QUIZ15

***** Quiz 15 *****

ICC Chess History and Trivia Quiz #15--By Naisortep

"Patzer- a weak player, from the German patzen, to bungle or botch, 
with a hint of patzig, boastful or impudent."
[The Oxford Companion to Chess, by Hooper & Whyld]

"...I had the most extraordinary experience of my chess life. I was 
then at Columbia University, but visited frequently the Manhattan Chess 
Club. Dr. Lasker lived then in New York.  One night, when I was in the 
club, he came in. I was by this time recognized as the strongest player 
in the club.  Dr. Lasker paid me the compliment of asking me to look 
over with him a certain position which had puzzled him considerably, 
and about which he had not quite made up his mind.  As we sat down some 
of the strong players of the club came over to watch, and incidentally 
to offer suggestions, but naturally with the respect due to the 
presence of the then World's Champion. We had been there for about half 
an hour without having arrived at any definite conclusion, when
a well-dressed young man walked in, said "Good evening," sat next to 
Dr. Lasker, and inquired as to the nature of the matter under 
consideration. Immediately after he was told he proceeded
to treat Dr. Lasker's suggestions in a rather cavalier manner, and 
undertook to show us that we did not know what we were after. I looked 
at him in amazement, but, seeing his unconcerned expression and the 
apparent familiarity with which he treated Dr. Lasker, I concluded he 
was a close friend of the champion, and consequently I said nothing. It 
did not take long for Dr. Lasker to show the young man how little he 
really did know about the matter under consideration. The young man 
soon got up, said "Good night," and left. I could restrain myself no 
longer, and therefore asked Dr. Lasker who his friend was.  His answer 
was that he had never seen the young man before, and that he had 
thought all the time that the young man was a close friend of mine..."
[Jose Raoul Capablanca, as quoted in the Windsor Magazine]

"There is the strange case, reported in Chess 1937, of the Sheffield v. 
Stocksbridge match. Both teams, unbeknownst to the other, were a man 
short.  Both resorted to the last desperate expedient of a team 
captain: rather than lose a game by default they each picked a stranger 
in a pub, gave him a quick refresher course in the moves and stuck him 
on bottom board.  At the end of the match the teams gathered round to 
gaze in awe at a position unique in 1400 years of chess: both sides 
were in checkmate."
               [Mike Fox and Richard James, The Complete Chess Addict]

"Im leaving these patzers to fight each other for the right to play 
against another patzer."
[Bobby Fischer, after withdrawing from the Sousse  World Chess 
Championship Candidates Tournament]

"... There were a goodly number of opponents of the grand master 
[Steinitz], and the circle of tables around the inner cirumference of 
which he had to walk was, consequently, of considerable size. Well, 
matters progressed pretty much as usual in such [simultaneous] 
exhibitions, this player being beaten, that one drawn with, and the 
like, until finally only one of the single player's antagonists 
remained at play.
    
    "He had adopted some kind of a slow opening or defense, and the 
positions remained about equal at the moment when Steinitz, with a sigh 
of relief - he was somewhat lame, you remember - drew up a chair and 
sat down opposite his last adversary.  Judge of his astonishment - and
everybody else's too - when his opponent at once arose and protested 
most loudly and vigorously against any such procedure.  The exhibition, 
he maintained - and in most evident sincerity - was of simultaneous 
play, in which case each antagonist of the exhibiting master was
to have for his move at least as much time as it would take the single 
player to walk around the entire circle of tables; and he accordingly 
insisted that Steinitz must continue to perambulate around the circle 
between each of his successive moves!
  
  "The great Bohemian was actually so