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| Oct-01-07 | | D4n: Make your move Josh Waitzkin! What a good movie...
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| Oct-01-07 | | JG27Pyth: I was friends with the real Vinny (played by Larry Fishburne) in "Waiting for Bobby Fischer" and I played Josh a game of chess once, in Washington Square Park. He was quite young, about 10 if I remember correctly. He beat me easily and after the game the guys with him led him away from the table saying, "Josh, don't play guys like that, they _ruin your game_" LOL... wow that _still_ stings. R.I.P. V.L. You are missed.
Pyth.
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| Oct-01-07 | | Chessmensch: Why didn't they just get a broom and sweep the pieces off the board? |
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| Oct-01-07 | | Tractatus: This isn't the game from the end of that movie. Remember the pawn race at the end (of the movie's game)? The promotion with check and the skewer of W's opponent's queen? Different game. |
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| Oct-01-07 | | Floyd5642: Yeah, Tractacus, I remember that. It was very exciting. They both stood up and started making moves like crazy. I don't see why he didn't just accept a draw instead of playing all the way to the end. Certainly he would have seen the draw by the time of 61.bxc6... Maybe it's because he's a junior player or something? |
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| Oct-01-07 | | Jim Bartle: If I remember correctly, Waitzkin kept telling Sarwer it was a draw (toward the end) and Sarwer kept saying "I don't agree," and kept on playing. |
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Oct-02-07
 | | jeff sarwer: Hi guys this is Jeff Sarwer. I Haven't played a tournament in many years, but I recently played in a 9 round, 30/30 rapid tournamnent held last weekend in beautiful Malbork Castle. (Near Gdansk where I now live) They weren't sure what to rate me because I have no FIDE rating so they put me in at 2300 because that's what I figured my strength would be.
Well to my surprise I finished in a tie for second place with 7/9, having lost only one game to GM Bobras (2558), and 2 draws to GM Jedynak (2540), and GM Wojtasek (2637). As for my 6 games with non-GM's, all were wins, with a couple being against solid 2300+ FIDE players. So overall a bit better than I thought I would play :)
I really enjoyed it, and I will try to post up some of the games (That are still in my memory) So you guys have something to more to look at than games from when I was 8 years old! :)
They gave me the 3rd place trophy and I smiled like a kid returning to a game I love.
here is the link to the tournament (It's in Polish but look for Final Standings at the bottom)
Cheers!
http://skoraf.republika.pl/2007/ind... |
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Oct-02-07
 | | Honza Cervenka: Hi Jeff. It's nice to see you back in the game as well as here at chessgames.com. My congratulations to you with your impressive performance in Malbork. Are you planning to play in any on-coming event? |
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Oct-02-07
| | jeff sarwer: No plans yet, but playing again was even more fun than I thought it would be. I also might perform even better if I pick up a book and learn what theory I missed in the last Ahem- "few" years :)
In fact I never knew much theory anyways, maybe it would help me to know how to play a few openings! My temporary coach of a few months back in 1986, (Vitaly Zaltzman) only taught me endings, and told me I dont need to know openings, just play the Caro-Kann and "go for endgame". Great advice Vitaly , thanks! hahaha :)I am a little sorry the USCF spent their money paying for him to "teach" me. But I thank them for their generosity nonetheless, since it was the only training I ever had except for very basic fundamentals from Bruce Pandolfini (Thank you Bruce). I think some openings like for example the Sicilian Defense would have been good for a very tactical young mind. Especially when that young mind knows absolutely zero opening theory!
Either way, taking a year or 2 to get an IM or GM title would be a serious investment for me, especially with all my projects going on right now. And being 29 years old now, why rush it? I am long passed being a youth player, and now I might wait for a title after I get a rocking chair. (Or maybe not, who knows) I might pop in for another weekend tournament for now, since it takes up less time than a traditional 1-2 week tournament.
By the way, how do I load a couple of my games here from Malbork? I admit I am not too good with computers and so I am used to having some "tecky" friends of mine post up some things for me like my website, (God bless them for that, they are very kind) But how do I load up this pgn stuff? do I need a chess program?
it would be nice to annotate them a bit too....... |
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| Oct-02-07 | | CapAnson: Hey Jeff I remeber watching you during the K-K championship with your sister giving commentary on TV. Nice to see you're still around. |
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Oct-02-07
| | Honza Cervenka: <By the way, how do I load a couple of my games here from Malbork?> You can load games one by one in PGN format via PGN Upload Utility or send them all by e-mail at chess@chessgames.com. They will appear in the database soon. |
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| Oct-02-07 | | benjinathan: <jeff sarwer> Congratualtions. I am sorry my first smart-a;;ed post. Good luck with everything that you are trying to accomplish...including chess! |
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Oct-02-07
| | jeff sarwer: Dziekuje bardzo Honza. I will send them to chessgames now. |
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Oct-02-07
| | jeff sarwer: Actually I have a couple of comments for this game. I remember Josh before the game telling me "I am all prepared for d4". I realized that probably meant that Bruce showed him how to play against the Classical variation which Bruce knew up until that point was the only variation I played against the King's Indian. Anyways, since he said what he said I figured I would throw him a 4 pawns attack instead (Which I saw played once but knew no theory) in order to avoid his preparation, and since I knew he also was afraid of playing me.
