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Acers Remembers... "La Carretera...The Highway"
Fischer, Don L. Wagner, roly poly promo wizard Frank Repass, CAMERON THE CHESS DANGER GIRL, Mr. Slim Harpo, THE GREAT McAULEY-- "hmm...hmmmm.... those knights are coming in strong!" "Son when my rook gets on the seventh rank its like a Hoover vacuum cleaner!" ...William "never ever resign "Waguespack, The Road, ADDISON, David Compton -taxi driver, ...and the dying Biko's blood stains Anna Hahn's dress. It's all there. Fasten your seatbelt...as the world famous New Orleans chess master takes you on an unforgettable ride...it starts NOW.
Copyright 2004 Jude Acers /Miller Sunny Vibes.
Worldwide distribution rights Chessville.
There are doubts. But the journey in a world wide 1995 monster hit for Julio Iglesias was the last great road song for chess tour packing. Doubts on the day he will die. Towns, vans passing, a highway, does she care at all...not sure ...goes off the road without a trace...the needle at one hundred and forty... alone, without gasoline at last as you burn to death...... Remember the greatest road song of all time when you were young. "Angel of the Morning" by Merillee Rush and the Turnabouts, a Seattle, Washington monster echo on car radios as you were in Denver 1968 summer...days later you will meet Russell Miller, Grandmaster Evans, and Fritz the poet, "Motorcycle Max" Burkett...when you were young. Rolling now from Baton Rouge. 95 miles to New Orleans. Wolfe was wrong...you can go home again ...... Thirty two years after Louisiana State University, Acers, Fischer, Don L. Wagner-encyclopedia salesman rolled south .. now... .this road one mo' time. .... March 1964. Fischer makes tracks for the gargantuan $485 exhibition/lecture fee that will be paid by roly poly promo chess wizard Frank " Hello , I am a chess fiend...are you too a chess fiend?" Repass. It will be hands down the greatest New Orleans chess event ever.....Fischer's 6 feet plus tower- of- power brown suit and spiffy sharp shoes will positively creak, rock and roll the 150 year old civil war floor planks of the Gravier street YWCA...as the Fischer moves come in like bombs against 74 opponents at one time you can actually HEAR them approaching. Jim Garrison of "JFK" fame is a Fischer opponent.... Toledano street vending machine tycoon Frank Chavez will win. All the giants are there.... a last blowtorch one time only moment ....THE GREAT ADRIAN L. MCAULEY, FIRST OFFICIALLY RATED CHESS MASTER IN NEW ORLEANS CITY HISTORY... feisty crack rifle shot and New Orleans attorney William "never every resign even if there is a fire unless at least three walls of the burning building are already down and, even then ,only if there is an at- the- ready exit for continued play outside said aflame premises and even then with cooperative firemen only." Waguespack III.......Mississippi's gentleman chess expert "Well things look promising, I do believe so " Fenner Parham will record the event of a lifetime........ And...oh yes...in the far corner over there...... see that weird Louisiana kid Acers plays a murderous 7 hour draw with Fischer with only a King and rook left on the entire board for each side at dawns early light...The New Orleans Times Picayune goes mad with delight- provides feature photo and major coverage........Acers- Always at the right place at the right time in world chess history. Acers does not know that he has just witnessed his monster break of a lifetime...a two game match with Fischer, Acers hosting a whispered Channel 9 Baton Rouge TV Fischer 5 opponent simultaneous program, Acers playing all night speed chess with Fischer and weightlifter Frank Smith....Mr. Smith being quite frankly the luckiest chess amateur who ever lived...blundering into some casual games with Fischer on the casual walk in to Don Wagner's Baton Rouge home..... And Acers? Youth is wasted on the young. Acers looked through the front windshield of attorney Frank Gladney's car. This could be the last time...I don't know.....there is Fischer on the street... clutching the collapsing magnetic fold- into-four- parts demonstration lecture chess board...waving goodbye softly at both players who had, incredibly, both drawn with Fischer. Gone. There were already memories that flooded in...the atomic bomb, red head femme fatale .. LSU coed Marie Mclure of Landrum, South Carolina talking to Fischer one last time on the phone...thanking him for the terrific Mississippi river boat cruise.... and thanking me later in more ways than one. Gone. This then would be the last time. ..... And the beginning. I would give more than one thousand chess appearances in 46 states, meet Francis Ford "the Godfather " Coppola, rock promoter Bill Graham, Janis Joplin, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Herb Caen, The Doors, The Jefferson Airplane, San Francisco chess giant William Addison (who held Fischer at bay amidst thousands of speed -even two world chess federation tourney games)... ....more than 50 chess grandmasters, write an entire book "The Road" for the underground press Berkeley Barb. ... I would tell John Fogerty , lead singer of the monster (200 million records sold) Creedence Clearwater Revival pop group that their sound was roughish and good...but not quite smooth enough for the car radio hit parade...."Oh man keep the faith...we have new things you have not heard yet" he said ..and Proud Mary...a world number one record hit three weeks after....But in this morning ..with Fischer in the window.... I remember thinking. Chess is it. This is for me. Let's roll.
