Chess politics - Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

Author

Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

The Masked Bishop

2004-10-21, 5:46 pm

Chessdon goes zero for zero for 10 on his arguments against TMB's arguments
for moving to Paris!!

quote:

>
>1) Sam Sloan is thousands of miles away, and won't be able to make all the
>board meetings.

Wrong - Sam consistently shows up at important meetings wherever they are.
Didn'tyou see the Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman. Well Sam is our Dustin
Hoffman.

WRONG! - Sam is not a mathematical savant, nor does he have a brother with a
classic Buick. Even if he did, Buick's don't float.

quote:

>2) Ditto Don Schultz.

Wrong - My wife loves Paris. We lived there five years. We would be there.

WRONG! - Once, maybe. But then we'd get you on the no-fly list and that
would be that.

quote:

>3) The French suck at chess, so our players will actually look good for a
>change.

Wrong - The French are very good at chess. Spassky lives outside Paris and
is a
solid first board for them. Than there is GM Joel Lautier and many ohers.
The
talent in Crossville, Liberty and even Lindborg pales compared to that in
Paris.

WRONG! Spassky stinks, and Lautier is the ONLY GM in France, Don. You're
reaching.

quote:

>4) Beatriz Marinello will get her free health care, so she can stop making

quote:

>shameless run on the ED position.

Wrong - Beatriz would not be eligible for free health care as she is a
volunteer thus not eligible for most French Medical benefits.

WRONG! You get free health care no matter who you are. Break your arm on
vacation, they fix it for free--happened to a friend of mine.

quote:

>5) We can laugh about Yasser Seirawan and his ideas about chess
>organizations from a safe distance.

Wrong - Paris is a comfortable 4 hour train ride from Yasser's home in
Amsterdam.

WRONG! There's no such thing as a "comfortable 4 hour train ride" and Yaz is
too stoked on hashish to make the trip anyway.

quote:

>6) Bill Goichberg won't be able to work for free anymore, because the
>commute would be a killer.

Wrong - This is the age of the computer and the Internet. Bill would
certainly
continue his valuable volunteer contributions.

WRONG! Bill Goichberg can't operate a computer. Everyone knows that.

quote:

>7) Kalev Pehme's distorted command of English can become an even-more
>distorted command of French.

Wrong - Your mistaking an advantage for a disadvantage.

WRONG! Kalev's drooling sexism will play well with franco sensibilities.

quote:

>8) Instead of watching crummy state organizations like the ICA flame-out,

quote:

>can cheer the success of regional chess bodies like the AEP (Association
>d'Echecs Provence).

Wrong - The AEP is not in Paris but rather Southern France..

SO WHAT -- the parallel remains. Hello?

quote:

>9) Better lunchtime eats in Paris than in New Windsor by a country mile.

Wrong - The McaDonalds, Burger Kings and Wendy's now dominate Paris.

WRONG! Maybe for you, in your tourist bermudas and flip-flops, Don.

quote:

>10) Nude beaches galore -- and you won't have to swim at one named for some
>peevish muckraker.

Wrong - Get a map, Paris is not by the beach.

SO?? The beaches are a comfortable 4 hour train ride away!!

quote:

>

Roger

2004-10-22, 5:45 pm

> WRONG! Spassky stinks, and Lautier is the ONLY GM in France, Don. You're

quote:

> reaching.

I suspect that Grandmasters Apicella, Bacrot, Bauer, Chernuschevich,
Degraeve, Dorfman, Fontaine, Fressinet, Kosten, Marciano, Nataf,
Relange, Renet, Sokolov, Tkachiev and Vaisser would strongly disagree
with you on this point.

Sam Sloan

2004-10-22, 5:45 pm

On 22 Oct 2004 07:32:26 -0700, pawnstormca@yahoo.com (Roger) wrote:

quote:

>
>I suspect that Grandmasters Apicella, Bacrot, Bauer, Chernuschevich,
>Degraeve, Dorfman, Fontaine, Fressinet, Kosten, Marciano, Nataf,
>Relange, Renet, Sokolov, Tkachiev and Vaisser would strongly disagree
>with you on this point.

