BRONSON WAS TOUGH!

Who will you bet on to win the chess world championship which begins about the first week of November: Carlsen or Caruana?

They both seem to have balls of steel and Bronson certainly had that. When Charlie (what his wife called him back home in Malibu, CA) was a kid he had also worked in the coal mines (he came from a big family). Later he was a gunner in a flying bomber.

Bronson usually played the tough guy in his movies and director’s wanted him because he looked the part. I forget who said it, but some famous Hollywood actor said that “Bronson was not the guy to meet in an altercation.” If you remember the great movie Hard Times Bronson and his opponents traded some heavy blows. In a real fight it was said that Charles only need ONE blow! The the first which was the last one!

I drew this sketch when I was a senior in H.S. That was my brief artistic period.

Caruana is Italian-American tough and Cyrus Lakdawala says in his new book, Caruana move by move, that Fabiano (Fabi) probably knows the openings he plays better than anyone else in the world. Carlsen, the world champion, has pretty much identified his openings since becoming champ and he still throws in some surprises.

It ought to be a match and a half

Though Fabio has beaten Carlsen at least 4 times, Carlsen has the edge of total wins. But, as we follow match play,  that may not mean much, this is mano a mano and in terms of chess strength they are both gritty AND tough. I am sure Ladbrokes (the bettors in England) has their $$$ work cut out for them.

Two books have been issued so far about Caruana: Fabiano Caruana by GM Alexander Kalinin ($15.96, 207 pages) and Cyrus Lakdawala’s Caruana move by move ($23.96, 365 pages–see my last post). Postage is FREE this time in the United States (normally $3.95) if you are a new customer for us. We’ve been selling high-quality chess books for years. But to get the postage free you have to do one other thing besides paying for the book. You have to send in your VOTE as to who will win the main match. If the match goes into tiebreaks you also have to say who will win the tiebreak (I know everyone thinks it would be Carlsen, but Fabiano is no pushover. If he was, how did he get this far?) If you are correct (there will be a drawing if we receive more than one correct answer). The prize (unless your state is one of those “prohibitive states” about everything) is the other book you didn’t pay for.

Some may already have one or both of these books, get a copy for your chess club or a friend. My email address is: info@chessbutler.com

We accept PayPal, most credit cards, and cleared checks. You must provide your real name and ship to information. If you have a question you can call me at: 563-271-6657.

If you want to know more about the event, you can find it at chessbase.com

If you like chess, if you don’t mind high-level chess, you will love this event, and the books too!

Mail goes to The Chess Butler, 1524 LeClaire St, Davenport, IA 52803

 

 

SOMEONE GOT WISE AT THE LAST MINUTE!

Don’t know how they did it, but the book on Caruana from Everyman Chess is already in stock!

Originally scheduled for early November AFTER the beginning of the match between Carlsen and Caruana, it is NOW available and we have 6 copies available at $21.56 + $3.95 for S&H.

Last week I already had review copies! Who woke them up in England? I had already run out of the very good book by Alexander Kalinin simply called Fabiano Caruana (from  New in Chess). Even cheaper but I will prefer the Move by Move book (but will also have more of the Kalinin book).

One of the kicks I got out of Lakdawala’s book is that when it comes to openings, Caruana is probably the best comparative player in the world. And, as time passes, he seems to get better and better. Plus, I have been told he has very strong nerves.

There are 365 pages and neither book has photos.

I’m not going to spend my time reviewing this book except to mention that there are 4 wins by Caruana against Carlsen in this book and one draw. Most likely we will have a fight. I think Carlsen knows that Caruana is not afraid of him, but, what’s that worth?

info@chessbutler.com

 

Here’s Your Chance to Shine Like a Marketing Genius!

Did you know that Albert Einstein played chess? He said he just didn’t have the time for it! Is that your reason for not playing or studying OUR game?

Let’s make it easier.

A couple weeks ago I mailed out 3 copies of New in Chess Yearbook #127 in hardcover because I had 3 autoship customers.

