| raylopez99 2006-08-03, 2:52 am |
| Taylor Kingston wrote:
quote:
> raylopez99 wrote:
quote:
> I would agree that certain people on this group are highly spiteful
> and insular.
> Or are you saying you consider it "spiteful" to oppose plagiarism and
> outright copying?
>
I am saying the former. But plagiarism is not a crime, if the
underlying material is not copyrightable. Pace Fischer, who if memory
serves me right wanted to copyright his positions, you cannot copyright
a chess position.
quote:
>
> No. That is a fantasy of Sam Sloan's.
>
Sam Sloan is a mixture of fact and fantasy.
quote:
>
> What book would that be? I am not aware of one which specializes in
> "historical expos=E9s."
>
Anything by Winter deals with historical facts and mistakes of history
as reported by others. So I term this an expose. How do you get the
accent mark over the "e"? My keyboard doesn't allow that; is that
ASCII?
quote:
>
> A good question, one for which I have no solid answer. I would
> suggest that perhaps the competitive nature of the game attracts
> combative personalities. It also seems to attract more than its share
> of hucksters and liars. Naturally when they are faulted or
> contradicted, friction ensues.
>
Yes, another book I have is on an American huckster called Whittaker,
who has interesting biographical detail that sometimes mirrors people I
know, including the on-line version of Sam Sloan. Googling this I see
that a certain TK did a long review of this book on ChessCafe: Shady
Side: the Life and Crimes of Norman Tweed Whitaker,Chess Master, by
John S. Hilbert. A boring book but in an odd way a satisfying
voyaristic read about life 100 years ago. I read it really fast.
Seems like the man, who had great potential (he was a lawyer) went out
of his way to be abnoxious. Kind of like the people in this NG. The
book even has a picture of a young Sam Sloan bouncing on the knee (or
nearby) of Mr. Whittaker as I recall. Strange how like attracts like
or how people intersect (6 degrees of Kevin Bacon).
quote:
>
> That might partly explain the bile of some whose livelihood depends
> on chess. However, there are those who make their living from the game
> yet who are not notably splenetic, e.g. IM John Donaldson.
Does John publish books on combinations? Or just opening monotomes (as
I recall he favors a certain opening, I forget now which).
RL
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