Abe Turner's Death

[Jshchess]

Chess Review for December 1962 (p. 356) notes the following:

"On October 25, Abe Turner, an employee of a few weeks, and Theodore W. Smith,
employed six months, left Chess Review at 2:50 pm. At 3:30, the building
superintendent, following a trail of blood, found a body in a large safe in the
basement. It was Turner's. Apprehended late that night when he returned home,
Smith led police to a hunting knife buried in Central Park. Asked why he killed
Turner, he replied: "The Secret Service told me to do it." He is now under
observation in Bellevue Hospital. More than two hundred attended the funeral
for Abe Turner."

It appears Ray Weinstein had nothing to do with Abe Turner's death. Can anyone
share exactly what were the circumstances surrounding Weinstein's
hospitalization?

John Hilbert

[Francesco S. Rinaldi]

Who are Abe Turner, Ray Weinstein and Theodore W. Smith ?

[Chessphoto]

Abe Turner was a very strong master in the United States. Today, he would be a
"senior master" (USCF 2400+). Turner was considered eccentric, but harmless,
in the chess world.

Raymond Weinstein was a chess "prodigy" who had earned the IM title in the late
1950s. Considering the opportunities for U. S. chess players in those days,
this was almost phenomenal. He murdered his room mate, by slitting the
latter's throat with a razor.

Theodore Smith was an employee of CHESS REVIEW (in the days when it was, by
far, the outstanding U. S. chess periodical and second to CHESS, of England,
among English language chess magazines. He murdered Abe Turner, who, a few
weeks before, had been hired by Al Horowitz to work on CHESS REVIEW.

Fraternally,

Jerome Bibuld

[helmet]

>Fraternally,

>Jerome Bibuld

If smith killed Turner, who was Weinsteins roommate?
Its a long time since i played cluedo and im confused
helmet
>>

[Rolf Tueschen]

> If smith killed Turner, who was Weinsteins roommate?
>Its a long time since i played cluedo and im confused
>helmet
>>>

UNIVERSAL GOD!

It was Sam Mahatma El Moses Ibn Abdullah S.!!

Criminology knew since long that the victim always comes back to his
killer. That's why W. consistently plays the ignorant (hehe!!) when he
sees his ol' mate.

BTW that's why I for one would NOT permit that S. takes W. home with
him. <just whispering:> He might plan a revenge ... ;)

Now I want my candy!! C-A-N-D-Y-M-A-N ...

[Larry Parr]

From CHESS CATECHISM by GM Larry Evans (p. 209-10) after analysis of Evans-Turner, 1962 USA Championship: <<This game had a tragic sequel -- it turned out to be Abe Turner's last tournament. Toward the end of 1962 he was brutally and senselessly stabbed nine times in the back by a fellow employee at Chess Review, where Abe had been employed for two weeks. "Top Chess Player Stabbed to Death"; "Chess Expert Knifed"; "A Chess Problem with No Solution." So trumpeted the headlines. His demented assailant, Theodore Smith, shortly confessed that "the Secret Service ordered me to do it....He was a Communist spy." (No doubt part of the Cold War hysteria that induced us to turn on ourselves and devour our own.) Smith was dispatched to Bellevue Hospital for the inevitable psychiatric examination after having told the judge he had been discharged from the Army for mental reasons and had been released from an asylum in 1959. <<Abe was a true coffee-house pro and referred to the den on Forty-second Street in New York, where he could be found every afternoon, as "my office." Weekends he scrupulously retired to his home in Mount Vernon in order to write plays in the style of Ionesco. Always colorful and in good spirits, he left an indelible impression on all who knew him. His corpulence framed the role of buffoon which he chose to play in life. <<Abe was a strong player who seemed content to demonstrate his equality over the chessboard. He was always happy to draw with a strong player, but came into his own when they overextended themselves trying to win. In tournaments he had a plus score against Fischer and Bisguier, and it was only in the above-quoted game that I evened our personal record. Abe had learned chess in 1943 while recuperating in a naval hospital from shrapnel wounds inflicted during the war. I met him in 1945 and we spent many hours on opening analysis. I was a Knight-odds player in those days, and it was from Abe that I grasped the essence of positional play. He had enormous "sitzfleisch" -- patience -- the ability to sit on a position until his opponent got an idea (meaning "blundered"). Today playing "Turner style" means chopping pieces at every opportunity, particularly when a Queen ahead, thus prolonging an easy win beyond human endurance. <<Abe had enough chess students -- "clients" as he called them -- to earn a living. He did not need the income or respectability of a job. One can only wish that he had remained unemployed, even to endure the taunts of "chess bum." It is ironic, but had he not taken that fatal job at Chess Review he would probably be alive right now.>> Larry Parr