Good post. Thank you.

The Masked Bishop

2004-10-22, 5:45 pm

Ok, the only one that COUNTS.

Nitpickers. I'm sure you pulled that list right off the top of your head, eh
Rog? With the exception of Etienne Bacrot, these guys could all be ReMax
agents for all I know.

"Sam Sloan" <sloan@ishipress.com> wrote in message
news:41792244.17853218@ca.news.verio.net...

quote:

> On 22 Oct 2004 07:32:26 -0700, pawnstormca@yahoo.com (Roger) wrote:
>
You're[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> Good post. Thank you.
>

Bruce Leverett

2004-10-24, 6:45 am

Rip van Winkle. When you went to sleep in the 1970's, Spassky was
still playing and was the leading player of France. Take a look at
how those ReMax agents are doing in the Olympiad. In case you are
wondering, it's 2004.

"The Masked Bishop" <tmb@c4.com> wrote in message news:<qRced.22657$Qv5.18141@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com>...[vbcol=seagreen]
> Ok, the only one that COUNTS.
>
> Nitpickers. I'm sure you pulled that list right off the top of your head, eh
> Rog? With the exception of Etienne Bacrot, these guys could all be ReMax
> agents for all I know.
>
>
>
> "Sam Sloan" <sloan@ishipress.com> wrote in message
> news:41792244.17853218@ca.news.verio.net...
> You're

Fifiela

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

<<<<The only grandmasters there were Rossolimo and
later Spassky, both transplanted Russians.>>>

Rossolimo was Russian? With the name, I would assume Italian.

Sam Sloan

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

On 24 Oct 2004 15:26:53 GMT, fifiela@aol.comNOTHERE (Fifiela) wrote:

quote:

><<<<The only grandmasters there were Rossolimo and
>later Spassky, both transplanted Russians.>>>
>
>Rossolimo was Russian? With the name, I would assume Italian.

Yes. Rossolimo was from Kiev. Rossolimo was not his original name. His
original name was something like Verukov. He changed it to Rossolimo
in order to become a citizen of France.

Good question, though. Can somebody tell us what was the original name
at birth of Nicholas Rossolimo?

Sam Sloan

Miriling

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

>Subject: Re: Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

quote:

>On 24 October 2004 sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) wrote in
>Message-id: <417bd53c.108301046@ca.news.verio.net>
>
>On 24 Oct 2004 15:26:53 GMT, fifiela@aol.comNOTHERE (Fifiela) wrote:
>
>
>Yes. Rossolimo was from Kiev. Rossolimo was not his original name. His
>original name was something like Verukov. He changed it to Rossolimo
>in order to become a citizen of France.
>
>Good question, though. Can somebody tell us what was the original name
>at birth of Nicholas Rossolimo?
>
>Sam Sloan
>
>
>Rossolimo's father was Greek and his mother was Russian. He grew up in Kiev,

where he was born in 1910. He immigrated to Paris with his mother in 1929, with
his father immigrating to the United States several years before that. He
became a French citizen. In 1953 he joined his father in the U.S. and did odd
jobs, such as driving a taxi cab - a la Sam Sloan - giving chess lessons and
making money from the sales of a record of Russian folk songs. He became a
naturalized U.S. citizen. When he won the 1955 U.S. Open in Long Beach, Calif.,
on tiebreak points, his prize was a Buick automobile. Within 24 hours of
winning the tournament, he had sold the car to pay his fare back to France,
which he considered his only hope of continuing his professional chess career.
However, when the possibilty existed that that his son might be drafted into
the French army and could be sent to the Algerian front, Nick changed his mind
and decided to stay in the United States. He did, however, live later at
various times in France - only to return to the United States. He eventually
opened up Rossolimo's Chess Studio at 191 Sullivan St. in Greenwich Village in
New York.[I might be wrong but I think that the studio later moved to Thompson
Street in NYC.] Rossolimo was a colorful character - both on and off the board.
He held a brown belt in judo and was for a time a chess reporter for Radio
Liberty. He died in late July 1975 after someone found him with head injuries
at the bottom of a flight of stairs. It is unlikely that his original name was
"something like Verukov" since his father was Greek. Chances are that his real
name was Rossolimopoulos or some Hellenic name like that.

