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Jul-28-09
 | | chancho: <Riverbeast> Summertime, You did not post for a while... but if you weren't on vacation, I hope everything's cool. |
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| Jul-28-09 | | Pawn Ambush: <Riverbeast:> Liberty park is still there with new tables, all the strong chess and backgammon players occasionally play there, they only go to 660 Wall street when it rains or when it gets dark, 660 is like 4 blocks away and it's indoors. |
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| Jul-28-09 | | belgradegambit: <Pawn Ambush> Thanks for the video! I haven't seen Asa in almost 40 years. He came up to me once and told me I looked exactly like a friend of his who was a chess hustler. Everyone who grew up in NYC and played chess met Asa at some point. |
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| Jul-28-09 | | Riverbeast: <Pawn Ambush> Thanks for the reply, and it's good to know the Liberty Park tables are back! |
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| Oct-25-09 | | Everett: Passing by while I was warming up my mind for a game at the Marshall, Asa told me the book I was reading was "not too difficult." (it was Chess Training Pocketbook, by Alburt) Since then, I've thought he was a bit of a jerk. Taking a note of his physical health, along with Jay Bonin's at the Marshall Chess Club, it reminds me of why I try to not hang out at the chess club too often. |
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| Oct-25-09 | | vonKrolock: <haven't seen Asa in almost 40 years> He acted as himself in a film in the 90s, in a scene with Sir Ben Kingsley as "Bruce Pandolfini", and Joe Mantegna as "Fred Waitzkin" |
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Oct-26-09
 | | HeMateMe: He is excellant in a movie called "the Assignment." BK plays an intelligence officer who trains a civilian who greatly resembles Carlos 'the Jackal', grooming him to penetrate the Jackal's hideouts in E Germany. <Pawn Ambush:> How expensive is it to play at 660 wall street? |
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Oct-30-09
 | | TheFocus: <Resignation Trap> <Asa Hoffmann's book <Chess Gladiator> contains 70 of his games, including a blitz game victory over Robert James Fischer , which I can't find elsewhere.> It also appears in The Unknown Fischer by John Donaldson, who reprinted it from Chess Gladiator. |
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Oct-30-09
 | | bumpmobile: <He acted as himself in a film in the 90s, in a scene with Sir Ben Kingsley as "Bruce Pandolfini", and Joe Mantegna as "Fred Waitzkin"> I'll have to check again, but I think Asa Hoffman was one of the few people in that scene who was played by someone else. (Austin Pendleton, according to IMDB). I think I read somewhere that he turned down the part as it portrayed chess players as freaks. |
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Oct-30-09
| | HeMateMe: < he turned down the part as it portrayed chess players as freaks.> Don't say that! We're hoping to see Matt Damon cast as Fischer in the next biopic, Richard Gere as the older Bobby. there is a scene from SFBF, a tournament in a seedy part of the city, probably 8th avenue, in the 30s or hells kitchen. Ben Kingsley says: "They're all here for this one. Joel Benjamin, Roman Zhnindiashvilli," etc.... Can anyone name all the chess players in that scene who either real GMs, or people playing a GM? |
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| Oct-31-09 | | vonKrolock: <bumpmobile> What a jolt! Well, I read that somewhre - a misleading both hasty and foreign review, as it appear now... On a second thought - Then he accepted to have his name used, therefore, his image associated to that character, for better or for worst... On the other side, the wikipedia article on that film says further - quote <"Some famous chess players have brief cameos in the film: Joel Benjamin, Roman Dzindzichashvili, Kamran Shirazi, along with the real Joshua Waitzkin, Bruce Pandolfini, and Vincent Livermore. Chess master Asa Hoffman is played by Austin Pendleton; the real Hoffman did not like the way he was portrayed (his dialogue is taken almost verbatim from the nonfiction book, but the manner in which he delivers his line is different). Chess expert Poe McClinton, still a park regular, is seen throughout the film. Pal Benko was supposed to be in the movie, but his part was cut out. Waitzkin's real mother and sister also have cameos in the film.The Russian player in the park, played by Vasek Simek, who holds up the sign "For $5 a photo or a game with the man who beat Tal," was based on the real life of Israel Zilber.[1][2] Zilber, Latvian chess champion in 1958, defeated the teenage Tal in 1952,[3] and during most of the 1980s was homeless and regarded as one the top players in Washington Square Park."> |
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| Oct-31-09 | | Jim Bartle: "Then he accepted to have his name used, therefore, his image associated to that character, for better or for worst..." I may be wrong, but I don't think a person has to approve the use of his name or character for it to appear in a movie. Certainly if somebody wants to make a movie with Garry Kasparov as a character, he doesn't have to get Kasparov's approval. |
