Jude Acers
Kiddon
parrt...@cs.com
A prayer for old New Orleans: I remember her as grande dame and floozy;
but if she must die, let us celebrate her life
BY MATTHEW TEAGUE, a former reporter for the New Orleans
Times-Picayune, is a senior writer at Philadelphia Magazine.
September 4, 2005
Later, as an adult and resident, I learned of the deeper New Orleans,
darker in some places and glorious in others: the poverty of the Irish
Channel, the elegance of the Garden District, the fear and trembling of
the Desire Projects, the swank of Old Metairie. And surrounding it all,
like the light of a tremendous street lamp, glowed the warmth and
openness of the city's people.
The characters, my Lord. The cons. The saints. I've lost untold amounts
of money to Jude Acers, a man in a red beret who played $5 games of
chess on the street at the French Market. He was - and I pray now,
still is - an offbeat but world-class player who once enjoyed an
international ranking and played Bobby Fischer. He constitutes a
national treasure, in his way, and now nature has washed away his
venue, if not the man himself.
Strega
street at the French Market. He was - and I pray now, still is - an
offbeat but world-class player who once enjoyed an international
ranking and played Bobby Fischer. He constitutes a national treasure,
in his way, and now nature has washed away his venue, if not the man
himself."
What crock of shit.... "World Class" my ass..
Let's get to 2400 by beating 1900's!?
"National Treasure"..
I've cleaned his clock on more than one occasion... he a low life...
Sorry about New Orelans, but Mr. Acers, Pawn of Larry Evans.... is not
worth my concern...
samsloan
> Mr. Acers, Pawn of Larry Evans.... is not
> worth my concern...
Jude Acers may be many things, but one thing he is NOT is the pawn of
Larry Evans, or anybody else.
Catalan
"samsloan" <sl...@ishipress.com> wrote in message
news:1126066107....@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Sam is right here. Larry and Jude co-write a monthly memories column in
Chess Life.
parrt...@cs.com
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2617
"Jude Acers is unique in American chess, and chessplayers worldwide
have benefited from his selfless devotion and promotion of the game. I
ask chessplayers around the world for their help for this great
talent." -- Michael Ciamarra is vice president of the Alabama Policy
Institute, a chess coach, a long time associate of Jude Acers and
former resident of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Catalan
<parrt...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1126102811.4...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2617
>
> "Jude Acers is unique in American chess, and chessplayers worldwide
> have benefited from his selfless devotion and promotion of the game. I
> ask chessplayers around the world for their help for this great
> talent." -- Michael Ciamarra is vice president of the Alabama Policy
> Institute, a chess coach, a long time associate of Jude Acers and
> former resident of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Not to worry, all victims are getting a 2,000 debit card right off. I expect
Sam Sloan will apply for his and give us the low down.
parrt...@cs.com
<Larry and Jude co-write a monthly memories column in Chess Life.> Stan
Booz
One of the differences -- there are about 76,836
just to start with -- between GM Larry Evans and Stan
Booz is that people care about Evans' memories and
pay money to read about them.
Mr. Booz's memories? Well, there was this
toilet seat ... and so on and so forth.
To be sure, GM Evans and Jude Acers have
exchanged columnar pleasantries for a number of years,
though not all that often. Jude happens to be a
person always on the lookout for interesting positions
and unusual aspects of the game. This capacity was
never better demonstrated than in his discovery, in a
sense, of the Pafnuftieff-Linklater game from a modest
San Francisco team match nearly 60 years back. An utterly
fantastic game between a master of some note,
Pafnuftieff, and a lesser master.
A man like Jude Acers is a big part of what
chess is about. A man such as Mr. Booz?
As noted above, he has his memories, too.
Catalan
<parrt...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1126139407....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> A man like Jude Acers is a big part of what
> chess is about. A man such as Mr. Booz?
Jude, a guy that rigged his rating; Stan, a guy that pays his dues.
politi...@gmail.com
us, he was an reasonably strong player in his prime-- strong enough to
draw the Browne of 1970 in a match, and creative enough to play a game
in round one of that match that had a major effect on Petroff theory
until the Timman-Yusupov match effectively put ...Nxa1 out of business.
And the fellow needs a home....
I played him twice in simuls in the early 70's: my hometown Shamokin,
PA (circa 1972?--he stayed at my friend Dan Polastre's home), then in
Lewisburg, PA (circa 1973)? I was strong enough by the second simul to
appreciate the difference between a GM and a very strong master, but I
can tell you that from the amateur's point of view, Acers put on a
better show than either Browne or Kavalek, who had also visited the
area. Good popularizers have their place, and shouldn't be scorned.
parrt...@cs.com
>Jude, a guy that rigged his rating; Stan, a guy that pays his dues.> Stan The Man
Stan Booz is a guy who retails statements he knows to be lies
and, when caught out, routinely "pays his dues" by telling everyone he
was joking.
Moreover, that really is a kind of dues-paying in terms of
reputation and soiling of the soul.
The charge has been made that somehow Jude Acers scraped enough
money together to buy a drawn match with GM Walter Browne, though both
players deny the charge. When Mr. Booz accuses Jude Acers of cheating,
he is also accusing GM Browne and others of also cheating.