George Mirijanian

quote:

>
>
>

Sam Sloan

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, miriling@aol.com (Miriling) wrote:

quote:

> It is unlikely that his original name was
>"something like Verukov" since his father was Greek. Chances are that his real
>name was Rossolimopoulos or some Hellenic name like that.
>
>George Mirijanian

Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
she died, or if it still exists somewhere.

Sam Sloan

Sam Sloan

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
wrote:

quote:

>On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, miriling@aol.com (Miriling) wrote:
>
>
>Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
>Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
>was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
>under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
>written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
>read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
>needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
>biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
>she died, or if it still exists somewhere.
>
>Sam Sloan

I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
Social Security Number was 080-28-6812

You can look it up at
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Sam Sloan

Miriling

2004-10-24, 5:45 pm

>Subject: Re: Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

quote:

>On 24 October 2004 sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
>Date: 10/24/04 3:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <417bfe8a.118874734@ca.news.verio.net>
>
>On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
>wrote:
>
>
>I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
>Social Security Number was 080-28-6812
>
>You can look it up at
>http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
>
>Sam Sloan
>
>
>
>Madame Rossolimo, who died on 9 June 1995, had a maiden name of Boudakovitch.

She and Nicholas had one son, Alexander, who lives in Massachusetts. Dr.
Alexander N. Rossolimo, who is 65 years old, is president of Strategy
Associates International. He is an expert on nuclear terrorism.
By the way, Nicholas Rossolimo's father was Spiridon Rossolimo and his mother
was Xenia N. Skugarevsky. His paternal grandfather was Nicholas Rossolimo.
I think if one were to contact Dr. Alexander Rossolimo, c/o Strategy Associates
International in Massachusetts, one might find out for sure if his father's
real last name something other than Rossolimo. All signs still point to
Rossolimo being his real last name.

George Mirijanian

quote:

>
>

wthyde@godzilla.acpub.duke.edu

2004-10-25, 5:46 pm

sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) writes:

quote:

> On 24 Oct 2004 15:26:53 GMT, fifiela@aol.comNOTHERE (Fifiela) wrote:
>

A web search shows that Rossolimo is not an unheard of
Russian name.

With the name, I would assume Italian.[vbcol=seagreen]
>
> Yes. Rossolimo was from Kiev. Rossolimo was not his original name. His
> original name was something like Verukov.

The Oxford Companion says that Rossolimo's father was
Greek, mother Ukrainian.

He changed it to Rossolimo

quote:

> in order to become a citizen of France.

That wouldn't have been necessary.

William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University

Sam Sloan

2004-10-27, 12:46 am

On 22 Oct 2004 07:32:26 -0700, pawnstormca@yahoo.com (Roger) wrote:

quote:

>
>I suspect that Grandmasters Apicella, Bacrot, Bauer, Chernuschevich,
>Degraeve, Dorfman, Fontaine, Fressinet, Kosten, Marciano, Nataf,
>Relange, Renet, Sokolov, Tkachiev and Vaisser would strongly disagree
>with you on this point.

Good post. Thank you.

Sam Sloan

2004-10-28, 9:45 am

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
wrote:

quote:

>On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, miriling@aol.com (Miriling) wrote:
>
>
>Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
>Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
>was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
>under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
>written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
>read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
>needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
>biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
>she died, or if it still exists somewhere.
>
>Sam Sloan

I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
Social Security Number was 080-28-6812

You can look it up at
http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

Sam Sloan

Miriling

2004-10-29, 5:46 pm

>Subject: Re: Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!

quote:

>On 24 October 2004 sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
>Date: 10/24/04 3:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: <417bfe8a.118874734@ca.news.verio.net>
>
>On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
>wrote:
>
>
>I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
>Social Security Number was 080-28-6812
>
>You can look it up at
>http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
>
>Sam Sloan
>
>
>
>Madame Rossolimo, who died on 9 June 1995, had a maiden name of Boudakovitch.

quote:

>
>

G Rossolimo

2004-12-20, 12:45 am

I am Nicholas Rossolimo's grandson. The last name is not Italian at
all. It is indeed Greek in Origin (probably "Rossolimos," the "s"
dropped a long time back). Rossolimo was my grandfather's original
name in Kiev (remember Ukraine was part of the USSR at the time). The
Russian name some people here heard -- "Verukov" -- is close to his
mother's maiden name; perhaps he used that while playing in the USSR;
afterall, a Russian sounding name would go over better in a Communist
country where they did not like Western sounding names (Rossolimo
sounds Italian).