I dont remember him offering me lots of draws, but I do remember him in the endgame going off to the bathroom crying, and then coming back looking much happier.
The interesting thing about the whole tournament was that my dad insisted that I play,(against my will, since I just wanted to concentrate on the WYC in Puerto-Rico,) because he didn't like them discriminating against me and saying I wasn't allowed to play because I was home-schooled. Remember this was supposed to be the National "Scholastic" championships. At the time in the 1980's, home-schooling wasn't so well known and so it was looked down upon.
Also all the good kids in the tournament were taught at Dalton school in New York, and my dad refused their offer to let me go there and they didn't really like that. It was rumored that they taught the kids a mini-course on how to beat me. So that was extra motivation (For my dad)
Either way, if all of this didn't occur in the background, perhaps the motivation to write the book and make the film would have never happened. And ultimately I think the film was great marketing for the game of chess. |
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| Oct-02-07 | | MaxxLange: <jeff sarwer> It must be kind of cool having been a film "bad guy". Too bad you didn't get to have a secret lair defended with sharks and all that. |
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| Oct-02-07 | | RookFile: Interesting comments about home schooling, Jeff. You're right, back then, I had never ever heard of it, but home schooling is all the rage these days. |
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| Oct-02-07 | | James Demery: Welcome to Chessgames.com Jeff. Thank you for posting your insights. Someone posted that your life would have made a more interesting movie. I agree. Do you still play chess? Did you ever become a Master? |
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| Oct-02-07 | | James Demery: I`m sorry Jeff I only just now read your posts above about the Tourney you played in recently. I should have read more before posting. |
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Oct-03-07
| | jeff sarwer: I want to thank chessgames for very kindly making me a premium member! I also really want to thank everyone here for their supportive comments towards me. They really mean a lot to me. I am thrilled to hear some things from people in the public other than how crazy I am going to become as an adult. (Well I have been an adult for a really long time now, and I am not sure how crazy I am, but I do love chess still. Is that a dangerous sign? :) I also have found it very encouraging to hear that you guys think I have an interesting story to tell. I think I agree with you now, although a few years back I was just kind of in shock and trying to figure out the best next move to play.
The chess bug is back in me a bit after last weekend! But I shouldn't be typing too much at work...bad form :) |
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| Oct-03-07 | | RookFile: Well, us chessplayers understand your situation a lot better than somebody who just spent ten bucks to go see the movie, Jeff. You've had a rich set of experiences that will serve you well wherever you go in life. |
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Oct-03-07
 | | IMlday: Welcome aboard Jeff. I too am looking forward to your book. Most really intelligent people who sufferred through the Ontario schooling system have horror stories to tell. I found it spectacularly boring and wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. Like in grade 8 I wrote the grade 9 History final exam scoring 48/50 but they wouldn't give me the credit. It was compulsory boredom. Eventually, after much whining, they did let me kill all 3 Grade 13 maths in grade twelve. Big deal, 4.5 years to learn what could have been done in 1 or 2. When Bryon Nickoloff got chess obsessed, truancy officers arrested him. Good grief! A Judge ordered him to stay away from the chess club. Your story is later but has similar themes. I'm looking forward to reading about it. |
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| Nov-01-07 | | pacelli: I always thought Waitzkin was a pooff. |
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| Nov-01-07 | | Badmojo: The Ontario school system taught me how to spell "suffered". |
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| Jan-11-08 | | vesivialvy93: i am a bit late on this board but i would like to tell jeff that it's very good for us to see him on this page , his comments are welcome after all the bu--s--t on waitzkin page and his opinion was very important for me , nobody helped me to find the draw game when i asked last year a couples of times , even Pandolfini refuses to show the game , maybe it was to save the stupid story in the Waitzkin propaganda movie ...but it would be fun and very interesting to see a match between Sarwer-Waitzkin this year ...seriously !! why not ...they both not played chess seriously lately and i am sure that Waitzkin still play 2300...maybe i am dreaming but i would like to know Jeff's opinion about if Waitzkin is ok for a comeback , would he accept to play ... |
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| Jan-22-08 | | OJC: <re: Ontario> Is school really any less of a drudgery in other parts of the world? Just 12-13 years of hard time and then sweet freedom to watch all the TV you want. |
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