DoctorD: The following stems from Sam Sloan, not always the most reliable source:https://groups.google.com/forum/#!t...
Quillen beat Grandmaster Pal Benko in the National Open in Las Vegas. Little known today, you can see how strong Quillen was capable of playing from a cross table on page 9 which shows a tournament where he defeated Ray Martin, Norman Lessing, Tibor Weinberger and Charles Henin in succession.
San Quentin Prison consistently won the Bay Area Industrial League,
even though the best player on their team, Paul Quillen, had taken a
temporary leave of absence. San Quentin always played all of their
matches “at home”. The prisoners always easily beat the nuclear
scientists at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratories.
Earl Pruner tells a story about Paul Quillen. They were driving back
home from a tournament on the East Coast. They were very short of
money and it seemed that they might not have enough to pay for the gas
to make it back to California.
Somewhere in Kansas while Pruner was driving, Quillen asked him to
stop at a gas station and grocery store. Quillen got out, when into
the store, came out a few moments later, got in the car and they
proceeded on their way to California.
It was not until some after they had reached California that Pruner
realized that their money problems seemed to have disappeared after
their stop at the gas station. From then on, they always had enough
money. Pruner wondered if Quillen had not engaged in an armed robbery
in the gas station and Pruner had been inadvertently driving the get-
away car.
Kibitzing
