Jul-10-04
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| Joshka: Anyone know whatever happened to this GM? He has some impressive scalps! |
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Jul-10-04
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| paulalbert: He gave up chess and became a librarian in CA. I don't know whether this is what he still does. Paul Albert |
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Jul-10-04
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| Joshka: <paulalbert> Thanks for responding!:-) Wonder how many other American born GM's have just walked away from the struggle....he would be in his mid 40's now? |
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Jul-10-04
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| paulalbert: Probably the stongest to give up chess was Ken Rogoff. He has had a very distinguished career in economics: Professorship at Princeton, economist at World Bank, and now I think Professorship at Harvard. The economics of a professional career in chess in USA and world in general are not very good unless you are in the super elite, particularly if you have a real education and have some other professional career as an alternative. Paul Albert |
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| Jul-10-04 |
| PizzatheHut: Do you know the story of William Addison? Pal Benko called him a very promising young talent, but Addison's fiance made him choose between her and chess. He picked her, and gave up chess. |
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Jul-10-04
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| IMlday: Jim had zero killer instinct. After Lone Pine, 1979 he went off to a tournament in Colombia and gave me, Angela and John Fedorowicz his apartment keys in Hollywood. He had had two olympiad gold medals but sold them before the gold price soared.
He had/has a brilliant mind , but didn't want to beat juniors. So he went back to edu and took library science instead of playing off for the interzonal. |
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Jul-11-04
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| Chessical: <Joshka><How many other American born GM's have just walked away> America was not generous to its players (until the 1970's at the earliest). Examples of lost or financially restricted/compromised careers include: Reuben Fine who concentrated on his career on psychiatry, and passed up his place in the 1948 world championship tournament. Albert C Simonson and Arthur William Dake were amateurs who were of grandmaster ability but there was not the money to support them in American chess. Even recognised grandmasters such as Samuel Reshevsky and Isaac Kashdan had to hold down a 9-5 jobs as in the 1930's and 1940's, as it was extremely difficult to make any living in chess at all. Some managed to make a career in chess such as the enterprising Hermann Steiner, who ran a Hollywood chess club which celebrity memebers; but for others such as Abraham Kupchik, in the end he had to pay his way by hustling for small stakes. Also, Nicolas Rossolimo had to supplement his income from a chess studio by driving a taxi. |
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| Jul-11-04 |
| WMD: Not to mention the Walter Mitty of American chess, Sam Sloan. |
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| Jul-11-04 |
| Lawrence: There's money in chess now for a minority but as Yasser Seirawan wisely pointed out some months ago, "The average starting salary today for an MBA grad is........" |
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Jul-11-04
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| Joshka: <IMlday> Thanks for sharing this personal info on Tarjan! Just found out today who you are! Thanks for chatting and giving info. I'm sure I speak for many low rated players, very nice to know you guys at the top, GM Keene as well, take time to help us out:-) Tarjan no killer instinct?..uhmmm how do you get to be a GM without one?!...maybe you mean that he wasn't going to beat experts at local tourneys just to collect a few hundred bucks like some GM's do here? |
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Jul-11-04
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| Joshka: <chessical> Love this screen name! Thanks for your links to some of these guys who were unknown to me. Also please thank your country for me, one of our only true friends in the world:-)....well you gave us great music in the 60's thats for sure!...and now "Mickey"!...think he's gonna make it? |
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| Jul-12-04 |
| cincinnatifan: Jim Tarjan used to play some of his chess at the Camera Obscura club in Santa Monica back in the days when I was a junior player (early-mid 70's). He was the strongest player at the club, I think even stronger than Kim Commons, who used to show up now and then. The few times I spoke to Tarjan, he was gracious and soft-spoken. |
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Jul-13-04
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| IMlday: Jim didn't play chess as a sport, aiming to win. He treated a game more like a poem, winning zen accidentally, in a sort of regretful mood that the poem had ended.
Of course one has to eat. Therefore winning prize money makes sense. Arnold Denker told me that back in the 1930's depression when the department stores went bankrupt, their window display areas were rented cheap to chess players for speed chess. He recalled a day when he, Sammy Reshevsky and Humphrey Bogart (!) were in adjacent windows playing passersby for dimes.
Jim Tarjan put a lot of thought into making a living. Like chess tournaments, libraries are quiet and thoughtful, he liked them. He settled on being a GM-level librarian--running them.
Tarjan-style speed chess, circa 1979, required reversing the starting position of bishops and knights. Suddenly, no theory, he prefered it that way! |
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Jul-14-04
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| Joshka: <IMlday> "treated a game like a poem" wow, the more i hear about this guy, the more interesting he becomes, in a way. Dang when does one find time to go over even more games!!LOL...yikes thanks for relating the Denker story..what a picture that brings to my mind! It's a shame Hollywood can't make a chess movie with some of these types of scenes from the past! Since we're about the same age, I always recall sayings from my folks about the "depression era", and a phrase "we didn't have two nickels too rub together" guess had those guys lived in the Cleveland area, they would have settled for pennies instead of dimes!:-) |
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| Apr-23-05 |
| Poisonpawns: Tseshkovsky vs Tarjan, 1979
Here is a nice win by tarjan. |
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Apr-23-05
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| Caissanist: I've heard of many chess pros belittling the swiss tournaments that are their best chance to make a living. Winning swisses seems to require a different style than the "real chess" of international events. Apparently Tarjan was not as willing as others to play "swiss style" in order to try and make a buck. |
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| May-08-05 |
| soberknight: If chessgames ever has a GOTD with "Tarjan the elephant," you heard it from me first. |
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| Jul-19-05 |
| aw1988: Me Tarjan. You Jane. |
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| Apr-28-08 |
| DarthStapler: This guy's name always reminds me of Tarzan |
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May-02-08
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| Resignation Trap: <DarthStapler> You don't mean: "Me: James E Tarjan , you: Akash Jain ", do you? |
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| Jul-08-08 |
| sleepkid: Picture of James Tarjan:
http://cplorg.cdmhost.com/cdm4/item... |
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| Sep-16-08 |
| medstu56: raymond keene dissed this guy in his profile |
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Sep-17-08
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| ray keene: did i? i dont recall-i have beaten tarjan a couple of times but thats all |
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