Chess and celebrities

ilikeflags wrote:

batgirl wrote:

You must be aware that Bill Wall has a super-inclusive LIST.

he of course is not aware and only is here for attention.

Your post would make more sense if you wrote that I was aware of it, but never mind. Nurse your wounds. That's the important thing

This may be a little more up to date.

http://www.chessville.com/BillWall/FamousPeopleWhoPlayedChess.htm

My only show business celebrity that I have played is Howard Stern.

I have played Walter Browne, Larry Christiansen, Arnold Denker, John Donaldson, Eduard Gufeld, Igor Ivanov, Viktor Korchnoi, and Eugenio Torre. 

I have interviewed Joel Benjamin, Hans Berliner, Robert Byrne, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Paul Keres, George Koltanowski, Bill Lombardy, Miguel Najdorf, Sammy Reshevsky, Ian Rogers, Yasser Seirawan, and Mikhail Tal.

Wow, that is a very impressive list! Who did you find most engaging to interview and most challenging to play against?

For most engaging to interview had to be Gufeld.  A funny guy and talked about everything except about his KGB background (I had to ask).  Koltanowski was the next best at his apartment in San Francisco with his wife Leah.  Went out to dinner with Ian Rogers and he and Seirawan and John Donaldson were the friendliest to talk to. 

Most challenging to play, or intimidating was Walter Browne.  We played tennis the next day and I beat him 6-0, ahead 5-0 the second set when he said he hurt his leg.  Christiansen took a move back on me playing blindfold chess.  He made a bad move that would have allowed me to queen, "saw" it and took the move back before he made a move on the next board.  Guess that was OK.  Karpov and his wife were friendly to me when I met him in Seattle, then in New York.  Tal was probably drunk, but funny, when we talked at the Pan-American invitatonal in Chinatown San Francisco.  Ivanov was the same after a LERA tournament and he stayed at my house, drinking up everything in site that was alchoholic and then wanted to go out and get more drinks.  Korchnoi was all business and was still complaining about his loss in the Philippines.  I had to talk him into playing a 50-board simul in Charlotte.  He said that he had never played that many and he said it would take all night.  I said they were mostly weak players and he was done in a few hours.  Torre was a gentleman and gave a simul for me in Palo Alto (I tried to get Susan Polgar, but she asked twice as much as Torre).  Keres was nice when I met him in Vancouver (I got the last photo of him before he died), and even went over my games.

Interesting; thanks for sharing your thoughts! I had a book by Gufeld, I believe it was his memoir but can't recall the title, and he had many interesting stories in it. Unfortunately, that was among the books I donated to my library when the number of chess books I owned was exceeding my bookcase's capacity. I donated quite a few good chess books I wish I hadn't and Gufeld's memoir was one of them. I believe it had "Mona Lisa " in the title

He claimed he was a USCF master. His real rating was 1300 something, as I recall.

Dustin Diamond: My father taught me chess at an early age (5). I studied until I reached Master strength (2247) then started working with inner city kids (kids with no fathers or male influences in their lives) alongside other celebs to keep them on the straight and narrow. Chess playing Celebs include... Peter Falk - Wu-Tang Clan - Drew Carrey - Wil Smith - etc.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/04/27/DI2005042701381.html

http://main.uschess.org/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,181/

Is that him?

Link doesn't work. I'll post a screen shot.

The lying part of his brain?

You'd be surprised how many TV shows, movies have the board set up wrong (black square in lower right.) Maybe y'all wouldn't be surprised, but I always look for that when I see a chessboard in a TV show or movie and it's usually set up wrong.

Yes, that's true. Some guy on YouTube does a good job of cataloging mistakes in movies and found a lot in my favorite movie ("Jaws"), such as a beach blanket that changed colors in the space of five seconds - but he missed the most obvious one: Spielberg miscounted the number of barrels in the water and was one short toward the end of the movie.

lol - Spielberg made some great movies (his first one, Duel, is a classic) but that doesn't mean he's perfect. He's fallible like everyone else. Jaws was a masterpiece; should have won Best Picture.

PS Are you trolling?

Oh, I think I do. I'd define it as someone who writes obnoxious posts with no substance and only with the intent of starting an argument and stirring up trouble

Key word is "starting"

chesspoo is right.  That was a textbook troll.

Thanks:)

ilikeflags asked:  "Wu-Tang Clan, do they play as a collective?"

  What do you mean, like a hive mind?  Nah, I doubt it....  Then again, how could I know?

  There've got to be more celebrities who play chess...?   Maybe a few undercover (so to speak) watching the topic with interest.  I'll get back to the OP on this one; if I come across any information that's worthy of the forum.

hey if ur higher rated than i am then ur A celebrity