http://www.impalapublications.com/b...

As well as giving guided tours of chess venues as well!

:-)

<I have met relatively few chessplayers who have impressed me as being vastly my intellectual superiors. Bent Larsen, Jonathan Mestel and Jon Speelman are examples with whom you will be familiar. It is also true that I have met few such people outside chess either. This may of course simply be insufferable arrogance or my lack of a wide circle of acquaintances. However commonsense and experience suggest that indeed chess ability is highly specific.

What then is the basic equipment needed to be a good chessplayer? A reasonably high standard of intellectual intelligence comes first. Larry Evans suggested that an IQ of 130 should be enough to become a strong grandmaster.>

Have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Stewart on the circuit, but perhaps one day I will get to London for some poker.

Stewart would occasional drop a Fischer tale
on the English Chess Forum.

' Bobby Fischer used Descriptive when writing moves when I knew him in the 1960s. But, when conversing, he used algebraic.'

'Fischer gave odds in the early days at the C&CC. They were almost invariably played without a clock. One opponent played so slowly, that Bobby resigned.

He never played at material odds when I knew him. Nor would he give time odds. What he gave me was 10/1 money odds at blitz. if he won he got a dollar. If I won, which I never did, I would have got $10. That is why I can claim that I drew with him. I lost 8.'

'Bobby and I played 9 games. he won 8 and we drew one. 7 were junk and have been lost to posterity. You can find one of his wins on chessbase and, of course, my draw. I should have won that king and pawn endgame.

One of my friends recorded the games. We stopped play to enable him to catch up.

He and I recorded the Fischer v Fine game that you can find in 'My 60 Memorable Games.' I recorded the White moves and he the Black.

We played two sessions. In the first I could equalise from the opening with the White pieces. There was never any contest when I had Black. In the second session I could no longer equalise with the White pieces.

There was no further point in playing. After all, it cost $1 a game!

Did Bobby have Asperger's? I'm not qualified to judge. I had never heard of the conditions until about 1999.

He definitely laughed and sometimes made jokes. He was certainly very focused and single-minded. He respected me because he admired a tailor-made suit I had brought the me from England. We often ate at Jewish delicatessens.

How could you be an anti-Jewish chessplayer in New York in the 1960s? I like to think his mental health deteriorated because of the decline in his untreated physical health.

Robert Byrne v Bobby US Closed 1963-4. That was a neo-Gruenfeld, not a true one.

I wrote a very long article for Chess Magazine on the tournament. Originally I wrote that the whole game had to be pre-preparation as Bobby had played so quickly. He looked at the draft and exclaimed, 'Do you really think I spent ages studying such a dull line?'

So after he left my home, I amended that section.

----

Well, if you've got it, flaunt it.

<These and other such gems from the golden olden days by him and Leonard Barden are dotted all over that site. Fascinating reading.>

The most likely link I can find is Edward Guthlac Sergeant, who was still playing in the British Championship as late as 1960. He played James Mortimer who (allegedly) played Morphy. But I don't know if Stewart Reuben ever played him.

Edward Guthlac Sergeant was a Morphy Number 2.