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| Jul-22-03 | | Drstrangelove: So is this the kid that "searching for bobby Fischer" is based after? |
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| Jul-22-03 | | AgentRgent: <Drstrangelove> Yes it is. Among his other efforts, he also does a lot of instruction and commentary included with the Chessmaster series (CM6000 and 7000 at least). He's a talented instructor and I suspect his future lies more that direction than actual play. He's to involved with other things to truely master chess. Which is a Good thing. |
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| Sep-12-03 | | username: all that help coaching and never became a gm very odd,it takes that extra talent to become a gm. |
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| Sep-12-03 | | AgentRgent: <username> I suspect that Josh's failure to become a GM has more to do with lack of desire than lack of talent. As you can learn from the movie, he developed numerous other interests and consciously chose not to let chess consume him the way it had Fischer. |
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| Sep-12-03 | | Dustin J.: <username> No, talent really. Well maybe a little. I know an NM who actually plays GM strength when it's a long game. it's more or less dedication; the coach he had was that movie to start and some chess books. He's gotten far in 11 years. |
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| Sep-13-03 | | PVS: I see his book is called "Josh Waitzkin's Attacking Chess." Looking over his openings, I think we can say that he eats in his own restaurant. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Diggitydawg: Although he didn't become a GM (he still might, he's still young), he developed an interest in the martial arts, and has won several national and international titles in that field. And he's a student at Columbia like Joel Benjamin was. I suspect Agent's comment about him leading a balanced life is true. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | hickchess99: how old is josh now? |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Diggitydawg: I guess he's 21 or 22. BTW, I was under the impression that Joel Benjamin went to Columbia. He actually went to Yale. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Ghengis Pawn II: When I rented to movie SFBF I was under the assumption it was about actually searching for Bobby Fischer(seeing as the crazy buggers been AWOL for so darn long)I was anticipating a nice, intelligent biography. I will spare you my critique. I wonder if Bobby Fischer got any royalties for hollywood using his name. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Diggitydawg: No, Fischer did not get any royalties. That's one of the things he rails about when they interview him for radio. |
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| Sep-19-03 | | Sylvester: I thought the movie was good in showing how some parents (not mine) react when their kids are in competition. I related it more to football, basketball and baseball. |
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| Nov-27-03 | | PinkPanther: This guy doesn't deserve to have his name associated with Fischer's. At one point, they were calling him the "next Fischer", hahahahaahaha, what a joke! Fischer was a GM by 15 this guy is in his twenties and he's still only an IM, and Fischer became a GM in an era when it was MUCH harder to become a GM in the first place. |
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| Feb-02-04 | | dougselph: I am interested in the game played by Josh against that obnoxious fellow that he played as a boy for the national title as shown in the movie. Remember that game? The ending involved simultaneous pawn promotions to Queens, but his had the surprise check followed by the Queen capture. I thought it might be fun to actually see that game in detail. Like being able to see how "taking the pawn" gave him his chance to win at the end. Or, how he was able to capture White's queen in a Knight fork after losing his own. Is that game of his available? |
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| Feb-02-04 | | Lastdance: <Searching for Bobby Fischer game> The winning game was made up for the movie and was in reality, a draw, not a win for Waitzkin. The game appears to be lost to time as I don't see it in chessbase or chesslab. Bill Wall describes the real game as "a King's Indian, Saemisch variation" where all the pieces and pawns were traded off, leaving two Kings: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconVal... The position that was made up for the movie is given by Bill Wall as: White: Ke6, Re5, Bg5, Ne4, Pf6, Ph4
Black: Kc2, Rc7, Bd8, Nb6, Pa7, Pg7
Black to move.
