Chess.
many thanks, and may all your gambits be successful !!
tonlesu, please share some of your experience, I know for fact that you met some interesting guys, in the chess enviroment!
Well, at the us open in 87' I used to hang out (after games) at Labate's book store which was set up in the lobby of the hotel. Great selection of books and computers. Many GMs dropped in after their games. Shamkovich came in one afternoon and picked the two volume set of Estrin's Comprehensive Chess Openings and left with a big smile on his face. I was browsing one day and looked over and saw GM Dake looking through a book. I couldn't see the title but saw a picture of Alekhine on the cover. I had a casual aquaintance with Dake and slid over beside him.
Knowing Dake was very close to Alekhine before the war I said---Well, do you think he was a Nazi sympathizer? He looked at me and then back down at the book and said " I just don't know, I really just don't know.
Spassky When I was in high school in the late 70's I met,played and lost to Boris Spassky in Toms River,NJ..........there were about 30 boards in the room and he just walked around and beat everyone.......it was great!
donaldson is very sensitive- we were talking in the skittles room, play blitz, bug etc.. and he come in and says to us( kids) to be quite or he would have us removed!
Mecking I played and lost to Henrique Mecking ("Mequinho") many years ago (simultaneous). Last year i played blitz games with Mecking, Gilberto Milos and Miguel Quinteros in ICC (Internet Chess Club).
Mecking-Milos-Quinteros Mecking - Brazilian grandmaster. He was champion of Brazil at 13 and won the South American Zonal at 14. During a game (Fried Chickens tournaments, USA, 1972) with Petrosian, he mad a formal protest. He accused the formal world champion of kicking the table, shaking the chessboard, stirring the coffee too loudly, and rolling a coin on the table. He went to the referee twice to complain that Petrosian was breathing too loudly. Mecking kicked back at the table and made noises of his own. Petrosian responded by turning his hearing aid off. Winner of the Interzonal in Petropolis (1973) and Manila (1976). Lost in quarter-final for Korchnoi (1974) and Polugayevsky (1977). He retired from chess in 1978 when he contracted myasthenia gravis, a debilitating muscle disease. He returned to chess in 1991.
Milos - Brazilian Grandmaster (2644). Six times brazilian champion . He wrotes a book; "World Championship of 1996" about the match Karpov - Kamsky.
Quinteros - Argentine Grandmaster who, in 1987, was barred from playing in FIDE events for three years because he played in South Africa. Quinteros was the first grandmaster to visit South Africa since 1981. He gave simultaneous exhibitions in Cape Town, Sun City and Johannesburg. He is married to a former Miss Philippines.
Thanks nottop Terrific chess story. I loved it.
I saw Kasparov once....but he didn't see me....I was hiding.