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Chessville
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Josh Jokim was very upset. Apparently, his team didn't think as highly of previous year's contribution as he did, at least judging from their "final" salary offer. Josh thought he had done rather well for a rookie, but he now regretted signing only a one year contract. Not that it had been a bad contract for a first round draft choice: $1,200,000 bonus and a $82,000 salary with fringe benefits, including $25,000 for making the team and playing over half the matches. He was glad that they didn't send him down to the farm system, because in the Big Leagues everything is first class. Besides, who wants to go on a nine hour bus ride to play the Akron Fianchettoes? And how many first-year players get to crack the starting lineup of a National Chess League team, even if it was the woeful Philadelphia Woodpushers? During salary negotiations, Josh had presented all his impressive statistics to the General Manager, but to no avail. Pretty good for a rookie:
He also argued that he finished 7th in "Rookie of the Year" balloting and that the team's attendance had gone up from last year's abysmal 87,000 per game to 108,000 per game. But he still was only offered a 30% raise. The nerve of some people! Didn't they remember his stalemate trap that enabled us to score a half point off the New York Grandmasters for the first time in years? And if he had to hold out, what if missing training camp harmed their brightest prospect in years? Of course, Josh wouldn't starve; his restaurant chain and sporting goods stores added nicely to his revenues from his television show and the few commercials he had done. It was a hard life, but Josh put up with it. So now he was working out at a local "Y", playing blindfolds and simultaneous exhibitions for the youngsters who came every day to see their favorite clockpusher. For all he cared, the team could repeat their twelfth place finish. However, Josh did like the other players, and even though he hoped he could move up a board this year, he wished them well individually. On the other hand, he hated their archrivals, the Washington Pawnswappers. In their 8th match with their rivals last year, the Washington eighth board had swindled him, enabling Washington to win the match 5.5 - 4.5. The scoreboard had already shown that Denver had won their match over Miami 7-3, and this had settled the Woodpushers into last place for the rest of the year. The Philadelphia press reminded him of this game constantly thereafter. Why couldn't they mind their own business? They couldn't do nearly as well; how would they like to have a master threatening to trap their Queen while they were in time pressure? It is easy enough to write afterwards that Nc4 was an easy win, but to find it in limited time with your clock running is quite another thing. Finally, about a week before the season was about to begin, Josh received a call from the Philadelphia General Manager: "Josh, we've just traded you to the Los Angeles J'Adoubes for a 65 year old Grandmaster, a third round draft choice, and two minor leaguers." Jokim had always heard that the American Chess League was the weaker league, and now he was going to find out! Such an exciting life! How could anyone ever stand doing something dull for a living like playing a physical sport?
This story was originally written about 1970 - even before there was a
National Chess League in the 1970's! Dan Heisman is a full-time chess instructor and author. He is a rated master by the US Chess Federation and also a Senior Tournament Director. He serves as the Scholastic Coordinator for SE Pennsylvania for the PA State Chess Federation. Mr. Heisman’s chess books include Elements of Positional Evaluation, The Improving Annotator, Everyone's 2nd Chess Book, The Traxler Counterattack, The Computer Analyzes the Fried Liver/Lolli, A Parent’s Guide to Chess, Looking for Trouble and in 2005, an 8th book on beginning tactics. He has written many articles for various sources, including Chess Life, the on-line magazine Chess Café, and JeremySilman.com. Mr. Heisman has been granted several awards by the Chess Journalists of America (CJA) for his fiction and non-fiction, including "Best Instruction" twice for his world-famous Chess Café Novice Nook column. In 2005 Novice Nook was voted the Cramer Award for "Best Column, any Media". In 2002 Mr. Heisman began his chess talk radio show, "The Renaissance Man" for http://www.chess.fm, which currently airs Thursday evenings at 9 PM Eastern. He is a member of the International Computer Game Association, and worked at both the Kasparov vs. Deep Blue matches. You can e-mail him at danheisman@comcast.net or visit his web site at http://www.danheisman.com/. Mr. Heisman currently lives with wife Shelly, and dogs Brynn and Patches in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Content by Chess Samizdat
http://www.correspondencechess.com/samizdat/
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The Chessville
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