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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 13 OF 13 ·
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| Dec-05-08 |
| brankat: Born on Dec/05, 136 years ago. Yet, he seems to be forever young! R.I.P. master Harry Nelson. |
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Jan-20-09
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| Karpova: Irving Chernev: <Pillsbury was the first master to realize that combinations directed at the opponent’s king were affected by conditions outside of that immediate area.> From page 124 of "Combinations The Heart of Chess" by I. Chernev (New York, 1960).
Source: C.N. 5960
Link: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... This is just the first sentence of that quote. |
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Jun-08-09
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| Calli: Pillsbury in the Press, a collection of clippings from contemporary sources: http://picasaweb.google.com/Caissa1... The first slide is an interesting interview which you must zoom via the magnifier button in the upper right corner in order to read. |
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| Jun-08-09 |
| visayanbraindoctor: Poor Pillsbury. He is always associated with a sexually transmitted disease. Below are better epitaphs:
<Helloween>: "I can see it now "Behind the Music: Harry Nelson Pillsbury" on VH1. Then after you lure the kids in with pictures of him smoking blunts of cheeba in the commercials, you reveal to them that he was a chess master who could memorize long lists of words forwards and backwards while playing a 30 person blindfold simul!" <keypusher>: "From Cheshire's bio of Pillsbury in the Hastings tournament book: 22 at the time of the tournament, Pillsbury was born on December 5, 1872 at Somerville, Massachusetts, U.S.A. He was educated for a commercial career, and did not make a study of the game until five years ago. Mr. Pillsbury is decidedly pleasant and unassuming in manner, and a perfect type of American and a tremendous smoker. He is remarkably self-composed, and sits at the chess table in a comfortable smile and with a self confident look on his face. His style of play is energetic, free from fads, and correct; while looking carefully after his defenses, he is always pressing forward for chances to win, which he is very quick to detect. The openings are thoroughly known, and in the middlegame his fearless maneuvers are superb. His chief successes are:
1890. He beat Steinitz, receiving pawn and move.
1890. He beat H.N. Stone by 5 to 2.
1893. He beat Walbrodt.
1893. He beat Schottlander.
1893. He won first prize, New York City Chess Club.
1895. He won first prize, Hastings."
There is no doubt that Pillsbury is the greatest American-born chessplayer right after the Morphy era. Not until Fine came along did an American come close to being a serious Challenger who would have some chances to win the Title. (I don't think Marshall ever came close to besting Lasker, but Pillsbury would have more realistic chances; although I still think Lasker would have beaten Pillsbury by a close margin.) I would regard the 4 strongest American-born chessplayers, by temporal order, as Morphy, Pillsbury, Fine, and Fischer. |
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| Jun-08-09 |
| James Demery: Anyone that can beat Lasker 5 games out of 10(draws not counting) has to be a tremendous player. When Pillsbury died I understand Lasker was quoted as saying "A genius has left us." |
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| Jun-09-09 |
| docR: agree, pillsbury greatness is often underestimated. we tend to reward the very good for a long time, think robert parrish,greg maddux, emmitt smith over the shorter meteoric careers of gayle sayers, jr richard. etc |
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| Jun-12-09 |
| drnooo: It is not impossible that Pillsbury might have been the best player ever in America, now or then. We will never know. To have picked the game up at 16 and do what he did was incredible. Probably the nod should still go to Morphy, then Pillsbury, and only then Fischer, talent wise. All three had remarkable minds, but my hunch is had Pillsbury tuned and trained his sights on chess, he might have outclassed even the other two. Fischer homed in exclusively on the 64 squares, it seems they were a mere way station for Pillsbury. Odd the quote by Lasker though: I have known many chessplayers, and one chess genius. Capablanca. He seemed to forget just how great Pillsbury was, and what he said about him, unless he was merely stating the obvious that Pillsbury certainly by defintion was just your standard ho hum genius. He almost certainly meant chess genius , look at the record against each other. |
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| Jun-12-09 |
| Petrosianic: <It is not impossible that Pillsbury might have been the best player ever in America, now or then.> A lot of things are possible. It's easier to tell what's proven. Morphy and Fischer each proved themselves to be the best player in the world at a given time. Pillsbury never did. Could he have? Possibly. So possibly could a lot of other players who never did. That's one reason the world title means so much. There are a lot of REALLY good players who never got it. Whether he was or he wasn't, it shouldn't stop you from enjoying his games, though. |
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Jul-31-09
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| chancho: There was a strong Master from Boston who gave Pillsbury fits.
I don't remember his name. (maybe someone can fill in the gap)
The story goes that Pillsbury was playing someone at a club who did not know how to play the game all that well, but he was beating Pillsbury, who kept hearing: tap-tap-tap during these games. Pillsbury was mystified as to how a complete beginner was doing this to him. And all through out, he kept hearing that infernal: tap-tap-tap noise. Finally he had had enough, and he looked under the table and noticed a hand holding some keys about to tap again. It was the Boston Master who was seated at a nearby table. It turns out that the guy Pillsbury was playing, was a Telegraph operator, and the Master was using Morse code to send him the moves.