The truth is that Jude has played some tremendous games over the
years (one tournament win over Craig Barnes comes to mind -- a
delightful Danish Gambit),
and he has also crashed on many an occasion because his is not a
settled personality.
politi...@gmail.com
was picking off points one at a time against class players, and
deliberately avoiding masters?
If so, now's not the time to dwell on that.
Catalan
<politi...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1126146243....@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> However, isn't Booz correct? Wasn't Acers capped at 2399 because he
> was picking off points one at a time against class players, and
> deliberately avoiding masters?
There is no doubt that Jude is a strong player. I've played him about 20
times over the past ten years and have two wins and a couple of draws to
show for it. Jude is another unkempt sleaze bag cut from the same cloth as
Sam Sloan and Bob Fischer. In our last encounter I won the first game and he
ran across the street to get an old clock with a broken button. Guess which
player got to use the button with the sharp edges. Anyone that has played
him already knows who gets the seat facing west. The seat that leaves you
with the sun in your eyes.
Jude is one of these guys with a fragile ego. He is most comfortable playing
when the deck is stacked in his favor. In our last encounter I won the first
game and all subsequent games were to be game 30 with the aforementioned
clock. Losing causes this guy great pain and an almost mortal blow to his
ego. For those interested in such matters, his opening repertoire consists
of the Colle as white and the Caro-Kann and Tchigorin as black. To avoid the
Colle play 1 d4, c5!, he takes and you can morph into a Sicilian.
Having said all that, I don't wish the guy ill will. I hope he is well and
his library remains intact. I always enjoyed playing him whenever my travels
took me to New Orleans. Just don't cast him as some sort of saint.
Mike Murray
>In our last encounter I won the first game and he
>ran across the street to get an old clock with a broken button. Guess which
>player got to use the button with the sharp edges.
Perhaps the ratio of time utilized between players in that first
unclocked game wasn't exactly proportionate and he got irritated ?
>Anyone that has played
>him already knows who gets the seat facing west. The seat that leaves you
>with the sun in your eyes.
Just following ancient clerical advice.
>Jude is one of these guys with a fragile ego. He is most comfortable playing
>when the deck is stacked in his favor. In our last encounter I won the first
>game and all subsequent games were to be game 30 with the aforementioned
>clock. Losing causes this guy great pain and an almost mortal blow to his
>ego.
I've only played him twice (both in simuls), getting a win and a draw
and in both cases, he gracious about it. He came up to the Northwest
to play in the Strawberry Open in the late 1960s and I don't remember
any unsporting behavior.
Catalan
"Mike Murray" <mikem...@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:8gl0i1ll2pl2psa53...@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 08:29:19 -0400, "Catalan" <x...@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>>In our last encounter I won the first game and he
>>ran across the street to get an old clock with a broken button. Guess
>>which
>>player got to use the button with the sharp edges.
>
> Perhaps the ratio of time utilized between players in that first
> unclocked game wasn't exactly proportionate and he got irritated ?
No. not really. I won a piece around move 20 and he resigned. Probably a
total of a half hour had passed and he may have taken the most time trying
to weasel out of the inevitable.
>>Anyone that has played
>>him already knows who gets the seat facing west. The seat that leaves you
>>with the sun in your eyes.
>
> Just following ancient clerical advice.
Never give a sucker an even break?
Mike Murray
>>>Anyone that has played
>>>him already knows who gets the seat facing west. The seat that leaves you
>>>with the sun in your eyes.
>> Just following ancient clerical advice.
>Never give a sucker an even break?
Well, probably that, too, but it was old Ruy Lopez himself who
reputedly said to always place your adversary with the sun in his
eyes.
Keith
Mike Murray Wrote:
> it was old Ruy Lopez himself who
> reputedly said to always place your adversary with the sun in his
> eyes.
Having read about Jude in an 80s issue of Chess Life, I wondered if he
might still be where the article indicated when I embarked on my
first-ever New Orleans vacation in late April 2004. A couple nights
before departing, I mentioned the trip to Peter Manetti in a Santa
Rosa, California coffee/chess parlor. Peter declared that he and Jude
were old acquaintences and had played one another many times in the 60s
and 70s. I snapped a digital photo of Peter to deliver to Jude.
He was there, right where the old CL article said he would be! I bought
him a Cafe Latte and surrendured my $5 for my fair share of abuse over
the board. And I also gave him the photo of Peter. His eyes lit up.
He gave me a gift, too. During his US tour later that year, he
performed a free simul against a selection of Sonoma County elementary
school chess players. During the previous decade, I had taught an
inspiring introductory chess course to grades 4-6 students in a dozen
local schools. Only when I moved away from the area did I realize that
I had taught over 1,000 children how to play the game. To this day when
I visit Santa Rosa, youngsters (now a bit older) in the area
occasionally hail me with, "Hi, Mr. Chess, remember me?"
Every person has faults and every personality conflicts with some other
personality. Flaws notwithstanding, perhaps the best tack for appraising
the worth of our fellows is to focus on their most positive attributes.