New Orleans. He is unknown. FORGOTTEN. "I am nothing Jude"....but he was everything. Make no mistake. He made the greatest chess master of all time........ LA CARRETERA (the highway) World famous New Orleans chess master Jude Acers ("the man in the red beret") tells the incredible true story of the man who started it all...one summer night. "When you open it up on national television you want to just hit them with raw power, knock them silly with the first credits. Boom we roll in the New Orleans St. Charles streetcar...headed for Robert E. Lee's statue on Lee Circle. For sound track play "Raining In My Heart " , the monster hit by Slim Harpo. Acers will just carry a boom box on board with it ready to blast. Move the camera up and down the streetcar to his shoes. Acers will just hide in the back unused conductor seat. It is 1956 era New Orleans. Incredulous, the film crew now hear it raw. O.K. Let it rip. BOOM. Sing it Mr. Harpo. Piercing Everest harmonica. You are bombed instantly. "Raining in my heart ..Since we've been apart... Darling I need your love... Darling you know why.... And if you would come back to me ..there would be no need to cry "It was a locomotive for a locomotive....a huge Baton Rouge million selling record with thunderous harmonica / drums / composition -all ending on a dime... ...and just $50,000 for Slim Harpo ("Jude, I used it to buy a house off that record for my family before Excello records closed, skipped town with all the rest of the money. But man I really did not mind. The whole world hears your music, knows your name when you have a million seller. It was just wonderful." - Slim Harpo, last interview- Louisiana State University student party, Baton Rouge, 1966) The streetcar rolls. The camera man understandably does not understand. "Mr. Acers forgive me...I just got off the plane....where are you going on the streetcar?" Silence. Do not say it ...ever. Acers, do not dare flip out his name cheaply. A script checker reads it out very slowly...."He's headed straight toward the Great McAuley"..... 1956 One summer night. This is it. The road to the Friday night Lee Circle YMCA chess club was an hour and a half ....via Harahan bus and the tracks. The sixth visit. 85 degrees, K-chug-a-chug coca-cola machine, tiny chess room, four tables , four chess players, no air conditioning of course. Look at Robert E. Lee through the window...you are choking tears, virtually without a family, so hopeless a chess player that nobody in the chess club will even consider playing a game with you. The coke machine provides the blazing blue eyes fantasy- look at the chessplayers through empty bottles-kaleidescope self made entertainment before the sixth trip home. Totally alone, completely lost. It is all right Jude Acers, it's ok. Things will get better. Hang in there kid. No money for a coke and too proud to beg...come again next week. Shuffle. 'HEY YOUNG MAN, WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY A GAME OF CHESS?" Shock black hair. Grimy hands, works two jobs. ...a plumber, electrician. Dressed in his Pelican Plumbing Supply uniform of course, as always. The chess pieces were all wood, 6-8 inches tall. (They huffed and puffed.) Green and white board squares. Triple weighted HEAVY chess figures. A wooden chess board, naturally. "Anything less, young man, would positively not be civilized." BOOM! He whistled his pieces to checkmate twice. Then he carefully reset the pieces, FLASHED THROUGH BOTH GAMES INSTANTLY FROM MEMORY, providing simple improvement tips pronto. He was in rough clothes, had been working all day. But you KNEW instantly he was it, mind boggling world class. Nothing abrasive. (Jack Peters, Los Angeles Times chess editor for decades, might simply employ his well timeless, well tailored, favorite word here- "civil".) Kind, well mannered. He towered quietly above the room. He had built the