"... the best game in town."

"... the best game in town."

One of my early chess mentors was Emil M. Reubens of the Boylston Chess Club in Boston. At his home late one Friday evening after our games were finished, I said to him: "Chess is the greatest game. Luck isn't involved and the games are never quite the same." E.M. smiled as he quietly said: "Not quite, Bobby. It's the second best. The talking game is the best game in town." Chess moves may be the life blood but daily public forum conversation is the heart beat of Red Hot Pawn.

Part of the genius in the format design and ongoing enhancement of this online correspondence chess site is stated by Russ at the top of the public forum menu: "The forums are the core of the 'Red Hot Pawn' community. Feel free to just read, but please consider posting a comment. Most posts will develop into a conversation [called a 'thread'], so be sure to check back and follow up on any of your earlier posts." How about a few things you appreciate here, then I'll continue with two more. Thank you. http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/2008/06/reubens-landey-u2200-bcc-championship.html

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
[b]"... the best game in town."

One of my early chess mentors was Emil M. Reubens of the Boylston Chess Club in Boston. At his home late one Friday evening after our games were finished, I said to him: "Chess is the greatest game. Luck isn't involved and the games are never quite the same." E.M. smiled as he quietly said: "Not quite, Bobby. It's ...[text shortened]... you. http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/2008/06/reubens-landey-u2200-bcc-championship.html[/b]

I think chess is empty dear GB, what say you?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I think chess is empty dear GB, what say you?

No philosophers, only me and the Badger, of well, hum ho life goes on

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I think chess is empty dear GB, what say you?

We've been over this before RC. 🙂
Let me put it this way
Some may say the glass is half full
Some may say it's half empty
I say add some ice to fill it and it's perfect. 😉
Some things are perfect just as they are, they just need an added element. (You)
There will be a charge added to your credit card balance for this Zen lesson. 😛 ("Uncle" Alan would be proud)

You're back!

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I think chess is empty dear GB, what say you?

robbie, let's take a look at the place chess played in the life of my mentor/friend Emil M. Reubens. By the way, I went to the prisons with him on several occasions and will never forget the joy of the inmates when our club arrived in the prison library.

"EMIL M. REUBENS by Bernardo Iglesias

"....Chess appeals to our emotions and brings us joys and sorrows."

Emil Reubens was born in a beautiful land very far away, in Yelisavetpol (Kirovabad) Russia, in 1886, on September 23 and, died in Massachusetts in Norwood Hospital in 1973, on August 29 after a brief illness. Emil Reubens was 86 years old when he died, an extraordinary man who believed that mankind could become rehabilitated through Chess. Chess is more than life and can change a person to benefit Society.

He was a chess master emeritus and one of the founding member of the United States Chess Federation, a member of the Boylston Chess Club, the Brockton Chess Club and his dear Sharon Chess Club.

Reubens received his formal education at the University of Prague. In 1906 he immigrated to the United States and worked for a time in steel mills in Detroit. Eventually he moved to Boston and graduated from Boston University in 1922 with a degree in business administration. Much later, in June of 1973 he received his Master's degree in business administration, he was the oldest person in the university's history to obtain such a degree at 86. [my own alma mater]

He lived in Sharon, Mass. for many years. [iil Reubens was a U.S.C.F. life director[/i] and authored a wonderful book on chess play, entitled Chess - Trick and Treat in 1965. This book is a treasure, a precious jewel for any novice player. At the end of the book he recommends that every young player should “Join a chess club. Meet chess players of differing skill and style. Subscribe to a periodical that will keep you abreast of the important events in Chess world." [E.M. gave both my son Eric and I signed copies of his book.]

In 1964, he helped to bring the U.S. Open to Boston. He was an honorary Chairman of the Committee, along with a lot of the great chess organizers of the time: Robert Goodspeed (Brockton C.C), Harold Dondis (Johnson C.C.), Eleanor Goodspeed, Eleanor Terry, Frank Ferdinand (Harvard C.C.), James Burgess (Boylston C.C. ),Harry Goober (Clarendon C.C.), Beverly Jarnigan and Joseph Hurvitz (Boylston C.C.). That year, the U.S.C.F. was celebrating the silver anniversary of its foundation, in which Emil Reubens had been a strong force in promoting chess in this country.