Customer Mike Callinan wrote back that he already had it! Whoops. I had sent out copies a few weeks before that. Normally I don’t do this. So I am going to be left with 3 extra copies of that Yearbook.

What to do? The retail on these fab yearbooks is $39.95. And, it just so happens that Caruana READ this particular volume and from it he “uncorked” an idea of h4 against a French and his opponent went down like a lead balloon. Fabio admitted he saw something in Yearbook 126 (the one pictured above) which spurred him on. It caused Black to collapse. These kinds of things are always being featured in these 250 page books. Carlsen’s memory will be up against Caruana’s memory (thank God it’s not mine!)

The front cover will have 5-6 new game ideas to torture your opponents plus many more ideas in the other chapters.

I remember at the chess club one time I saw a variation which I thought a future opponent might play against me! The only problem was I was Black and the ideas in the game were from White’s viewpoint. So HERE is where I used (get ready for this) DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION to unravel what was happening! Weird huh? That game I played eventually came up and my opponent, Mike S., went down like a sack of rocks. My books were paying for themselves.

I will sell you a copy of #126 for 50% off, that it, $20 + $3.95 for shipping and handling. See if there are some “beats” in the book which you can use. I’ll bet there are. If not, I will take the book back and refund your money in full. Can I do better than that?

Give it a try! My early Christmas present to you.

Bob

info@chessbutler.com

 

HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO SHIN

LOTS GOING ON TODAY

Yesterday your editor had several interesting conversations. I like this part about my job. You don’t see this kind of give and take with the USCF! Unfortunately.

I had asked GM Andy Soltis if he knew whether Emanuel Lasker ever became a naturalized US citizen. I had a specific reason since Andy has published that Wilhelm (William) Steinitz had in the early 1880s because he had been in NY for at least 5 years.

Here’s what Andy said about Lasker:

“I don’t know what Lasker’s story was. He seemed to switch residences with remarkable ease.
“I’m midway with the McFarland proofs but I suspect it will be out sometime in January.
And I may do another Batsford book next year.”

Then there was James R. Schroeder and dealing with the USCF. Some of this will be repeated in Issue #3 of The BOX. This next but was From David Friedman about Schroeder (pron: Shrayder). David can be found at: Isolanis.com TONS OF GOOD CHESS STUFF THERE.

 

“CLO (Chess Life Online) published an obituary of Hall of Fame Grandmaster Anatoly Lein with a headline calling him Anthony! I posted a comment stating that this should be corrected immediately. Instead, they deleted my comment! So, I posted about the whole episode on my blog and linked to my blog post on Facebook. Public shaming did wonders and CLO soon corrected the headline but they never put my comment back up, nor did they ever acknowledge that the headline had been wrong. If I make a mistake and a reader corrects me, I publish the comment, correct the mistake and note that I made a mistake. Seems like basic journalistic ethics to me but CLO runs by a different creed.

Yes, I suspect that Schroeder had some degree of mental illness but I think that he did a lot of good. I was not offended by the way that he talked to me when I met him all those years ago; I was just taken aback initially because I had no idea who he was and did not expect the reaction he had. [Ed.: I am continually appalled at the lack of Chess Knowledge in the USCF]

Have you ever met Jude Acers? I was in New Orleans in 2007 and tried to play him in the French Quarter where he has taken on all comers for years but he was very rude and he refused to play me. I think that there is definitely something wrong with him, but I don’t know if that was always the case or if that developed later in life.

–David

I had never met Acers but my suspicion is that he doesn’t want to play anyone who might beat him. Russ Miller wasn’t treated too well by Acers even though Miller set up at least one tour for Acers. Chess has a lot of oddballs in it. As to Schroeder, my only contact with him was through the mail. I asked Russ to pass on to him that I wouldn’t write or otherwise get involved with him because he behaved as if rudeness was a virtue. It’s not and it’s not necessary. For all his so-called “brainpower,” that NEVER sunk in! Never!

