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- From: ron@osf.org (Ron Birnbaum)
- Subject: Re: harvard square speed.
- Message-ID: <1992Dec23.155720.12913@osf.org>
- Sender: news@osf.org (USENET News System)
- Organization: Open Software Foundation
- References: <1992Dec23.1528.9333@channel1>
- Distribution: rec
- Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 15:57:20 GMT
- Lines: 53
-
- In article <1992Dec23.1528.9333@channel1>, "dale smoak" <dale.smoak@channel1.com> writes:
- |> In article <1giuegINNhc@agate.berkeley.edu> Daniel Mytelka writes:
- |>
- |> >That would be in 1983. I was visiting Boston, and played a game against a
- |> >master who played blitz against all comers in Harvard Square for $1 a game,
- |> >giving twice as much time to his opponent. I lost, but the next guy beat
- |> >him. Turned out to be Short, pretty much an unknown at the time who had
- |> >just won the British championship, and was in this country to play the
- |> >US champion.
- |>
- |> (I missed the original article from which this quote comes and have
- |> "borrowed" it from elsewhere)
- |>
- |> I saw this. A man walked up to Murray Turnbull, the Harvard Square
- |> master, with his "nephew" in tow, and said, here, why don't you play
- |> him.
-
- The "man" was Boston Globe Chess columnist Harold Dondis - a Boston
- attorney and chess philanthropist. Another of the true gentlemen in chess.
- He was hosting Short during his stay in Boston for Nigel's early 1985 match with
- Lev Alburt. I know the year since I couldn't attend due to my trip to
- Hawaii - in January of '85.
-
- |> So Murray gave his usual odds of three minutes to five, or maybe
- |> it was two to five, and got wiped off the board. Hmmm, he said, they set
- |> up again, and again the nephew wiped him out. Then the "uncle"
- |> introduced Short. Murray was thrilled, as it was the first time he'd ever
- |> played a grandmaster (he's played one or two since, as Dzindzichashvili
- |> has come through occasionally).
-
- Murray had played plenty of GMs in local tournaments, but perhaps it
- was the first time a GM had sat down to play Murray at his Harvard Square
- station.
-
- |> The year cited above is wrong; it's too early. I didn't live here until
- |> 1984. I remember that Short was nineteen and Lev Alburt was US
- |> Champion.
-
- True - it was January of '85.
-
- |> Murray Turnbull is probably the most photographed non-politician in
- |> Boston. There's a story on him at least once a year in the papers. He
- |> played chess in the Square even before the Au Bon Pain, the outdoor
- |> cafe, was built; and people know to always reserve the outermost chess
- |> table for him.
-
- Of course, he's usually there all the time, so he can take the table for
- himself! ;-)
-
- |>
- |> Dale Smoak
-
- -Ron Birnbaum
-