I beat Elementary once in 91 after taking lessons from Richard Gilmartin. I didn't like playing blitz so it was a rapid game. The strongest player in the whole park was Poe, a legit FIDE player, who's shown in this video for about two seconds. Simon couldn't play at all, half the guys in this video were selling weed posing as chess players. There was a Brazilian IM named Oscar who was destroying dudes w time odds all day.
Except the part at 1:55 saying "Washington Square Park 1970s" was ripped off from 'Men Who Would Be Kings' (on YT), and it's not from the '70s but from the late '80s....Baron if you're going to steal ("borrow") footage at least attribute it properly and don't mislabel it, Clown
Folks need to understand that most of these hustlers didn’t need to be great chess masters or reach a certain level/rating nor did they even want to. So saying things like, “Anand or Magnus could wipe the floor with them” is besides the point. For the hustlers, it wasn’t so much about chess as it was making some easy money. Advancing in chess proficiency was too much work and headache for the average hustler, unless you happen to also be a natural. But who needs that when you have to earn money? Serious players who challenged the hustlers were often intentionally avoided because they stole business away from easier prey. If they knew you were good, they would often decline playing with you until a chump showed up instead to play and get taken in. Sometimes hustlers would grudgingly accept to play with a proficient opponent if business was too slow that day. Arrests sometimes happened if the hustlers sold contraband on the sly - on the side, and perhaps many of them did. They learned all the chess tricks and traps that the average person wasn’t privy to. Was it thievery? No, because their moves were legit (for the most part). All they needed was to be just a little bit better than the average player. That’s all. Add on to that personal charm, the gift of gab, psych tactics, peacocking, and giving lessons to rich kids sporadically when their family was out strolling about around the park. But in the end, Street Chess never pays off. It has no Union, no Job-security and no 401-k pension plan. For many of the players who were already on welfare and food stamps and who weren’t reporting their earnings, chess hustling was easy, extra money in the pocket. When you get to be too old of a chess hustler, you don’t attract as many people as the newer, more flashy, personable, younger and more confident players. So the old dinosaurs disappear and are replaced by new blood, starting the cycle all over again. Another thing, you couldn’t just become a chess hustler at Washington Square Park. There was a pecking order. Certain players had their specific spots that you couldn’t trespass, unless you want to get retribution. It was almost like a mafia, and the players often saw each other as a brotherhood or club and good luck getting your foot in the door! Also…if you didn’t show up to your spot for longer than a few days, your spot was taken by another more virulent chess hustler. This forced you to not take too many days off or you would lose your spot. So once you earned your spot, you had to protect it for dear life, because the chance may not come again. This also meant that oftentimes you had to show up and hustle even though you lost the joy of the game several years before. But money is money.
Imagine if those guys heard the theme song from a "Few Dollars More" and looked up and saw Vesselin Topalov, Magnus Carlson, Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov led by Garry Karparov riding into town. That would be such an epic moment. Perhaps those guys would play members of the public and raise money for charity.
Great short documentary, captures the spirit. I live in NYC and my first exposure to the clock was in Washington Square Park. I've been a blitz player every since. In the late nighties, there were a few masters and a few experts playing for money. Crafty and agile would be what I would describe as the overall theme of the park as far as playing style is concerned.
I think there were a lot more masters in the park back then....Check out "Men Who Would Be Kings" (on RU-vid) it's a chess circle doc from the late eighties and shows legendary hustlers like Vinnie Livermore, and other master strength hustlers Most of the guys in this film are way below master strength...Nowadays a lot of them won't really gamble, you just have to pay them to play them, and if you win you just get your money back....It's because a lot of them aren't strong enough to bet against strangers straight up....Some of these guys are like 'B' or 'C' players
Yeah that's true. The weaker players play straight up, not true gambling. The stronger ones usually play 5 a game, winner takes pot. The arabic guy in this video is a master, I've played him a few times and have seen him play other strong players. I'm about class A, and I beat many of the straight up players easily, so the class C, B quote seems accurate.