room. Slide those pieces around with four fingertips. Sound now enters slowly. In the background "Hey Mac." "Hmm...those knights are coming in strong" "McAuley ...don't forget we have a tournament game next Friday. Your clock will be running if you're late ... And I hope you are late for God's sake - I need every advantage I can get!" Time flew to the stars. ...midnight. We are alone. The janitor turns out the lights, whirls out. As Jude Acers holds a knight high in the sky, trembling...there is no defense even by window streetlamp. But suddenly you know. Like a BOMB. This realization. It was HIM. THE MAN. The one and only Adrian L. McAuley, first officially rated chess master in New Orleans history...the man who defeated grandmaster-to-be Edmar Mednis at the 1954 US national. ..The man who went 115 tournament games in a row WITHOUT A SINGLE LOSS.....10 times Louisiana/ New Orleans chess champion (and counting). The man who, with his own hands, PERSONALLY built four chess clubs (and one small chess man). "Well young man- how about a draw, a tie?" says United States Chess Master McAuley. "Sure Mr. McAuley." Gee. A draw with a chess master! He buys the twelve year old child a coca-cola, walking him to the streetcar line. Then he climbs into his ramshackle falling-apart- on -St. -Charles- Avenue -cloud dusting truck, amidst pouring rain....watched intently by the child until the truck is but pin dot. Multitudes spend eternity looking for "IT". A mere child had found "IT". The streetcar is coming. Savor the moment but also the sound....................... Across the street is a gasoline filling station...with a blaring radio. Unbelievably Slim Harpo sings "there'd be no reason to cry." And stops.
"A man's life can depend on a mere scrap of information"-Clint Eastwood (the man with no name) Film/ Fistful of Dollars.........................or a pin ball machine. The "one hundred days" begin. William Grady Addison (1970 United States Chess Championship Interzonal World Title Qualifier) screeched his truck to a halt aside San Francisco's Chinatown gate, windshield wipers flipping rain. Time for the talk of a lifetime, for the last time. It ends here. Acers listened. Quaking realization. If grandmaster L. Evans had not refused an early draw offer, then tried to murder his great rival, U.S. chess immortal S. Reshevsky just three days earlier (N.Y. National) ...the chess champion of the United States would now be a-pumpin the pedals rather than a "mere" second official world title qualifier "candidate" - the pride of San Francisco...Acers thought silently...not even Fischer defeated Reshevsky, forfeiting $10,000 cold cash after 11 games...... Addison at the wheel. The man who played Fischer to a draw in world rated play twice. "It's expected Jude." Addison, San Francisco's haunting shadow never to play again after the world championship tourney. "Jude, Fischer is definitely friendlier, more social after you have played him. No doubt. During the US Championship ..believe me he has you in mind every second "YOU ARE NEXT!" but tries always to be perfectly proper. Never doing mind games, cheap stuff. Class. Good sportsmanship and I am talking a decade I watched him for real. .......... "I mentioned to him that in all night speed chess he need not ever resign when he has, say a Bishop and Knight or the Bishop pair versus the opponents queen. You know. Play it out Bobby, you will win it anyway... "Fischer instantly pushed the pieces to board center with a fiery annotation "If I can't win it clean I don't want it" "People talk Jude. I WAS THERE. O.K. Here's how it came down. The 1964 US Championship starts out slowly...grinding wins for Fischer. Believe me we never have an inkling what is coming up ... "Suddenly Fischer just mows down back-to-back people he had never defeated in his whole life...R.Byrne, L. Evans...quick thundercrushes...Jude it