Jul-27-13
 | | GrahamClayton: 1948 Los Angeles County champion who later spent time in San Quentin Prison, where he played for the prison team in the Bay Area Industrial League. |
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| Jul-27-13 | | 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. |
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Jul-27-13
 | | Phony Benoni: Interesting. This would seem to be the same person as J Paul Quillen, making this a most interesting pairing:
J Paul Quillen vs N Whitaker, 1951 |
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| Jul-27-13 | | DoctorD: http://www.chessdryad.com/articles/... has an article about Quillen, and yes, J. Paul and Paul appear to be the same person. |
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| Jul-27-13 | | andrewjsacks: <DoctorD> That tale has been told in various versions, yet I have no doubt it is based on a true story. I heard it from my dear departed FIDE Master friend Alan Pollard, who heard it from some other player who was in the car with Quillen and another player or two going from L.A. to a tournament in Las Vegas in 1970 or thereabouts. |
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| Jul-27-13 | | andrewjsacks: But Quillen was a gentle giant in the late '60s, very nice to all in tournaments and very kind to the young players. I would run into him both in rated tournaments and in coffeehouses during that period. |
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| Jul-27-13 | | andrewjsacks: His Expert pal David Conwit along with Master Jim Lazos and Mr. Quillen would frequent a coffeehouse in L.A. called Mother Neptune's. It was a hold-over from the beatnik era, and the smell of marijuana was always present in that establishment. If my parents had known that I sometimes went there, I would have been in real trouble. |
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Apr-03-16
| | Phony Benoni: The following game was published in the <American Chess Bulletin>, July/August 1951, p. 77 Adams - Quillen
<1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bc5 3.f4 d6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Na4 Bb6 7.d3 Qe7 8.Nxb6 axb6 9.0-0 f6 10.f5 0-0-0 11.c4 g6 12.g4 h5 13.Nh4 gxf5 14.gxf5 Be8 15.Kh1 Qh7 16.Qa4 Nge7 17.Be3 Rg8 18.Qa8+ Nb8 19.a4 Rg4 20.Ng2 Nec6 21.a5 Nb4 22.axb6 c6 23.Ra7 Nc2 24.Ba4 Nb4 25.Ra1 N4a6 26.Bd1 Rg7 27.b4 h4 28.b5 cxb5 29.cxb5 Bxb5 30.Rc1+ Nc5 31.Bxc5 dxc5 32.Rxc5+ Bc6 33.Rxb7 Rxb7 34.Rxc6+> 1-0 The game follows the results table for the 1951 US Open in FOrt Worth, and precedes several pages of games from the tournament. In his notes, Sanatsiere explicitly states that White was Weaver Adams. The problem is that Weaver Adams -- or, for that matter, any player named Adams -- played at Fort Worth. (Paul Quillen did. And we have the scores of all his losses, none of which resemble this game except the one Vienna he lost as White.) Since Adams was from Massachusetts and Quillen from California it is not likely they had many chances to face each other. Both were at the 1950 US Open in Detroit, but did not olay in the tournament. If you have any insights about the background of this game, I'd appreciate hearing them. |
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Mar-21-25
 | | Stonehenge: Reposted from a merged player file:
Mar-21-25
Premium Chessgames Member mifralu:
<James Paul Quillen * 28 Feb 1923 † 15 Dec 1985> https://nl.findagrave.com/memorial/... |
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Kibitzing