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| Oct-31-09 | | vonKrolock: <Jim Bartle> Well, I'm not affirming something 'ex catedra' with every legal implication, but, as Mr. Hoffman(n)'s real name was already in Fred's book, an acceptance is inferred, otherwise it would be more advisable to call the character, say "Izzy Mendel", or "Zak Schneider" etc |
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| Oct-31-09 | | Jim Bartle: I wonder if it matters legally whether the person can be considered a "public figure." |
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Oct-31-09
| | HeMateMe: Public figure or not, I think, if you slander someone in film (some grey area here), the studio may have the lawyer--attack dogs set upon them. That's why a lot of these biopics don't come out until the person in question has died (Nixon, Ray Charles, etc.). I'm sure no would have touched a Fischer script till he died. |
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| Oct-31-09 | | Jim Bartle: "I'm sure no would have touched a Fischer script till he died." No argument there. I think Ray Charles was collaborating on "Ray," though, and it was finished after his death. As an example, there was a movie a few years ago called "The Insider," about a tobacco-company whistleblower and a "60 Minutes" producer's attempts to get his story told on the program. A lot of real-life people are portrayed, such as Mike Wallace, and I wonder which if any of them were asked for permission. |
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Oct-31-09
| | HeMateMe: That was a pretty good movie. In a scene with Mike Wallace, wasn't he being told that he had to ignore the story, which cast a bad light on the tobacco industry, because a huge tobacco company owned 60 minutes, or they owned the CBS parent, someting like that? the threat, in the movie, was he would be sacked, or 'layed off', the end of his career, at that age. I guess that puts Don Hewitt, the producer of that show for 30 some years, in a bad light too. Not too much comment from the CBS/60 minutes people on the movie. Sometimes silence says more than words. I thought al Pacino was very good, not playing an over the top tough guy, for a change. |
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| Oct-31-09 | | MaxxLange: <I guess that puts Don Hewitt, the producer of that show for 30 some years, in a bad light too> Hewitt recently died, and the obituaries all mentioned that this tobacco case was a big disaster for his reputation, that he had to try to repair in the remainder of his career. |
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Oct-31-09
| | HeMateMe: I always liked the show, it was something my whole familty watched, after eating dinner on Sundays. Mostly they've been straight up exposing the bad guys. That's why I worry about the decline of the printed newspaper. The daily has always been the mileiu of the investigative journalist. Not sure if the reporting will be as hard hitting with video journalism. |
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| Oct-31-09 | | Jim Bartle: Yeah, but the daily is being replaced by about a million online investigative sites. |
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| Aug-28-10 | | belgradegambit: Asa talking about his life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7jd... |
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Nov-24-11
 | | wordfunph: interesting Chess Gladiator by Asa Hoffmann..
<Seventy heavily annotated chess games make up this collection from the man GM Yasser Seirawan refers to as "...a near legendary figure in the New York City chess world." Asa Hoffmann is a FIDE master based in New York, who has gone toe-to-toe with many International Grandmasters and International Masters. In this book you will find duels against such greats as Joel Benjamin, Gata Kamsky, Miguel Quinteros and even a previously unpublished blitz win against Bobby Fischer!> http://www.amazon.com/Chess-Gladiat... but the price is not so interesting :) |
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Nov-24-11
 | | FSR: <wordfunph> I have "Chess Gladiator" - an interesting book that has some good games, including the aforementioned blitz game where Bobby Fischer tried the "Compromised Defense" to the Evans Gambit and Hoffmann rolled him. I bought it on eBay for around $12 or $15. You can set up eBay to run a search for you ("Chess Gladiator" should suffice) every day and notify you by e-mail when you get a hit. If you want to get the book and not pay too dearly, I'd give that a try. If will probably pop up eventually. |
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Aug-23-12
 | | Cemoblanca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljNb...
Bon appétit!!! ;0) |
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Sep-29-12
 | | Wyatt Gwyon: <belgradegambit> Definitely a cautionary tale. |
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