Emil had a long time interest in prison reform and was instrumental in assisting many prisoners get back into society. In his book, mentioned above, he thought that “When I was drafted into becoming a "leader" in youth clubs, I employed chess and chocolate bars to lead the youth into the paths of righteousness. There are no available data to estimate the effect of chess on juvenile delinquency, nor are there statistics to gauge the collateral effects of chocolate bars freely rewarded for chess merits."

Reubens combined a lifelong interest in better prisons, rehabilitation and parole systems with chess activities. He organized many teams of players who visited several penal institutions to play against teams of inmates, or just to play simultaneous exhibitions against the inmates. On one occasion, he took Steve Frymer, John Curdo, and R. Gleason to Norfolk Prison, delighting one inmate in particular so much that he became an active player and organizer in Norfolk area.

Emil Reubens loved the youth, kids of all ages, -- they are our future joys and sorrows in life. The second Brockton Open, on September 25 & 26, 1971 in Brockton, Mass. William Lombardy, former World Junior Champion, had agreed to participate in the selection and awarding of a special Lombardy - Reubens “best played game” trophy to some player under the age of 21 (Harry Lyman was present in this ceremony). The winner of the award trophy was won by the young John Peters. The third Brockton Open, on September 23 & 24,1972, the Lombardy-Reubens award trophy was won by John Stopa. For the Boylston C.C. member’s information, at this event Alex Slive and Andrew Anisimov, two new youngsters showed up in the chess arena. After this event, it seems that such award stopped being awarded by the Brockton Chess Club, since he became sick and died shortly.

The "MASS STATE JUNIOR CHESS CHALLENGE TROPHY PRESENTED BY EMIL M. REUBENS " is a silver trophy cup at the Boylston Chess Club to preserve his memory for future generations. In 1988, William Lukowiak, treasurer of the Boylston Chess Club and long time an officer on the board of MACA, introduced a motion to the Executive Board of MACA that the winner’s name of the Junior Scholastic Champion from Massachusetts be inscribed in this trophy and that MACA will help to pay for traveling expenses to the National Championship whenever it was to be held. The MACA board turned down this motion, and denied youngsters of this State such an honor.
After his death, the Mass State Chess Association, organized a one time "the Emil Reubens Memorial" at the Massachusetts Open at the new Brockton High School in 1974. The winner of this event was John Peters.

Emil founded the Steinberg-Reubens Educational Foundation. The Boylston Chess Club Board of Directors decided that in 1986 to pay tribute to Emil Reubens and Ben Landey by naming a qualifier cycle of the B.C.C. championship qualifier in their honor, for players rated 1800 to 2199. The winners of the Reubens/Landy move on to play against the club’s masters for the club championship."

http://boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com/2008/06/reubens-landey-u2200-bcc-championship.html

Note: I'm mindful of our previous conversation on the premise that "chess is empty"; please summarize your position and I'll weigh in again. Thanks for christening this thread. I do hope others will feel free to comment on their appreciations of RHP.

Originally posted by JS357
You're back!

Yes, JS, the rest was beneficial. Reoriented my perspective of online vs. offline priorities from a spectator's point of view.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Hi, drewnogal. So true, especially if and/or when you're a retired widower home alone with Macaulay Culkin. Ha,

Originally posted by ChessPraxis
We've been over this before RC. 🙂
Let me put it this way
Some may say the glass is half full
Some may say it's half empty
I say add some ice to fill it and it's perfect. 😉
Some things are perfect just as they are, they just need an added element. (You)
There will be a charge added to your credit card balance for this Zen lesson. 😛 ("Uncle" Alan would be proud)

I discovered with my neighbours next door, the pub Ma Dulleas, whiskey with hot water and a floating slice of lemon with 3 cloves in it. Just so delicious when the weather is wet and you have a bit of a cold.

