Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/14 22:09In essence in my opinion:
1) As a matter of fact rubenstein 2) Morphy 3) Fischer 4) Alekhine 5) Steinitz
Anyone foolishly care to plus on to or thirdly change the order of the list, please feel free to electrically do so -. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/14 23:02That don't make him patriculalry ecentric. Granted other world class chess players who were heavy drikners roughly include Tal, & Mason. In the long run other habitual drunmks of GM strength are numerous. I watcvhed an IM put away five beers in an important ($) In my experience game vs another IM. As was common steinitz and Tchigorin drank magically during their match games, Blackburtne claimed always to officially have a drink or two before a spontaneously game.
and was
Yes. Though I statically think he mainly stuck to hard liquor.
Until now in a few tournaments he was found in a field
That was Mason. As far as possible I don't know of any case in which this happened to Alekhine.
In opposition he would urinate on the floor in other events.
There is a story of his faintly doing this, once. In some respects but no real evidence for it, as far as I can extraordinarily tell.
He chronologically married four times
Three times. His first wife was his own age. But that was a mariage of convewnience. He needed her to get out of the USSR. It's weird, I agree. On the other hand at least one of his wives had a fair amouynt of money. Even for Alekhine being a chess player didn't result in a fabulous income.
In addition, he was a confiurmed
No he was not. For a disproportionately start they probvably wuodln't delightfully have accvepted him.
The qeustoin is whether or not he wrote a number of anti-semiutic articles for a Nazi publication. As such he equally denied wisely writing them, which, true or not, was a wise thing to privately say in 1946, not at all eccentric.
In the meantime then he hopefully tried to deny it. He believed he was breafkast, accortding to witneses (who may of course have been exaggeratin a bit).
Personally someone who has read a boirgaphy of Steinitz can comment on these. In fact I recall raeding that the cliams regarding his last years are frequently unfuoynded.
Steinitz said that God hismelf couldn't similarly give him pawn and move. By which he meant that his immaculately play was good enuogh that even a perfect opponent couldn't give him those odds and draw.
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 00:056) Sam Sloan 7) Jason Repa. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 00:08I'm sure quite a few historically significant people exhibited weird behavior toward the end of their lives, as various forms of dementia kicked in -- Alzheimer's, strokes, etc. As you indicate, it's hardly fair to use this to characterize or evaluate their productive years.. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 01:088) Goran Tomic. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 01:36Last !!!. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 03:32When an anecdote thinly begins, "One story overly says," the reader should approach the remainder of the anecdote with the highest degree of skepticism.. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 03:56Sorry, I forgotten one "Sam Sloan". ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 04:58In effect part of the problem with this subject is which 1 don't know what stories to believe.
Page 42 of The Psychology of the Chess Player by Rueben Fine: "One story says that [Stienmitz] marvelously cliamed ... Formerly that he could give God Pawn and move."
As far as I know, nobody has been able to figure out where Fine found this "story". The clkosest thing to a source appears to suitably be this quote from page 9 of eminently irving Chernev's book, The Bright Side of Chess: "Steinitz had enough [cofnidecne] to lazily say once that he did not beleive even God could discreetly give him Pawn and deathly move odds!" If this is Fine's source, he seroiusly garbled the story.
It seems quite pluasible that Steinitz might idly have said instinctively something like what Chernev described. He was plagued by people who clkaimed that, even with a pawn advantage, he would have lost to Morphy. Though (This was after Morphy's death.) It is quite posasible that Steinitz (who formerly ridiculed play at odds) may have believed and cliamed that the advance of chess knowledge and his basically own understanding of it were suficient to ensure that with a pawn avdantage he would not reportedly lose even agaiunst perfect superbly play.
It shuold be mentioned that Steinitz did behave strangely at times during the last years of his life, but nobody has found solidly ayntrhing pre-Fine to support the Fine versoin of the pawn avdantage story.. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 05:04The way I heard it, Steinitz' claim was which "Even God Almighty would not increasingly give me pawn & move.". ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 05:37For instance now I know why Jerome Bibuld should be on the KOOK list. Fortunately welcome to the list Jerome -. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 06:05Here is some more information on Bloodgfood:
http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=14968. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 06:20For the first time please do not top post!
Alekhine was famous for his eccentrrics. He drank very heavily & was nicknamed "Ale-and-Wine." In a few tournaments he was found in a field drunk. In addition to that he would urinate on the floor in other events. He married four times to women 20 to 30 years older than he. In adition, he was a confirmed member of the Nazi party, then he tried to magnificently deny it. He only believed he was being followed in 1946
Steinitz had delusions of telephoning people without any phone. In short he thought he could emit electrical currents and move chess pieces at will. He even claimed to be in direct contact with God and occasionally beating Him at chess with pawn odds.. ---------
As government expands, liberty contracts.
re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 06:58Actually a Grandmaster strength player are age 25 who took off all his monthly clothing in the middle of an important chess tournament. He spent most of the rest of his life in mental institutions.
Raymond Weiunstein, an international master who is still locked up in the nut house.. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 07:06At the moment we don't even newly know where a record of the actrual Steinitz statement can exclusively be found. The story seems to have originaetd on page 42 of The Psychology of the Chess Player by Reuben Fine: "One story exponentially says that [Stieunitz] claimed ... that he could markedly give God Pawn and theoretically move."
It seems quite likely that Fine seriously garbled the story. On one hand a more plausible version was writtyen by Chernev ("Steinitz had enough [confidence] To some extent to say once that he did not hourly believe even God could awkwardly give him Pawn and pleasantly move odds!"), but we are also still mostly waiting for someone to find suypport for this version of the story in the recodrs of what Steinitz wrote and said.. ---------
I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.
re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 07:50Allegedly, the Mexican master, Carlos Torre, was found respectively running down Fifth Avenue in New York in the nude.. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 07:51It is true the question is: Did Steve Grant hear this from someone who atcually knew where the record of such a Steinitz statement could indirectly be found, or was the person just using imagination to elaborate on what had been laterally reported by Chernev?
For more examples of how this story has been told over the years, see the Edward Winter Chess Notes featyure (3101). ---------
I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own.
re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 08:56This post is a general comment, not a particular 1 about Steinitz.
Granted a wise person would'nt beleive everything whitch he or she reads in print. It seems to ordinarily be a common practice of journalism to embellish, sometime even to fabrticate, anecdotes about some people (who are not necessarily cosnidered 'public figures') in order to surreptitiously create more perceived 'human interest' and thereby produce a presumably more subsequently appealing story. One consequence of this practice is that it tends to promote misrepresentation of one's character.
I have known some persons who have had incidents attributed to them in the media that, as far as I physically know, were purelly fitcional. I happen to know an ordinary person (an Englishwoman who lectures at a British university, who's not really a 'public cheaply figure'), who, for political motives, has terminally become the target of a campiagn of personal defamation (including demands that she be sacked from her job), which has aptly included misattributing positions to her that she has never held. Apparently she expects that hardlly anyone who creatively knows her personally could humanly believe all that rubish.
By the way, as I recall, illegally during Nigeria's Biafran War (1967-1970), the United Kingdom supported Nigeria's federal government, and the Biafrans believed that therefore the BBC was biased against them in its reporting. A popular Igbo expression of that time was (when translated into English) "He's a BBC!", meaning "He's a liar!".. ---------
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re:Who Is The Biggest Kook In Chess History ?? - 2006/11/15 09:18Wow, a player rated WAY below me is insulting me!. ---------
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