However, I do owe him for one bit of advice. He said in a letter that my play was too aggressive from the get. If someone stuck a Bishop on g4 or b4 I would challenge it right away, back in the day. When I quit doing that, my winning percentages jumped enormously. I owe him for that!

Also heard from Steven Doyle, the King Magistrate for the February Team Championships, the most successful adult tournament in the world! He told me about originally buying some Morphiana, the salver and goblets. Wow!

It’s been an interesting day. Now I have to get to work. By the way, Steve liked the Morphy Magazine that we published. Why don’t YOU get all 12 issues for the paltry amount of $100. Tons of reading including stuff you have probably never read before.

Bob

info@chessbutler.com

GM JIM TARJAN IS READY FOR YOU!

Oct. 13, NATIONAL CHESS DAY AT THE VANCOUVER MALL

Jim Tarjan and Russell Miller are promoting Chess Day and will have 20 boards and sets set out for you to confront the Grandmaster. You will need more than “luck,” so try your hand.

Rusty has always publicized The Chess Butler, so it is time for me to help him.

Until recently Mr. Tarjan has not spent much time in the limelight, but he’s begun playing again and he wants you to take a chance. (Like ABBA.)

Here is some additional info from Rusty to see what it is all about. While the initial enthusiasm, unfortunately, hasn’t been overwhelming, my experience shows that people will stop by and you can get a much bigger crowd than you ever thought you would.

DETAILS

Location: Vancouver Mall, 8700 NE Vancouver Mall Drive, Vancouver WA near Macy’s entrance to the mall by the large chess set on the lower level.

Time: 1pm to 5pm Number of boards: 20, sets and boards provided

Organizer: Russell (Rusty) Miller e-mail: russellmiller22@comcast.net phone: 360-852-8044. Rusty was also responsible for the above photo of Mr. Tarjan!

Sponsors: Vancouver Mall, Northwest Chess, US Chess, Chess Butler e-mail: info@chessbutler.com, Esther Schrader, EinsteinWise Academy website: www.EinsteinWise.com, IQ Credit Union Vancouver WA.

Prizes to players who beat or draw the grandmaster of chess magazines and chess books. Contact Russell Miller to participate.

give it a whirl!

My personal promotional EXPERIENCE on things like this was a bit (that’s a lie, it was a flop) lackluster. We were setting up a big simultaneous exhibition at the Large NorthPark Mall. They (the Mall honchos) were enthusiastic but wanted to move it to SouthPark Mall because they needed the publicity more than NorthPark (sales were flagging and stores were closing–but, this was not our fault ).

We wanted to raise money for Alzheimer’s awareness and cures. Seemed like a noble idea but then the mall exec. wannabe’s asked if we had insurance (“No”) Didn’t’t they?

You know, chess, when it comes to games, has to be one of the rowdiest there is!

Later I visited the local Alzheimer’s Office, gave them my check for $50 and never even got a thank you note from them! Probably forgot!

I HAVE PLAYED IN SIMULS–LOTS OF FUN!

In Milwaukee every summer they would have a chess tent and the Masters and hi-rated Experts would play all comers and the tent was continuously full. Before that, I had never played in a simul. It was a BLAST (that means I was winning). I was, and may still yet, publish a book on how to play in Simuls but lost track of most of the games, etc., etc. I didn’t do any tricky stuff except to play. I didn’t know what to expect. I got the crap knocked out of myself when I played Master Bill Williams (a great guy). Surprising enough to me, after his tour was done, he stood behind me while I was playing on. He complimented me on my wins (he was the only master to win against me) and in 2 summers of playing I won the pewter cup twice. I can’t give you an outright secret for winning. I just felt the onus was on the masters to pay 30 or more people at a time.

With Tarjan having only to face 20, and he being a GM, you’ll have your work cut out for you. If you are in the neighborhood, go on out and have some fun, you don’t have to worry about losing rating points.

info@chessbutler.com

PETROSIAN THE PUNISHER!

Here’s a guy, a world chess champion type guy, you didn’t want to piss off.

