MIRO REVERBY HOW TO

Vinny then said, “It was beautiful, wasn’t it!?” Black could refute all of this with 4…Bc5+ (which Theo started to play) 5.Kg1 Qh1+, but he opted for 4…Qxd7 and they entered a drawn ending. Around this time the taunting of “bye bye schmuck” started. Here he sacked his queen with 1.Qd8+? after which followed 1…Rxd8 2.Rxd8+ Bf8. In this position, Vinny is a pawn up in a dominant position and could win easily with simple moves like 1.Qd7. Was it sound? Well… no, but this is blitz. The position reached in the game before Vinny sacrificed his queen has come under some debate. I am glad people can have a glimpse of this golden era. Today, the chess corner in the Park seems to have lost all his charm and his great characters. I had to leave the table when a customer would show up. Sometimes in the morning, I had the great privilege of playing Vincent with no clock for $1, just for fun, talking, philosophizing. This video brings back a lot of memories. It is the only time I saw him outside of Washington Square. I think he was even proud of it because he asked me to show it to some childhood friends he respected. He though I had captured the spirit of this kind of chess. Vincent was very enthusiastic about this little film. Vincent was the real life inspiration for Laurence Fishburne’s character Vinny in the film “Searching for Bobby Fisher”. 😐 Nevertheless, here is some commentary from the video poster, François.

Vinny rolling a joint in public (and perhaps in the sight of children) … not a good way to end video. I remember him playing with either Johnny Woo or Russian Paul and saying, “I’m taking everything that’s not nailed down!” In the video, it looks like Vinny is giving him time odds. He’s about an A-player… another speed demon. I remember the guy Vinny is playing… Theo. Probably just an unconscious racial stereotype. Maybe he means Blacks in America, but of course a Cuban wouldn’t have been visiting America much in the 60s. Surprising that Luis Busquets never saw a strong Black player given that Afro-Cuban Rogelio Ortega was a past Cuban champion.

MIRO REVERBY HOW TO

Many people can verify that Vinnie was indeed a very strong player, at least senior master strength at peak, but I don’t know how to document that other than by the testimonials of the many players who played against him. Luis himself peaked at 2398 so Vinnie was much stronger than that. Luis says when he first moved to NY from FL, he lost literally every penny he had to Vinnie in one session, because he couldn’t believe a black player was that strong. Cuban-American FM Luis Busquets and his family are visiting me in Rome right now, and he just laughed when I told him that someone’s querying whether Vinnie Livermore was really a master. He was a tremendous player, and you can check with people like IM Shirazi who was a mutual friend when I hung out in Washington Square park. Livermore is not in the system at all, I think he stopped playing in tournaments in the 1960s. He claimed that Livermore was Master strength. Thanks for the heads-up! I only recently heard of Vincent Livermore from Jones Murphy.

Hikaru Nakamura waiting to take someone’s lunch money. Simon discusses life in the game of chess. It is amazing that some of the characters mentioned above have become “park legends.” I recently read an article on Russian Paul (tattoos and all) and it is amazing that he is still at it! (See article) What is it about chess that will cause a man to become so absorbed? (See Simon’s clip below) Some of them play through the winter as well. It’s amazing how many of these hustlers have to face leaving their “fame” and venture back into the harsh realities of a cruel world each night. I made some friends and learned another side of chess in that park. I saw some very disturbing things in the park including a large, chemically-induced Black woman who somehow came out of her shirt! 😯 I remember the staccato beat of dancehall reggae and the gruff rapping of then-king, Shabba Ranks. Ernest Colding came down there too.ġ990 Flashback: “ Russian Paul” waiting for a game whileĮrnest Colding (seated right) is in a test.

Chess rivalries were heated and dollars were flowing. In the park, I learned of “ Russian Paul” “ Sweet Pea,” “ Poe” and other characters. Maurice Ashley and I met there so I could discuss with him a chess network I envisioned (it became ‘The Chess Drum’). I lived at New York University during the summer while interning at Time-Warner. I remember hanging out in Washington Square Park back in the summer of 1990. “Searching for Bobby Fischer” featured scenes in the famous park and featured these players as did movies like “Fresh” and books like “The Chess Artist.” It is the place where many famous chess players have roamed and many stories have been borne. Washington Square Park in the “Village” area of New York is a historic place in chess lore.

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