isolanis.com » Anecdotes http://isolanis.com Net home of the Isolanis Chess Club Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:35:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 How to Beat “Schredder Schroeder” http://isolanis.com/2006/11/how-to-beat-schredder-schroeder/ http://isolanis.com/2006/11/how-to-beat-schredder-schroeder/#comments Tue, 21 Nov 2006 02:07:50 +0000 Schroeder http://isolanis.com/2006/11/how-to-beat-schredder-schroeder/
MANY YEARS AGO I decided, by making a chart of past results, that I was due to have a BAD tournament. I went to Indiana to get it over with – not wanting to have a bad result in any important event in Ohio. I played terribly and almost everyone beat me. I had Black against Hugh Myers and played one of my worst games, losing the exchange. I had a good chance to draw but Myers actually begged me to resign! – saying he had to meet a train or bus with his mother or some other relative on it. I resigned. The only other person who ever asked me to resign was Marion Antunovich. In a postal game he won a Pawn. This was a middle-game and there was nothing certain about him winning, but he begged me to resign, saying that if I did he would win the tournament. I resigned. I AM NOT COMPLAINING! Just think how lucky I am that more players didn’t ask me to resign. Instead of getting a reputation as a fearsome attacking player (“Schredder Schroeder” was how the great critic, Al Horowitz, referred to me), I would have been everybody’s patsy. No wins. No draws. All losses.

]]> http://isolanis.com/2006/11/how-to-beat-schredder-schroeder/feed/ 0 Story: Frank Marshall Lost to Amateur http://isolanis.com/2006/10/story-frank-marshall-lost-to-amateur/ http://isolanis.com/2006/10/story-frank-marshall-lost-to-amateur/#comments Sun, 08 Oct 2006 14:59:31 +0000 Schroeder http://isolanis.com/2006/10/story-frank-marshall-lost-to-amateur/ The story, as I remember it, was written by Bruce Hayden. The great American champion, Frank Marshall, was in England playing in a tournament. He was approached by some members of a local chess club. Seems that there was a Colonel Buller, the very epitome of the English bulldog type, who would come to the club and announce: “I will give rook-odds to anyone for a half-crown!.” Buller would then win the game, accept his half-crown, say “Thank you”, and leave. The conspirators wanted Frank to come to the club and play Buller. Of course, they wouldn’t tell Buller who Marshall was. Frank agreed and was sitting in the club when Buller came in with his usual challenge. “Here’s a gentleman from America, and he will play you for a half-crown.” The vultures gathered around the board and Buller, without his queen-rook, launched one of his fantastic attacks. Did Marshall perform as expected, and reduce the attack to rubbish? He did not! He lost! While the spectators watched in stunned silence, Frank paid his half-crown. Buller said “Thank you”, and left. The next day, when Buller came in, the club members rushed to him and exclaimed: “Do you know who you beat? You beat Frank Marshall, the American champion!” But Buller wouldn’t believe them. No matter how hard they tried to convince him, he wouldn’t believe he had defeated Marshall. “But, I can beat any of you chumps at rook-odds for a half-crown!”

That’s the end of Hayden’s story. What did he leave out? Marshall let Buller win. There’s no way that Marshall would lose to anyone in the world who gave him rook-odds, especially an amateur. Why did Marshall let Buller win? Because he admired and appreciated Buller and despised the persons who thought to humilate him. Frank sacrificed his own reputation in order to embellish the reputation of Buller.

That’s one of the reasons that Frank, as has been stated many times, was the most beloved master in the world – everywhere in the chess world.

Copyright © 2006 James Schroeder

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