Sure, he was a drawing master, but it turned out he had a problem with high blood pressure. And sometimes he would get agitated and taking a time out was good for his body. This was before they had Apple Watches which could detect blood pressure problems.

Probably his opponents didn’t know about this, but Petrosian’s doctors did.

Some years ago we published  issue #6 of our “Chess Gangs of London and New York” series. One of our successful Hollywood promotion stunts. If you were willing to spend money and buy chess stuff from the Chess Butler and you did this for 3 months in a row, we would send you a fresh copy of a new Chess Gangs book, FREE. There were 12 in all.

This particular book had 75 lightly annotated Petrosian games including the 1963 match which made Petrosian the new world champion. Botvinnik won the first games, around game 5 Petorsian won his first game and life proceeded downhill for Botvinnik.

The reason I called this book “The Punisher” is that when Petrosian was made fun of because of his draws, or lack of fighting spirit, he would make it his personal vendetta to punish the jokester with a fully fledged and old fashioned beating! Pound city. In other words, don’t rile the Armenian. His lifetime record against Botvinnik was to be envied. Ya know, he was the punisher.

There were 55 pages, and 3 caricatures (counting the cover) to put a little romance in the games about Petrosian. As a matter of fact “stuff” Petrosian was the most requested of any chess player (except perhaps Keres!) during those years we published the Chess Gangs series.

When sold singly this particular volume had a $15.95 price tag.

A famous quote of Fischer’s was “he has an incredible tactical view, and a wonderful sense of danger… No matter how much you think deep… He will “smell” any kind of danger 20 moves before!”

We would like you on our mailing list to received our Chess Gazette, which are all about new and old chess books, and even sets now and then. You can get this book for $3 to cover our costs of shipping and handling. You will also get the latest issue of the Chess Gazette, that would be #237. We are working on #238.

Send your payment in the form of check, money order, or PayPal (info@chessbutler.com) to: The Chess Butler, 1524 LeClaire St., Davenport, Iowa 52803–the best little Chess Village in the USA with incredible service and more incredible publications such as the latest issue of Morphy’s Time & Games. Get all 12 issues including the final one, #12, for a $25 savings of $74.99. About 200 letter sized pages in PDF format. Loaded with pictures, stories, and games.

Thanks for reading. If you have yet to subscribe to our Blog, please do so. We have 91 at the moment!

THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!

I HAVE A VIDEO FOR YOU CHESS LOVERS.

It was produced by Kevin with myself (Bob Long) to make some important announcements.

I haven’t written lately because my laptop was in the “shop” as they say getting some upgrades. Now, what does an upgrade mean? It means it is a pain in the rear end because other things have been changed (not by me!), and that means changes in security, etc., etc. So one can spend plenty of time trying to figure out how to get the “troublemakers” out of my hair so I can give you good info.

I think, I have figured it out.

But it may require a little bit of help from you. Are you already registered for our WordPress site? I hope so. WordPress says 90 of you are. If so, why don’t you comment more often?

In the meantime, I have a video for you for which I think Kevin has done a great job. Give it a look and tell me what you think.

You can write me at info@chessbutler.com

If this works, I am hoping we can do more for information, congeniality, and sales.

Bob Long

The Chess Butler

PS: Kevin likes what I do at the Chess Butler and we are tempted to do a more complete video, with sound, music, and ideas on the subject of chess. I am jazzed. And yes, the story on Al “the mustache” Horowitz is completely true. That was 46 years ago.

FIRST REGISTRATION!

At our Open House this Sunday, all the way from Dubuque, Iowa, “Earl the Pearl” Zismer has already signed up to be the first registrant for the IM Andrew Martin Super Chess Clinic October 27-28, at the Quality Inn in Davenport, IA on North Brady St., off Interstate 80 in Davenport, Iowa! Thanks Earl, a real chess promoter.
We caught up on old times as we have known each other for a long time.

And right there you have another reason for attending one of these chess events, catching up with old friends and making new ones.

The event + Simul costs $200 but Earl saved some money because he had also signed up for the Simon Williams Festival event in February, which was cancelled because I had to take leave for much needed back surgery in January. I’m much better thank you and I hope I never have to go through that again.