[Rolf Tueschen]

Larry Parr <75227...@CompuServe.COM> wrote in
<#7Jqofxj#GA....@nih2naad.prod2.compuserve.com>:

> His
> demented assailant, Theodore Smith, shortly confessed that "the
> Secret Service ordered me to do it....He was a Communist spy."
> (No doubt part of the Cold War hysteria that induced us to turn
> on ourselves and devour our own.)

Do you now understand why I had wanted you to leave the sphere of Cold
War hatred and handle the FIDE president on the base of the judiciable
standards we have in our countries? You must figure that Cold War is
over. Ask me what you want if you need help to come out of the
psychological habits and fallacies of that time. Could help you to
concentrate on your valuable talents as a writer ...

[Larry Parr]

Herr Tueschen has generously offered to provide this writer with
assistance with my fallacies and poor psychological habits so that
I can "concentrate on [my] valuable talents as a writer."

Pray, dear sir, where do you hang your shingle? On my next trip
to Germany how could I go about accepting your clinical services?

And thank you again for the offer.
--
Larry Parr

[Rolf Tueschen]

Larry Parr <75227...@CompuServe.COM> wrote in

<ux7EQ3yj#GA....@nih2naae.prod2.compuserve.com>:

>Pray, dear sir, where do you hang your shingle? On my next trip
>to Germany how could I go about accepting your clinical services?

"Sir" Larry, this must be a misunderstanding.

If you visit a psychologist there is not need to appear submissive. It
is not so much a clinical service what you need, but just someone who
tells you that you don't need to play all the macho games, since you
have such marvelous genuine talents. What you are lacking of however is
just a 'sane' self-confidence.

NB that usenet doesn't require that your opponents always correct you
when you are wrong. But you seem to take all events one-to-one.
Do you really believe that in these groups we have nobody who could play
the same rhetorical games you are playing? And did you ever reflect that
Dejas for instance will be a more important judge for your status than
Chesstours? For how long do I try now to give you a hint that usenet is
NOT comparable with the readers of a Cold- War- propagandistic- journal.
For all the right wing extremists, the refugees and the exilants it's
important to create/support feelings of resentment, on usenet you can
only write essays for a readership of unknown moments of time and
unknown population. It simply doesn't make sense to repeat for 6 months
that "Another murder" is going on in Russia and combining it with the
actual FIDE president. Why? Because the emotions don't exist. And if
read with a minimum of brain power your lampoon simply 'sucks' ...
Everybody smells the propagandistic intention. And again, _without_
primar emotions such agit prop doesn't function.

I thought you knew all such trivialities ...?

BTW for you my "services" are free, self-understood. I think friendly
smiles can/will cause miracles! [Patch Adams] :)

[Carl Tillotson]

Larry,

> Pray, dear sir, where do you hang your shingle? On my next trip
> to Germany how could I go about accepting your clinical services?

You misunderstand, he doesn't provide a clinical service, he *supports* the
clinical service in Germany. They need his money to keep afloat - with all
the sessions he has it's like manna from heaven.

--
Carl Tillotson
Lancashire Chess Association

[Anthony Mantia]

It was my understanding that Raymond killed a fellow patient at the hospital
he was commited to.