--
G Rossolimo

Rossolimo

2005-01-15, 12:46 am

Sam Sloan Wrote:

quote:

> On 24 Oct 2004 18:23:08 GMT, miriling@aol.com (Miriling) wrote:
> -
> It is unlikely that his original name was
> "something like Verukov" since his father was Greek. Chances are that
> his real
> name was Rossolimopoulos or some Hellenic name like that.
>
> George Mirijanian-
>
> Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
> Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
> was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
> under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
> written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
> read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
> needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
> biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
> she died, or if it still exists somewhere.
>
> Sam Sloan

My late mother, Mme Vera A. Rossolimo, showed me her autobiography
(which included much information about my father) in 1975, shortly
after my father's death. She had typed it in Russian, and wanted to
have it published. My mother had a fascinating life and background.
Shortly afterwards, it was borrowed by someone who promised to have it
translated into English and published. He was a visitor to my father's
"Rossolimo Chess Studio" in Greenwich Village. However the autobiography
was never returned. I hope that it still exists somewhere, and WOULD
APPRECIATE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT IT, including any recollection of its
contents from anyone who might have heard it from my mother.

My father's name at his birth in 1910 was (in Russian) Nikolai
Spiridonovich Rossolimo (the middle patronymic is from his father
Spiridon N. Rossolimo.) When he moved to Paris with his mother in
1929, his name became Nicolas Rossolimo in French. He won the chess
championship of Paris numerous times under that name, and became chess
champion of France in 1948. When he emigrated to the United States in
1953, he became known to American chess players as Nicholas Rossolimo.

--
Rossolimo

Rossolimo

2005-01-15, 12:46 am

wthyde@godzilla.acpub.duke.edu Wrote:

quote:

> sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan) writes:
> -
> On 24 Oct 2004 15:26:53 GMT, fifiela@aol.comNOTHERE (Fifiela) wrote:
> -
> The only grandmasters there were Rossolimo and
> later Spassky, both transplanted Russians.
>
> Rossolimo was Russian?--
>
> A web search shows that Rossolimo is not an unheard of
> Russian name.
>
> With the name, I would assume Italian.-
>
> Yes. Rossolimo was from Kiev. Rossolimo was not his original name.
> His
> original name was something like Verukov.-
>
> The Oxford Companion says that Rossolimo's father was
> Greek, mother Ukrainian.
>
> He changed it to Rossolimo-
> in order to become a citizen of France.-
>
> That wouldn't have been necessary.
>
> William Hyde
> EOS Department
> Duke University

My father, Nicholas Rossolimo, was born in Kiev (now capital of
Ukraine) in 1910 of a Russian mother (nee Xenia Nikolaevna
Skugarevskaya) and a father born in Russia of Greek ancestry (Spiridon
Nikolaevich Rossolimo.) My grandfather’s grandfather was a Greek ship
captain, who got shipwrecked in the Black Sea and swam ashore near
Odessa in the early 1800s, where he settled. Although two generations
removed, my grandfather Spiridon spoke perfect Greek. He even taught
me several sentences in the language, such as (in phonetic
transliteration) “O papus ine Elin psychis che cardias,” which means:
“My grandfather is a Greek in his soul and heart.” My father did not
change his surname upon becoming a French citizen in 1947. He became
Chess Champion of France in 1948 under the name Nicolas Rossolimo.
Interestingly, his partly-Greek heritage most probably saved his life
and that of his family. Somehow, his father Spiridon retained Greek
citizenship, even though his family had lived in Russia for three
generations. He was abroad and became separated from my grandmother
during the Russian Revolution. (They eventually became reunited in New
York some 30 years later!) In 1929 my grandmother decided to leave the
Soviet Union with her two sons. By then, under Stalin’s yoke, this was
virtually impossible for a Russian/Soviet citizen. Fortunately, because
her absent husband – although born in Russia – had Greek citizenship,
she was able to obtain a Greek passport and emigrate to France. In
1947, she rejoined her husband in New York. My father Nicholas with
his family joined them in 1953, after a five-year wait for a visa to
America. It is interesting to note that there is a Rossolimo Street
(“Ulitsa Rossolimo”) in Moscow. It is named after my father’s uncle,
Grigorii Rossolimo, a world-famous neurologist and psychiatrist who
died in 1928. A professor at Moscow University, he studied medicine
with Anton Chekhov, and they became good friends all their lives.
Among his numerous contributions to medicine, he invented the first
psychological profile (the “Rossolimo psychogram”) and discovered what
became known as the “Rossolimo reflex” in neurology.