was just incredible, swift really...the fear, surprise, real devastation everyone felt. Yes, with great expectations everyone comes to the mountain, the New York national tourney, for one reason- to play Fischer. Now this... Addison continued almost in a trance..."Fischer was a quiet church mouse a'comin...always silent, a gentlemen. No matter. It would be like a freight train had penetrated the wall after his sixth straight win. Abject fear now. HERE HE COMES. "Believe me Jude we did not want to jinx Bobby in any fashion...so we would gather at the water cooler outside.... I heard somebody whisper...MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING.. HE IS WINNING EVERY GAME?"............Addison rolled on...."I should note that despite a great effort not to be disconcerting, arrogant, Fischer has one impulsive, maybe unavoidable thing he does...the "FISCHER COBRA EYE" ....you will be passing him in the hallway, say, and for a chilly darting instant his eyes zero in on you. It's like YOU ARE NEXT TO DIE Ha! Ha! Ha!...you just know he has your welfare in his endearing chess thoughts...until he plays you. Almost embarrassed, Fischer then pulls his fish eyes away as fast as he can move them. He means no harm but, Jesus , you KNOW what that look meant. It's chilling, I admit. Surely he studies each opponent carefully before every game. Long silence. "HE WON EVERY GAME." Silence. Now get out of the truck slowly for the last time. Walk slowly. Goodbye. Remember. Walking in the sand. Sports Illustrated ran EVERY GAME across six pages -all over the world. Overnight people everywhere were buying chess sets, learning to read the Sports Illustrated chess moves...play over eleven straight epics, consecutive golf hole in ones, the perfect chess world series for the new year. Fischer now climbed aboard a greyhound bus. Next, the Virginia exhibition, then .... Sitting in a farm field awaiting another bus.....abandoned after courteously playing all night speed chess with local sponsors..."the bus will be along in an hour or two. Just wait here ...don't worry." It does arrive. Winding to Chicago. ...the American chess tour of all time is suddenly happening, softly. Now south. To New Orleans airport. March 1964. DON L. WAGNER picks up the telephone, "Hello" "Greetings, Bobby Fischer
here" "Hi Bobby. Where will we pick up you and your luggage?" "I'll be
playing pinball probably, a game room here in the airport" " Stay right
there,. Bobby. I'm in Baton Rouge and moving like a rocket right now .." "Oh my goodness, I can see it all clearly now- the Acers danger... "The LSU MENACE!" He must rush to the airport to steal Fischer now! BOOM! Now rushing madly to his car with the luscious, voluptuous train-stopping CAMERON THE CHESS DANGER GIRL riding shotgun. She grabbed his ear in order not to be left behind....dragged to the auto. Even decades later Cameron, a veritable chess cheerleader and ballerina, effortlessly recalled the wild ride and screamed with ear pulling delight at the tidal wave of Repass offerings.... "Cameron my sweet, my lovely...that dirty rat Jude Acers is trying to grab that Bobby Fischer from me, right beneath my nose. ...my goodness we will see about those apples. ...Ho! Ho! Ho!" "To the airport mighty gasoline steed! Forward, tally ho! Fear not Cameron, the lovely chess danger girl...all is not lost my sweet--I will show that Acers, the LSU menace..." " Go petrol stallion. Tally ho! We must deal defeat to that Acers, the LSU menace but remember Cameron my sweet at all times, that Jude Acers is a very very tricky man.. We must beware while speeding forthwith. Tally Ho!" Repass bitterly replayed the race forever....."I never dreamed that Acers would get 100 miles before I, Frank M. Repass, could make a mere 20 miles to my own city airport...I am telling you that Jude Acers is just not mortal" (1966) How did Acers win the