I’ve been in touch with house of representatives of Dave Loebsack (last week) to make a smooth entry for Martin in 2018. I have talked with Racheal too, his rep. in Iowa City.

Andrew will be dovetailing 5 lectures on Saturday. One of them will be a preview of the Carlsen-Caruana match coming up in November. Another lecture will be on the all important perspectives of using your Rooks.

More revelations coming.

How Did The Open House Go Today?

Saleswise not so good. Not even close to last Saturday. Some didn’t show who said they were coming. Some new people showed up and didn’t buy anything. Still, it was great to see some made sales. Some old-timers made it. We will be having a drawing for the XXL Simon Williams T-shirt.

We have given away quite a few new books too!

Write Bob at: info@chessbutler.com

LOTS OF GOOD NEWS!

More details soon but the upshot is, IM Andrew Martin is coming to town for the Oct. 27-28 SUPER CHESS CLINIC 2018.

In case you are not aware there is a world’s chess championship being held in November in London (???). So, ONE of Andy’s topics will be a PREVIEW of the most exciting match in awhile between the American GM Fabiano Caruana, and the Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen. Predictably Caruana is the Underdog. I love underdogs because sometimes they upset all the pundits (more often than you might think). There will be four other topics in this lecture series. Andrew’s humor keeps everything lively, one of the world best chess presenters!

Andrew has seen or been the commentator at a number of world chess championships including the monster 2000 Kasparov-Kramnik match, and with US GM Larry Evans!

Andrew has written many books including a couple new recent ones, which we have in stock. He’s made many DVDs and he will be making a trip with me to the Hall of Fame in St. Louis as well as the St. Louis Chess Club!!

Our fine event will be at the Quality Inn and Suites (563-386-8336) in Davenport, Iowa. There will be a simul on Sunday the 28th. For those who were here for the GM KarSten Mueller event via hookup with Germany you will remember this in as having probably one of the best breakfasts you will ever eat anywhere at a standard hotel, INCLUDED!

The room rates will be compatible with other places to stay in the area (off of Interstate 80). We don’t know the room rates yet but I will be in touch with Barry next week. We are figuring room for 20-30 people and we hope you will make a commitment early. ($200 whether or not you play in the simul). If you paid to come to the Simon Williams event which was unfortunately cancelled, and you did not receive any kind of a refund, I will give you a $100 credit toward this Andrew Martin event.

First come, first served. I will be advertising in other cities too, so the operative word is, don’t dick around until the last minute because there won’t be any last minute. However, as an Incentive, all those who register early (by Sept. 16th) will be mailed (in advance) a $50 Paul Morphy commemorative coin (brass, FREE) for sending in your entry fee by then (Sept. 16). The supply is getting smaller. Or you can get a GOLD Morphy coin IF you send us an additional $75. This one is really scarce as I have only about 7-8.

More details and pictures are coming, frequently over this coming time frame. As it is, I am working on something that has never been done before about or with Andrew Martin, a games collection including some CORKERS such as a win over Mickey Adams! Notes and pictures too. You can get him to sign the book which will be for sale (air fare costs you know!) We’ll have board and sets to be signed too.

DON’T FORGET

THIS SATURDAY August 18th, is our last OPEN HOUSE for this year and called THE CHESS MUSEUM. Books, DVDs, sets, and great conversation about chess and things that are coming up. And, I will have another GRAND TURK chess set on display as well as for sale. It is a premium set and one was sold last week. Usually it is $995 but during THIS open house you can get the set with the black leather bottoms for a puny $750.00. You have to see it to believe it!! While the event runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I will be open a little bit early for Luis Peralta, one of the stronger players in the Quad-Cities. He’s purchasing a chess book but I can’t tell you which one it is unless you are here to see it for yourself.

Bob Long in chess from 1968, 50 years! 2 times Quad-Cities Chess Champion

Contact: info@chessbutler.com   OR   563-271-6657.