--
Rossolimo

Rossolimo

2005-01-15, 12:46 am

Miriling Wrote:

quote:

> Subject: Chessdon goes Zero for Zero for Ten!
> -
> On 24 October 2004 sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
> Date: 10/24/04 3:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time
> Message-id: 417bfe8a.118874734@ca.news.verio.net
>
> On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 18:58:44 GMT, sloan@ishipress.com (Sam Sloan)
> wrote:
> -
>
> Madame Rossolimo, who outlived him and continued to operate
> Rossiolimos Chess studio after he died, told me his Russian name. He
> was a chess master at an early age and won some major tournaments
> under his Russian name. It might be possible to find these. She had
> written a biography of him and an autobiography of herself which she
> read to me from time to time. She was looking for a publisher but it
> needed to be translated into English. She was from Vladavostok. Her
> biography seemed interesting. I wonder if it just got thrown out after
> she died, or if it still exists somewhere.
>
> Sam Sloan-
>
> I just looked up Madame Vera Rossolimo. She died on 9 June 1995. Her
> Social Security Number was 080-28-6812
>
> You can look it up at
> http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi
>
> Sam Sloan
>
>
>
> Madame Rossolimo, who died on 9 June 1995, had a maiden name of
> Boudakovitch.-
> She and Nicholas had one son, Alexander, who lives in Massachusetts.
> Dr.
> Alexander N. Rossolimo, who is 65 years old, is president of Strategy
> Associates International. He is an expert on nuclear terrorism.
> By the way, Nicholas Rossolimo's father was Spiridon Rossolimo and his
> mother
> was Xenia N. Skugarevsky. His paternal grandfather was Nicholas
> Rossolimo.
> I think if one were to contact Dr. Alexander Rossolimo, c/o Strategy
> Associates
> International in Massachusetts, one might find out for sure if his
> father's
> real last name something other than Rossolimo. All signs still point
> to
> Rossolimo being his real last name.
>
> George Mirijanian-
>
> -

My father's name at birth in 1910 was (in Russian) Nikolai
Spiridonovich Rossolimo. The middle patronymic comes from his father
Spiridon N. Rossolimo. Born in Kiev in 1910, my father moved to Moscow
in the early 1920s with his mother, where she was accused of being a
“polyglot” and thrown into a Soviet jail for a year. A highly-educated
woman, she spoke four languages – Russian, English, German and French –
nearly perfectly. She had been a war correspondent in Manchuria during
the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, writing for Russian and English
newspapers. Following her release from prison, she worked for a major
Soviet book publisher in Moscow. During that period, my father had a
number of chess studies published under his name Nikolai Rossolimo, and
told me he became junior chess champion of Moscow. My father and his
mother emigrated to France in 1929. Interestingly, my father had an
excellent ear for languages. Although he arrived in Paris at age 19
not knowing any French, he learned to speak the language almost like a
native. It was only when I was about ten that I began noticing a very
slight accent in his French. Many people thought he was a
French-speaking Belgian. However, much later, after living in the U.S.
for 10 years, his French took on a noticeable Russian accent, perhaps
from lack of practice in the language.

--
Rossolimo