priceless race? The great secret? Acers never did. Mr. Repass died never knowing the unbelievable raw truth..... DON L. WAGNER, promo marvel , master Encyclopedia Americana salesman, spilled red hot coffee all over his white trousers. Quickly he pulled up in front of his home for a world record quick change of wardrobe...Jude Acers waiting outside in a posture of prayer, franticly hoping they would make it to New Orleans in time to kidna...errr...make that "TRANSPORT" Fischer to Baton Rouge NOW...... That is when Fischer, the world's youngest chess grandmaster stuck his head out of the Wagner screen door and said "Hello Jude" via twin miracles ..Wagner had pulled it off... won the race and pulled off the practical chess joke of the century...'HERE'S BOBBY!" Acers was just shocked. Time to count our blessings. Two game match with Fischer tomorrow afternoon at the Wagner home. Reality. The Channel 9 Television program - Fischer against 5 LSU opponents - with Acers whispering "Once again ladies and gentlemen you are watching chess grandmaster Robert James Fischer of Brooklyn New York .. a player with serious claims to being the greatest of all time....versus 5 LSU players...Dr. Anderson, Mr. Fernandez, James West, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Waid...reality. Years of lovingly staged puppet shows, "Howdy Doody" and "Buffalo Bill " children's television programs had prepared Wagner for the chance of a lifetime...valued at 7 million dollars in 1992 Yugoslavian currency.....and it was for two hundred dollars from channel 9 television ONLY. It was stated simply...the bargain of the century. All those years of chess promo flash before your eyes...having LSU student Jude Acers play blindfolded aside a Baton Rouge street - traffic light intersection.....All these things for the nifty photo opportunities, front paged (of course) in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate with photo credit by DON L. WAGNER (of course). Yes, Wagner, absolute promo master at the top of his game....had moved instantly 100 miles south to close out the rabid race. He had filled his gas tank fully, long in advance - of course. He had pontificated the Wagner credo.... "when the door of opportunity opens rush through it faster than anyone on the planet and never, never stop to close the door to bar others...that loses precious seconds...you are ahead, stay ahead!" So...Wagner was long GONE...ZOOM TO THE AIRPORT AND.....peril was imminent and obvious..... Instantly upon arrival he heard the paging of "Mr. Robert Fischer" on the airport speakers...Mr. Repass is waiting at the snack bar. .....Calm, ruthless, swift Don Wagner moved to the soundproofed game room where UNBELIEVABLY THE AIRPORT SOUND PAGING SYSTEM DID NOT WORK amidst, to boot, Bobby Fischer's pinball frenzy. It was, stated simply, a veritable miracle. Years later Wagner distinctly remembered PASSING Mr. Repass "with this fabulously beautiful woman holding on to his ear, laughing hysterically."......."We went right by them ..missed them by inches." Having astutely tipped the startled "bell cap".... ten dollars to hold his running car (of course) ...Wagner now made the getaway of the century, Fischer in tow and luggage flying to the back seat. "Long gone in three minutes flat after I first hit the airport entrance. Just unbelievable luck. I plan to rob banks next Jude. Want to come along?" Wagner concluded. 1992. New Orleans. WWOZ public radio station does the interview. "If one thousand people and me are in a burning building and only one person can escape alive then...I feel very very, sorry for the other people...it would be me who survives. My life has been that lucky...although it is razor thin margin, this calculation of being at the right place, right time in world chess history...this calculation that my entire life turned on a pinball machine."...... But it did.