Jonathan Poe, the movie's villain was based on Jeff Sarwer, who won the under 10 World Championship in 1986. The book was much more sympathetic to Jeff than the movie was; Sarwer's father kept his children out of school to pursue chess and is portrayed as abusive to his children in the book. Jeff Sarwer's story has a strange ending as given by the discussion here: NN vs Pandolfini, 1967 |
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| Feb-02-04 | | Catfriend: The position you describe doesn't deal with promotions or tactics at all... it's just a drwn end-game.. Could you check it again? |
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| Feb-02-04 | | Lastdance: <Catfriend> I'm sorry to have confused you. I simply copied and pasted from Bill Wall's article. I should have also given the move sequence in the article: 1...gxf6 2.Bxf6? (2.Nxf6 should draw) 2...Bxf6 3.Nxf6 (3.Kxf6? Nd7+) 3...Rc6+ 4.Kf7 Rxf6+! 5.Kxf6 Nd7 6.Ke6 Nxe5 7.Kxe5 a5 8.h5 a4 9.h6 a3 10.h7 a2 11.h8=Q a1=Q+ and 12...Qxh8 wins the Queen and the game. 0-1 |
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| Feb-02-04 | | Catfriend: Now it's all right. Adorable! |
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| Mar-23-04 | | ruylopez900: Has Josh played in any Notable tournaments of late? |
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| Mar-23-04 | | BlueSteel: Is there any other notable chess movies besides searching for bobby fischer of which I just saw this week for the 39th time. What about THE SEVENTH SEAL a 1956 swedish movie ? |
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| Mar-23-04 | | matein8: I caught two movies on cable related to chess recently. One was the "Luzhin Defence" and the other was "Fresh". I was pretty disappointed with the "Luzhin Defence" because of a scene where the reigning world champion gets checkmated rather than resigning. I hope the book is better. "Fresh" was ok but I could have sworn in the final shot they put the Q and K on the wrong squares. I saw it late at night on cable and was very sleepy so I'm not sure if I saw correctly. There's also "From Russia with Love" where they use a Spassky-Bronstein game in the beginning. I found it funny because the "Kronstein" character was smoking. When did they ban smoking from tournaments? "Seventh Seal" was parodied by one of the Bill and Ted movies where instead of a game of chess with Death, Bill and Ted played twister with him. |
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| Mar-23-04 | | BlueSteel: Matein8:thank you for your reply.I have not seen the Luzhin Defence. In the seventh seal the chess board is set wrong. A black square is in the lower right hand corner. |
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| Mar-24-04 | | Everett: Pink Panther, you're right, Waitzkin and Fischer are not in the the same category. WAITZKIN IS BETTER, in too many human and humane ways, than Fischer can ever hope to be. |
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| Mar-24-04 | | JustAFish: <Movies with chess scences>
There's quite a few movies with chess in them, but most of them don't use it very well. Harry Potter and the Scorcerer's Stone- I game is played by Harry and his friends on a huge underground board. I believe the game was either based on a real game, or a plausible construction. Casablanca- There's a brief scene with Peter Lorre and Humphrey Bogart playing chess. Bogart probably had something to do with this.
The Front- I watched this movie starring (but not directed by) Woody Allen last week. The Woody character and his writer friend apparently meet regularly in a Manhattan chess club. No moves were made that I can recall, but the position looked plausible. Lolita (The Stanley Kubrick Version)
Blade Runner- I haven't decided whether or not this is a good use of chess or not. The character J.F. Sebastian is coerced by the dangerous replicants to pay their creator, Dr. Tyrell, a visit. Sebastion is playing a correspondence game of chess with Tyrell, which replicant Roy takes an interest in. They the game as a ruse to explain Sebatian's presence at Tyrell's home. When Tyrell asks over the intercom what Sebastian wants, Sebastian replies something like "Queen to Bishop Six, Check" (or something of the sort)", "Nonsense" Tyrell replies and moves to his own chess board, analyzes a second and announces "Queen takes Knight... what's on your mind?" Roy then wispers into Sebastian's ear and Sebastian nervously replies "Bishop to King 7, checkmate... I think!"
Fans of the movie say the game follows the famous '"mmortal game": Adolf Anderssen vs Kieseritzky, 1851
It's wonderful that they used a real game, but for a supposed "genius" like Tyrell to miss such a simple mate in two, particularly in what seems to be a correspondennce game, doesn't say much for the guy's skills or intelligence. But maybe that's the point. Maybe Tyrell does make oversights and that is his weakness... (I've thought about this a little bit too much...) Blazing Saddles- The chessboard gives quick draw Gene Wilder a chance to demonstrate the speed of his hands. I don't remmber anything about the game that preceeded this. ... and who could forget:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Which features the last few moves of this game:
Roesch vs W Schlage, 1910
Which, given the context, seems much more plausible. It think it's notable in that Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood's Character) actually resigns when the forthcoming win is pointed out to him. Most directors would rather go for the dramatic checkmate. I'm sure there's more, but that 's a start. |
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| Mar-24-04 | | unsound: There's also a decent episode of Columbo where an insecure American challenger murders the avuncular Russian champion after they meet up at a restaurant and the Russian wins a game they set up using salt sellers, sauce bottles etc. for pieces and the pattern on the tablecloth for a board. The American does not resign--the Russian just explains to him how he's going to mate him. |
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