I felt compelled to read a little more about him...
That's what I like to hear.
"Mate in 8" Got to love it. Nice article!
I'll hazard a guess that Soltis' opponent, William L. Fredericks didn't love it too much.
Thanks Batgirl. Great chess history. And entertaining too.
Well, I can't tap dance, so my entertainment options are pretty limited.
Thanks.
Beauty + + +, BG....and I challenge anyone out there to a ping pong match.
I've never played ping pong...so I'd probably be an easy opponent to beat.
Beauty + + +, BG....and I challenge anyone out there to a ping pong match.
I've never played ping pong...so I'd probably be an easy opponent to beat.
Blitz was called ping pong here in the old times.
I was a member of the Jamaica CC in Queens, New York in the 1970's, Where Archie Waters ran the show. I knew him very well. His passion for chess and the members of the Jamaica CC was unsurpassed. I'll never forget that he reminded me of a Black "Columbo" in appearance and was always willing to assist new players improve their game. A young pre GM Max Dlugy was a member there and played frequently in tournaments before his talent moved him into Manhattan and the Marshall & Manhattan chess clubs. Back then the Met League was somewhat of a big deal and we always looked forward to matching our skills against other NYC Chess clubs, good memories.....
What a fascinating read, and you present it with such a simple and direct narration, letting the story to speak for itself.
I felt compelled to read a little more about him and found a cute anecdote that happened during his Icelandic trip with Fischer:
[...]
Editor's note: There is an interesting story written by Tim Krabbé about Archie Waters' encounter with Ton Sijbrands, a world champion in draughts (checkers with 10X10 board) from the Netherlands.
"When Sijbrands became World Champion for the first time, in 1972, he won a trip to Reykjavik, to see the World Chess Championship match between Spassky and Fischer. I hoped to find an opportunity in him to get to Fischer. Word was that Fischer was interested in draughts, and there was a little black guy from New York in his entourage, Archie Waters, who was said to be his ping pong partner, and a very strong draughts player. I could see myself and Archie Waters, envoys paving the way for a historic meeting. But when Sijbrands and Waters got together, it turned out Waters had never heard of him and also, he thought he was the World Champion--in another variant of the game. It was a moving sight to see my World Champion and this other world champion explaining their rules to each other."
[...]
I can only assume Waters was, very tongue-in-cheek, referring to his short-lived reign as Spanish Pool Checkers champion. And Tim Krabbé and the Dutch draughts champion actually believed the good old, mischievous Archie
https://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2001/NB_Waters.html
Source: Open Chess Diary,
https://www.xs4all.nl/~timkr/chess2/diary_2.htm.