Hurricane Part II - REPASS TAKES REVENGE Hurricane/The Conclusion Fischer's 1964 visit to Baton Rouge, Louisiana...REPASS TAKES REVENGE.....Acers loads all the cannons and asks just the right question at Graham Hall/Louisiana State University campus...THE FISCHER INTERVIEW: CHESS HOW TO PLAY IT...THE TWO GREAT FISCHER SECRETS....Shooting pool with Fischer in the Chimes street billiards hall...and heading to the highway enroute to New Orleans where 74 players are waiting for the greatest Louisiana chess exhibition of all time...and where Repass is waiting. "The opening is the the most important because every game has one. I am a great believer in Alekhine...get everything possible out of the opening because, believe me, you are going to need it later." - Carroll Capps, author and- for one half century- master chess player, top leader board contestant at the Mechanics Institute Chess Rooms, San Francisco. (Last interview: Fosters Coffee shop, 1969) THE INTERVIEW ACERS WAS READY. The chance of a lifetime and he knew it. Room 104, Graham Hall, Louisiana State University. March 1964. Fischer, Acers, the light bulb and the wall telephone... Fischer starts... "Barden is crazy about the Russians...he publishes their games almost every week ...almost none of my games" Acers now rolls "Oh don't worry about that Bobby. You haven't been playing much. Mr. Barden has 52 weeks of Manchester Guardian chess columns to fill...now, believe me, ONE QUESTION he has eleven shockers to publish - a Bobby serial week after week!" Fischer holds several chess columns in his hands, waves them gently. Fischer brightens, "Jude do you really think he will run all my games?" "Are you kidding? Move for move already in print I guarantee you. Leonard Barden is certainly tap dancing with delight toward the presses." O.K. Now is the time, Acers. ONE QUESTION ONLY. Do it now. It will be remembered forever. You have rehearsed it word for word ten times. First show research, show you have thought about the matter and then.... "Bobby. even cursory examination of your career shows fantastic self improvement. Study? Talent? Written analysis after all games? I have wondered. Please look back at one specific case for me...Bled/Belgrade/Zagreb 1959 international chess tourney ...you lose by 6 games to the soviet players, YOU LOSE ALL FOUR GAMES TO MIKHAIL TAL. Then like a bomb flash two years to Bled, 1961. 19 games. You mow down Tal, Petrosian, plus score the Russians, go UNDEFEATED IN ALL 19 ROUNDS. "Naked improvement, there it is. BOBBY, HOW DOES A PLAYER DO THIS, GET BETTER WHILE ALL OTHER PLAYERS ARE STANDING STILL?" Fischer instantly said "Simple. First, learn the chess openings, really learn the ones you play for white and black. Second, keep the pressure on them every second...THEY ALL CRACK. No exception, play every game to the end, never give up." THE POOL HALL He taps you on the shoulder in Wagner's car. "Jude you said you spent eleven dollars on long distance phone calls to set up my exhibitions?" "Bobby I was just calling to brag, share glad tidings. Believe me a Fischer tour is on auto promo pilot! Word spreads by smoke signal!" "Take this money anyway" he said, shoving cash over my shoulder.....We climbed out to play pool...the chimes street parlor was dim and Bogart classic....................the house pro gives us two shots to his one...simply a HUGE advantage. We crawl to victory two games to one.....On my last shot I gently nudge the cue ball into killer position aside the corner pocket 8- ball. Fischer instantly sees his dead on shot will win it all..."thanks" and a cavernous smile blazes from him. I thought silently...he appreciates little things. He will travel alone everywhere as a world celebrity. He will have to work overtime to blow his life. Surely he will be happy. In 30 hours his voice will be on the telephone...I will never see him again. FISCHER ON TELEVISION Don. L. Wagner's magic continues. Fischer 5 - LSU Opponents 0. It was a nightmare in the making. Fischer handled the matter gracefully....John Ferguson, "the voice of the LSU Fighting Tigers" football team opened up with, yes I am not kidding, asked on the air, the very first question ..."Bobby you have been called a high school drop out. What about this?" Oh great. Promoter Don L. Wagner shook, jumped, swirled away from the camera...instantly red. Acers, already on camera, closed his eyes, posture glacial. Fischer: "Well I just feel I do not need a high school diploma to play chess all over the world." And stopped. Acers whispers 30 minute commentary on the videotape...Ferguson whispers to Acers "I can detect no interest whatsoever for this program in Baton Rouge but here is Bobby Fischer's two hundred dollar check as agreed." Afterward the program aired TWICE that week. The only video copy was taped over, ERASED, for a car commercial two weeks later. ...a blunder that would later cost Channel 9 millions of dollars..."Great Mistake" -Ferguson 1972 PLAYING FISCHER A TWO GAME MATCH Acers remembers: the
crowd was enormous in Wagner's home. Wall to wall, two games.
