Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

No, it's because it's cold!  As hell.  But look who I'm telling this to...a guy from Oregon. 

Wasn't Mark Twain supposed to have said "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"?  Now, would someone refresh my memory as to why Chicago is called "the windy city" when SF clearly has that "honor"?

 Andy, I was wondering---could you tell the authentic games from the shenanigans ?  I recall Bronstein telling about a crucial game (Zurich 53') where he was told by the powers that be that he must draw the game. As he was playing the game Reshevesky was walking by his board and as Bronstein made his move and Reshevesky made a sound expressing contempt for the move. Bronstein said in his memoirs that he would remember that sound for the rest of his life.

But to get back on point---can you tell which games were legit and which games were fixed ?  We know Reshevesky's games were legit, Euwe's games were legit, Gligoric's games were legit but what about ---Smyslov, Bronstein, Keres, Petrosian, Geller, Kotov, Taimanov, Averbakh, Boleslavsky---which games were real and which were fantasy? These games have fooled a lot of people for a lot of years.

Perhaps someday another Zurich 1953 book will appear giving us the real scoop on these games. You know something like

Game 1---this game was authentic.

game 2---Now this game was authentic---worthy of study etc., etc.

game 3---phony---dont waste your time. etc., etc.

It is interesting that some years later Bobby Fischer would also make the claim that the boys from the USSR were up to no good. It would seem that for once Fischer's paranoia was spot on even tho few people may have believed him at the time.

As an aside, on the issue of wind I'm reminded of the old Candlestick Park for the SF Giants ( being an old Baseball fan ). Many players cursed that cold " Wind Tunnel " as I recall, but it was well built tho. I had my TV on years ago when that Earthquake hit right before the World Series Game there and old Candlestick stood solid. People who were at the Park when the Quake hit were save there. 

"Old baseball fan" ... does that mean a fan of old baseball or an old fan of baseball? 

Chicago has more politicians?

Thanks Everyone for the recent posts. I should have said a old-old Baseball fan I guess  lol. I started losing some of my interest in Baseball after 1994 when the " Used Car Salesman " ( and PRETEND-Commissioner ) Bud Selig got the great disaster of not having any World Series at all added to his re'sume'. I was very very happy with the 1992 & 93 seasons tho.

10 windiest cities according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are:
1...Blue Hill MA
2...Dodge City KS
3...Amarillo TX
4...Rochester MN
5...Cheyenne WY
6...Caspar Wy
7...Great Falls MT
8...Goodland KS
9...Boston MA
10...Lubbock TX

Must be all those politicians in the Chicago area...

Well when it comes to long-winded politicians we have a few of those up here too, in both official languages  lol.

And if I recall correctly Freezco was 11th (and Chicago was 16th or 17th)...

Well after living many years here in Western Canada I can say that we get our share of wind up here. Indeed in recent years a number of these big wind turbine electric generators have been set up out here to try to " harness the wind ".

The other day I was reading thru the January 2012 issue of Chess Life and I saw an article that should cheer up myself and my fellow Oldtimers. Arthur Feuerstein still plays top level Chess at age 75 and was featured in a 6 page article in Chess Life. This is even more remarkable when one realizes the he was in a major car cash over 35 years ago which had left him in a coma and kept him in the Hospital for over 3 months. But he battled his way back and as said still plays Chess at a very high level.   

Good to know there is still hope for me once I come out of this coma and released from the hospital!

Thanks for the post Catnapper, hope that you are feeling OK ( sounded kind of serious there for a minute ).

One thing that I forgot to mention the other day was that Arthur Feuerstein was not a full-time Chess player as he needed a " day " job to earn a decent living. One reason that the Eastern-block players used to dominate in Chess is that they enjoyed government support whereas in the West the players were on their own. 

I am a spring chicken compared to some chess players, who could probably out think me, without much effort. I think that using your "noodle", no matter your age, is sure to increase it's ability. They say, " if you don't use it,you lose it" . I agree totally. I think many young people don't ever push themselves, and their cage gets rattled, as soon as they have to try, to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

I personally recommend anything that forces you to calculate, any one thing ,that causes you to have to derive your answer, from as many varying sources as you can possibly keep track of.

If you think this is a waste of time, find a man in his 70's (Jack Lelane for ex., when he was alive) who works out, and one who doesn't, who is more fit? Your brain is not much different than your brawn in terms of , you use it or lose it. It just so happens, your brawn goes first.

Thanks for the info Nameno1had, I agree with all of your points. And that Jack Lalane was quite an inspiration, he was doing stuff in his old age that I had no chance of keeping up with even back in my 20's and 30's  lol. I have heard of studies where they mention that fitness in old age is good as it helps to circulate the blood up to the brain. Crossword puzzles are also supposed to be good exercise for the mind.

Preparing my tax returns forces me to calculate, and I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy!

...which reminds me of a comic strip called "Diamond Lil" which I read just last week.  The characters are all elderly.  One of the geezers is telling his friend about exercising his mind, stating "I just did a big Sudoku this morning," to which the other geezer replied, "I hope you had the fan on!"  It's a good thing I didn't have a mouth full of coffee at that moment...