I remember reading the above story in Chess Life magazine many years ago. Perhaps someone like <Calli> who knows it better, I'm sure, can provide better detail to the story. |
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Jul-31-09
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| percyblakeney: <There was a strong Master from Boston> Sounds like a good first line for a limerick :-) |
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Jul-31-09
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| chancho: <Percyblakeney> There once was a man from Nantucket... :-) |
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| Jul-31-09 |
| myschkin: . . .
.... . .-. . -.-. .... .- -.-. .... ---
Constant Ferdinand Burille http://www.chessville.com/misc/Hist...
. -. .--- --- -.-- |
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Jul-31-09
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| chancho: <myschkin> Thanks! |
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| Jul-31-09 |
| myschkin: :)
-.-- .- .-. . .-- . .-.. -.-. --- -- . |
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Jul-31-09
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| whiteshark: .... .. .-.. .- .-. .. --- ..- ... |
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| Aug-02-09 |
| kurtrichards: A form of an early cheating, <chancho>? The morse code was utilized for cheating...hmmm... |
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| Aug-02-09 |
| Pawn Ambush: <myschkin>
- .... .- -. -.- ... / ..-. --- .-. / ... .... --- .-- .. -. --. / -- . / - .... .. ... / .- -. -.. / .. -. / .-. . ..-. . .-. . -. -.-. . / - --- / - .... . / .- ... .- / .... --- ..-. ..-. -- .- -. / .--. --- ... - / -.-- . ... / .. / .--. .-.. .- -.-- / -... .. --. / ..-. .. ... .... / .-. . --. ..- .-.. .- .-. .-.. -.-- |
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| Aug-02-09 |
| myschkin: <pawn ambush>
-.-. .... .- .--. . .- ..- / -... ..- -.. -.. -.-- /---... / -.--.- PS: I quit my morse career to start fishing, too!
greetings to NY |
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Dec-05-09
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| talisman: happy birthday harry! |
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| Jan-12-10 |
| bengalcat47: I just recently bought Pope's book on Pillsbury thru Amazon. I highly recommend this book. Many of Pillsbury's games that are not shown here can be found in this book. |
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Jan-12-10
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| parisattack: <bengalcat47: I just recently bought Pope's book on Pillsbury thru Amazon. I highly recommend this book. Many of Pillsbury's games that are not shown here can be found in this book.> I second that motion! Its the best Pillsbury book, definately. Although each of the others does have something going for it: Pillsbury's Chess Career - Sergeant/Watts
Great American Chess Players - H.N. Pillsbury - Wenman Pillsbury the Extraordinary - Soltis/Smith
Harry Nelson Pillsbury - A Genius Ahead of His Time - Cherniaev Supplement with Hasting 1895 tournament Books. |
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Jan-13-10
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| TheFocus: <bengalcat47>< I just recently bought Pope's book on Pillsbury thru Amazon. I highly recommend this book. Many of Pillsbury's games that are not shown here can be found in this book.> Sad to say, that is true of a lot of great players here. CG does not include all of their games. It is up to the members to post the missing games and hope they get put in. The only gripe I have about Pope's book is that he did not put in all the annotations that Pillsbury did. But a fine book with well done research. |
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| Feb-06-10 |
| bengalcat47: Here is the score of a game between Pillsbury and Walbrodt played at Boston, 1893. Pillsbury is White in this game. The complete score is as follows: 1.e4,e5; 2.Nc3,Nc6; 3.f4,exf4; 4.Nf3,g5; 5.h4,g4; 6.Ng5,h6; 7.Nxf7,Kxf7; 8.d4,d6; 9.Bc4+,Ke8; 10.Bxf4,Bg7; 11.Be3,Nf6; 12.Qd2,Qe7; 13.O-O-O,g3; 14.Rde1,Bd7;
15.Rhf1,d8; 16.Nd5,Qf8; 17.Rxf6,Bxf6; 18.Rf1,Kc8; 19.Rxf6,Qe8; 20.Bxh6,Qxe4; 21.Bg5,a6; 22.Rc7,Qg6; 23.Qf4,b5; 24.Rxd7,Kxd7; 25.Qg4+,Ke8; 26.Nxc7+,Kf8; 27.Qf4+,Kg7; 28.Ne6+, Kh7; 29.Bd3 (at this point in Pillsbury's Chess Career Sergeant concludes the game with "and wins."
However, on another chess database I discovered the game was played out to White giving mate.), Rag8; 30.Qf7+,Rg7; 31.Qxg7#. Many of you may have seen this game elsewhere. I think it is a classic example of Pillsbury's well-known advice "So set up your attacks that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" |
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| Feb-06-10 |
| Etienne: parisattack, could you give a quick review of Chedrniaev's? I've been meaning to get something on Pillsbury, but availability is scarce (just like Spassky...). |
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Feb-06-10
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| parisattack: HNP - A Genius Ahead of His Time -Cherniaev.
Early short chapters - Biographical Note,A Few Quotes from Pillsbury, The Most Remarkable Simultaneous Player. Major section - Best Games pp 107-206 followed by a fairly comprehensive tournament record w/Crosstables and such. There are 50 Annotated Games with typically 3-5 diagrams the game. Annotations are generally 'crisp' not a lot of text but some fairly extensive hard analysis and lots of alternative game cites. Its a good book, worth having, but not a great book. But, as you say, not much on HNP. |
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