Echoes: Law professor Cary De Bessonet, always at the right place at the
right time, saw both of my matches with Fischer and Browne...remembered
best: Sportsmanship...Fischer wanted to be completely sure that I knew my time was running out. I did. Dead lost I just let it run out quietly. A last note of Don and Phyllis Wagner, his hosts throughout.....Fischer quietly asked if it was all right to move from room to room, careful not to intrude on family routine. The perfect guest. Fischer holds the Graham Hall wall telephone, speaking to
one thunderstruck lady...the mother of "Hello Mrs. Addison. This is Bobby Fischer..." Fischer phones the boyhood home of William Addison, the Baton Rouge son who defeated soviet champion L. Stein at Caracas, fought out two draws with Fischer in world play. Addison now sends this memorable echo, this Olympic proxy! Addison, traveling alone by bus like a shadow, bombing a Lafayette, Louisiana "spare change" tournament...creeping on in the night on bus layover...leaving the trophy aside his mothers screen door, retreating in the night with a left note, always proper, with an always proper first prize attached. Born to run. One summer night. What are the unfathomable odds for her delight ..this 15 minutes, this call, the Mount Everest of the chess world, just for her? Fischer is a wonder. Hang up. THEN ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Ring. "Hello, this is the New York Times calling for Bobby Fischer. Is he there?" "No I am sorry he is not here presently." Hang up. Ring. Hello. This is the New Orleans Times Picayune...Mr. Acers can you tell us where to find Mr. Fischer?" Ring. Time Magazine. Houston Chronicle. Associated Press. Baton Rouge Morning Advocate. And on and on. 10 more news media. Frank Repass had provided the Acers LSU switchboard number to media ALL OVER THE WORLD, ASSURING THEM FISCHER WAS IN THE ROOM! And he was. Revenge by ring....and now it is over...no it is not...THE SECOND FLOOR GRAHAM HALLS GO OFF ONE BY ONE....You can hear in the just above..." CHESS...ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND. YOU WOKE ME UP FOR THIS??" "Oh no not again...not this again...Chess....Fischer ..." expletives deleted. Time to go. They are waiting. We are late. "With Sergeant's book in hand, I once took half an hour here just to find the only way out...how Morphy could be defeated, even though he gave away a whole rook odds at the start of the game...Imagine, with no obvious errors, a whole rook up, black still has to work to win. Morphy is the most accurate player ever....such a strong master you could only survive, as almost always was the case, by returning the extra material. The move matters to Morphy. He made things very difficult" - R.J. Fischer/Gravier street YWCA free public lecture (New Orleans, Louisiana March 26, 1964) Whisper. Time to go. IN THE CAR NOW Baton Rouge. Last moments. We are
running two hours late for Fischer's 74-opponent monster chess exhibition in
New Orleans. Acers had caused it all but Fischer would shoulder all
the blame. Naturally. Fischer was fascinated by two New Orleans
"odds" games by immortal chess meteor-tragedy Paul Charles Morphy
(1837-1884). A free Fischer public lecture "On Morphy" was suddenly
promised out of the sky if we could procure "The Games of Paul Morphy" by
P.W. Sergeant (1915)...no dummies we ..there was no way were going to leave
Baton Rouge alive without that ROLLING NOW. 8pm. Hear Don Wagner whisper "the whole world thinks you can play the top 50 players all at one time". "I am sure you realize I could do it but the exhibition would take a whole day. Those guys are tough." Acers now tombstone silent in the backseat. ...Racing in the deserted streets .....once in a lifetime, for all time, there is silhouetted in the streetlight dim profiles of the Wagner at the wheel, Fischer riding shotgun...with nighttime air blasting through all the open windows. Up ahead-the bend. The highway. La Carretera. There are doubts. Seize now the fool's madness. Stop the hands of time. Turn back. Replay just 72 hours just one more time. No. Gone. The "one hundred days."
Next: 4. The First Citizen
See pictures of Jude Acers On Tour in 2004. See More Pictures of Jude - at his home base in New Orleans! 100 Questions:
your chance to ask this famous New Orleans chess legend your burning
questions... |
The Chessville
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Chess
legend Jude Acers regales us with recollections of a life devoted to chess,
a life full of chess legends, chess greatness, and still there was the
chess...