Originally posted by ChessPraxis
We've been over this before RC. 🙂
Let me put it this way
Some may say the glass is half full
Some may say it's half empty
I say add some ice to fill it and it's perfect. 😉
Some things are perfect just as they are, they just need an added element. (You)
There will be a charge added to your credit card balance for this Zen lesson. 😛 ("Uncle" Alan would be proud)

you are in the wrong clan, get yourself over to the illustrious Zen Masters, Kings and queens and masters of their own destiny!

Nah but seriously, its all a projection of the mind, we imbue chess with whatever attributes we give it as in your analogy, but it itself is empty, just endless permutations like a fractal upon an axis. This came as a great horror to me because I thought chess was spiritual.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
robbie, let's take a look at the place chess played in the life of my mentor/friend Emil M. Reubens. By the way, I went to the prisons with him on several occasions and will never forget the joy of the inmates when our club arrived in the prison library.

[quote]"EMIL M. REUBENS by Bernardo Iglesias

"....Chess appeals to our emotions and brings us ...[text shortened]... ng this thread. I do hope others will feel free to comment on their appreciations of RHP.

This is fine GB, the mans humanity is awesome and truly admirable, but these emotions are merely reactions to the permutations of the chess board, like looking at a Kaleidoscope and feeling some sense of wonderment at the pretty patterns. Will it teach us humility, empathy? honour and dignity? I used to think so but now I realise that these are simply ideals we wish to imbue it with, reflections of ourselves. If it was able to rehabilitate, chess players would be all of these things, but they are not, they talk of crushing and wiping and blowing others away, of ripping their heads off (Nigel Short in regard to his match with Kasparov) etc etc Id love to think it was able to make us noble and virtuous, but I think its full of egotism and jealousy and is no more nutritious than a mars bar.

Originally posted by Tabitha Marshall
I discovered with my neighbours next door, the pub Ma Dulleas, whiskey with hot water and a floating slice of lemon with 3 cloves in it. Just so delicious when the weather is wet and you have a bit of a cold.

this is called a hot toddy, add honey and its just awesome, whisky, hot water, lemon, orange or blackcurrent juice and honey and relaaaaaaaaaaaax 😀

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I think chess is empty dear GB, what say you?

My dearest Robbie, how can you say that, ever, you of all people?

The Chess Players. I bet you have watched it, but just in case:

Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, and much influenced by Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1925 film Chess Fever, this satirical film by noted Indian director Satyajit Ray is set in colonial India in 1856. The British Resident of the East India Company (Richard Attenborough) has observed that the monarch of Lucknow, which is in his trading region, seems to be completely uninterested in government. He tries to arrange things so that he can annex the province. Embroiled in a long-running chess rivalry, two local noblemen (played by Sanjeev Kumar and Saeed Jaffrey) cannot be bothered with such minor issues as who is governing whom. Meanwhile, conditions in the kingdom go from bad to worse. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj_Ke_Khilari

This is a wonderful movie, very subtle, funny with a good historical insight mixed with the pleasures and difficulties of being a chess addict. 🙂

Originally posted by Tabitha Marshall
My dearest Robbie, how can you say that, ever, you of all people?

[b]The Chess Players. I bet you have watched it, but just in case:

Based on a story by Munshi Premchand, and much influenced by Vsevolod Pudovkin's 1925 film Chess Fever, this satirical film by noted Indian director Satyajit Ray is set in colonial India in 1856. The British ...[text shortened]... a good historical insight mixed with the pleasures and difficulties of being a chess addict. 🙂[/b]

Yes I have watched it many times , poor Shabana Azmi (she plays the neglected wife of one of the chess players, in all her films she never gets a good husband) anyway, the point of the film was that the Indian aristocracy were so busy playing chess and other frivolities that the British were able to seize the country right from under their noses.

I can relate some truly awesome Indian movies if you like to watch with subtitles, ive seen thousands 😀