Great to see a insight into the chess culture in NY,and very awesome of the guy to pass down the knowledge to youngins and getting them interested in the game
That clip "Washington Square Park '70s" is not from the 1970s It was lifted straight from "Men Who Would Be Kings" (also on RU-vid), which was filmed in the late '80s and is a much more interesting film about the chess circle IMO Also check out "For Love Or Money"
I think a year ago Nakamura played a bunch of money games in San Francisco. Nobody recognized him and of course he won every game. He tweeted that he won $100 or something.
it is not even worth their time....these guys would not win 1 game out of 1000. i play there all the time...have beaten most of the guys shown. Nishan is good for a park player...about 1900...
alex drieaz When I said possibilities I was talking about arrangements the pieces can be put on the board. If we are talking about the amount of paths the game can take, there are an infinite amount of those.
Look how a child "lights up" and smiles when he/she figures something out. It leads to real happiness from achievement. It is our nature to figure things out, figure out reality and better our lives. That child is as full of potential as any person who was ever born. Then we send them to state run school to destroy all that potential, which is what the adults here (and everywhere), have already lived through. Is this "living"? I think the child has it right. It a true free society, we would wake up with the excitement, exhilaration and wonder of a child,---every morning of our lives. That folks, is "Living". :)
Indeed. As far as I know, there are precisely 169.518.829.100.544.000.000.000.000.000 possibilities only for the 10 first moves, and 2,5x10^116 for a whole 40 moves average game!
The footage at 1:57 *"Washington Sq. Park 1970s" is not from the 1970s It is taken from"Men Who Would Be Kings" (on youtube) and it was filmed in 1988...When the chess circle was apparently much more vibrant
i like how the guy says washington square park rules? hes not used to that, hes used to people saying check! hey buddy! thats how all games are played, you dont say check! god thats annoying, check, check, check, check....
there's where the phrase "under the table" comes from; under that table of chess on that hot corner where nobody knows anything and everything happens... under the table.
See 'Men Who Would Be Kings', much more of an insider account....this film looks like it was made by an art school wanker who probably never spent time in the chess circle otherwise, and didn't really know his subjects
@Peterplayingguitar: Searching For Bobby Fischer perhaps? Kid learns to play in central park, gets a more credentialed tutor, they express apparently conflicting philosophies, and are both respected in the end. Less about Chess, though. More about life values.
its not in washington square park chess..and in fact..its not illegal under USCF or FIDE rules for speed chess...feel free to google FIDE speed chess rules.
There are less than 10^46 possible chess positions, and about 10^82 atoms in the universe. The number of electrons is probably of the same magnitude, given the hydrogen concentration...
16 grand a day when the economy was good??!! As a person born in Spanish Harlem and native of this fine city I highly question that statement with much doubt perhaps in two weeks time that amount could be "hustled" . That in my opinion is a bit of a stretch of exaggeration however if he plays int the financial district this 16 grand a day is not too far fetched to believe. Those stockbrokers have big egos and their pockets are deep.
Yea I think that guy is full of BS as well. Perhaps he wanted to make the story up because no one could disprove it anyways. I know he loves chess and all, but no reason to make shit up.
+StopFear people like to sensationalize things.. what may have happened is a person with big money coming one day because of the chess hype in the fischer era.. and he spent his money like it was water.. he became the "legend"... the day some guy won 16k at the park... one day at the park is now a folktale where players were making that daily.. the truth probably is some rich businessman came one day and lost.
Weather you are a boy from Brooklyn infatuated with the game, (to become World Champion by himself), or a bum on the street mastering the game,----the game raises your IQ. The mind is like the body. The more you work it out, the stronger it gets too.
"Atom's" has been compared many times. Now if all these chess whizz's are so smart,---how come nobody has counted all the possible combinations? haha I bet some have tried,---and came up with that assertion. :) But the funny answer is, "Yet, you only know 3 openings."
Only in my hometown yea baby i miss you my new york my babies mmuua my peops my bumbs my ghettoes real there ge not imitators terror said no money in new york plocie he yelled thats new york for ya baby..