Jude's simul in Santa Rosa also served as my parting gift to the
student chess community in Sonoma County. One diligent 14-year-old
young man actually drew against Jude. When asked how he had prepared
for the game, the kid said, "I looked up his games on the Internet!"
Yikes!
In point of fact, Jude's table (during my visit) was situated so that
his opponents faced precisely Southwest and at midday the entire venue
was shaded by a nearby tree and the overhang structure along the
Northwest wall of the Gazebo Cafe. If the sun ever shines directly onto
that table for any length of time, surely the person who sits their
daily for 30-some years deserves to have it at his back instead of on
his face. It didn't bother me. I lost my game all by my lonesome,
without any interference from our closest of all stars.
http://www.sonic.net/finearts/photos/judeacerstable.jpg
--
Keith
parrt...@cs.com
Fragment from Evans On Chess (Cornerstone Library 1974 page 39)
Sitting at an airline terminal after an exhausting exhibition against
40 convicts at Utah State Prison, Jude took out his pocket set and
began analyzing chess. As he was moving one piece after another, a
stunning wide-eyed brunette approached him hesitantly.
"What are those little men doing?"
He explained they were magnetic chess pieces.
"Chess -- isn't that like checkers, a little?"
Jude fixed his blue eyes and flashing smile on her. "Well, gosh, not
really. It's a thriller-diller game that's about 1500 years old from
either Persia or India. Would you like to learn how to play?"
Transfixed, the girl snuggled closer and Jude snuggled closer for the
chess lesson. She was charmed. She was fascinated. She also wanted to
know just how great a player he was. Jude lost no time in telling her.
He did manage to explain that he wasn't world champion -- yet.
"You're amazing, Jude!" she purred.
Catalan
"Keith" <Keith....@news.chessbanter.com> wrote in message
news:Keith....@news.chessbanter.com...
> Every person has faults and every personality conflicts with some other
> personality. Flaws notwithstanding, perhaps the best tack for appraising
> the worth of our fellows is to focus on their most positive attributes.
No doubt you'll be voting for Hillary.
clarkbarr
you and your fellow presstitutes!
It would be worth it too see Faux News do a total melt down when she wins
On 9/10/05 6:37 AM, in article _aqdnWmoVN0...@giganews.com,
jr
the exception of Beatriz Marinello.
Catalan
"jr" <jul...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1126382722.3...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> This Catalan guy never seems to have a good word about anyone -- with
> the exception of Beatriz Marinello.
And you too cutie pie.
politi...@gmail.com
Keith
*JUDE ACERS SAFE AND SOUND
JUDE ACERS* posted Saturday Sept 10, 11:21 AM at
*http://wx.gulfcoastnews.com/katrina/status.aspx*
It was wild west folks. Have learned a new meaning to the term " rock
and roll" courtesy of this hurricane...FROM HELL TO PARADISE ...
Evacuated to terrific 4 H camp refugee center in Greenville
Tennessee...after 9 days of gunshots all over the place,,looting.,
helicopters, total darkness, candles,little food , water - dying radio
batteries... I will never in my life take food and water for granted
again..(drained the hot water heater of stored water - this saved me).I
ran the night guantlet to a military kitchen to get rations in the
night for my 80 year old landlord who would not leave the city without
his dog...had guns on me twice and was frisked , stripp[ed by chilling
but very professional military patrols...... Gun fire all over the
place and two oil drums blew up across the river from my 4th floor
balcony....Very, very lucky to be alive.One horror I witnessed: people
firing at military helicopters. Why? Thanks to everyone for their
concern... One thing not on the news..young turk chinese and vietnamese
store owner famillies were using automatic rifles hidding in their
stores and using them aplenty at least as warning shots.......Tycoon
James MCcain of Katy Texas and Big John Ormins of Indiana are now on
my case and with those guys the rest is going to be history. Best wishes
always- Jude Acers PS I worked three days in the CNN featured Eddie
Horner food kitchen...he really is a miracle organizer believe me and
stops at nothing to feed people..I am the guy in the red beret in some
CNN footage hauling ice and putting soft drinks and water into the
chests and washing many a pot and pan, opening beans. Huge trucks
poured in and I just used the pop top cansfor food preparation.I am
very, very lucky to be alive as I could not get down to lower floors as
was the plan w;ith the approach of the storm...the winds were far too
strong and my outer stairway was a deathtrap. I stayed put and
lived.Just a roll of the dice that I lived. Jude Acers
*http://www.sonic.net/finearts/photos/judeacerslittle.jpg*
--
Keith
Sam Sloan
<Keith....@news.chessbanter.com> wrote:
>
>*JUDE ACERS SAFE AND SOUND
>
>JUDE ACERS* posted Saturday Sept 10, 11:21 AM at
>*http://wx.gulfcoastnews.com/katrina/status.aspx*
Good News:
70905 9/10/2005 11:21:48 AM Acers Jude 1015 Decatur New Orleans LA
70116-3309 ALIVE
31695 9/2/2005 7:26:33 PM Acers Jude New Orleans Louisiana ALIVE