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| Oct-03-04 | | WMD: <Amber> Tell Alex, I like his shirt in the picture above. I wish I had one like it. |
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| Oct-03-04 | | Spassky69: Oh man Wojtkiewicz has had a rough life! But Wojtkiewicz isn't that good at bullet chess I almost beat him on playchess.com but then lost on time (mostly because I didn't know about premove then). You are right though if you aren't Kasparov being a GM can be hard sometimes. But what's weird is most IM's have jobs that they usually have full time and only teach chess part time and play part time. Like my former chess coach was a physics professor at some university (I forget). The GM's that only make money off chess have a rough life. I suggest to them they make a book for 2200 players to read to gain enough chess understanding to try and reach a IM norm! |
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| Oct-03-04 | | Amber Berglund: actually, he's thinking about putting a book together. He's got about 100 hours on digital video, and it's only a matter of collaboration and transcription. He loves chess. He loves teaching chess. He's making a living doing what he loves so why do anything else for money? But there's more to him than just chess. He's Henry Miller, Steve McQueen and Rasputin all rolled into one person. He's super-tough, and has lived a full life. If he dies tomorrow, he's lived enough for five lifetimes. I love him to pieces. I would give my life to save him. I would give this man my kidney. He may seem gruff, but many women love him. Last week, this crazy blond chess groupie from Texas told him that she would divorce her husband to marry him. He's charming when he wants to be. He's a real sweetheart, and I feel really lucky to be with him. |
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| Oct-03-04 | | Spassky69: Wow he sounds like a stud! Anyways how much would it cost to have him teach a 15 year old 2210 FIDE player? |
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| Oct-04-04 | | Amber Berglund: You will have to ask him. It depends on how many sessions you are interested in. He's flexable. I stay out of that whole business. He used to bring me along for his lessons with his students, but I try not to go as much anymore, because I started to feel like Yoko Ono. I still go with him to New York every Tuesday. Except for the last few weeks, due to the accident we were in that took place at West 10th and Washington. I was driving. I had Alex in the passenger seat, Jaan Ehlvest and Emory Tate in the back seat, when these guys from Bosnia ran the stop sign and broad-sided us. Had I not hit the brakes when I did, all of us would be dead or horribly disfigured. But it was funny, because our accident was the first of three accidents involving GMs. Shabalov got into an auto accident within days, and Stripunsky nearly lost an eye while driving in Memphis a day after that.
But I should probably stop these posts, because I don't know how cool it is to talk about Alex behind his back. I only wanted to defend him. He's a good guy, and when I hear people say terrible things about him, I want to tear them to shreads. |
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| Oct-04-04 | | Lawrence: <Amber Berglund>, welcome and thank you for your fascinating posts, it's stuff like that that makes <chessgames> such an interesting site for so many of us. |
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Oct-04-04
 | | Joshka: <Amber Berglund> Thank you so much for sharing private information, can tell your a very kind loving person. Yea it hurt me too when I read some negative stuff on Aleksander. Was so pleased to converse with him again in this years US Open in Florida, and appreciate so much that he talked with me as if I were a somebody, instead of just the low rated chess player I am. Hope you folks came out of the accident without too much discomfort. I myself was broad-sided by a cabbie many years ago in Boston, and suffered whiplash and some lower back problems. Thanks again for sharing personal first hand accounts about "Wojo"....hey don't feel guilty about a Yoko Ono complex...I'm still looking for mine!:-).....and if poor Bobby can navigate himself out of all his legal problems in Japan, his Yoko, probably will be given much credit. Hoping your guy can make some decent bread in Minnesota next May!...lotta money at stake...again thank you again for sharing! |
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Oct-05-04
 | | Gypsy: <Amber> Thank you providing personal background. I think most of us wish you well -- both of you! |
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| Nov-09-04 | | aw1988: <Amber> Emory Tate in your car!? Holy crap, can I get an autograph? Am I worthy?? |
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| Dec-04-04 | | Reorder: Is anyone watching the US Chessmaster Championship in San Diego this week? |
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| Jan-20-05 | | JustAFish: Amber, I don't count myself amongst those who fault Alex for playing in small local tournaments- Indeed, I love to watch his games. However, you might relate to him the effect his gruff "post-game-still-thinking" nature has on those around him. I admire his perserverence in the face of horrible adversity, and his willingness to play, play, play, but his personal skills leave a little to be desired. Past suffering might explain, but does not excuse, his monstrous snapping at a total stranger in response to a completely innocent question. |
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| Jan-20-05 | | Maroczy: Just curious, is Alex's ethnicity Russian or Polish? Many years ago I heard he was a second to a famous GM but I have forgotten the name. |
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| Jan-23-05 | | Reorder: Alex is ethnically Polish, but he's lived a lot of places. |
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| Jan-27-05 | | Reorder: JustAFish, you know, I think chess players should wear t-shirts that say, "don't talk to me until I take this shirt off." LOL I have trouble pulling myself out of intense parts of my brain sometimes too, and may seem either drifty or rude, and not even know it. Have you noticed at tournaments that if you walk around to watch games, some of the players hide their eyes by cupping their hands around their temples? They aren't hiding from our prying eyes, they are shutting out distraction. We can't ask the chess players to change things like that. We gotta learn to work within their styles. Not blaming you for the encounter, and not excusing rude behavior either. I guess some things just have to be accepted as they are. Alex is a fine, decent human being as well as a chess player. |
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| Jan-27-05 | | whiskeyrebel: I admire Wojtkiewicz's style...I wish I had more chances to witness him playing in person. This discussion reminds me of a time pressure situation I watched a couple weeks ago amongst a couple 2200+ players. A boy about 11 or 12 had been sitting alongside the table watching for at least an hour, very quietly. In the midst of the tension of the Q+3 pawns vs. Q+4 pawns ending with precious little time left the kid broke the dead silence by ripping open a fruit roll-up package and slowly peeling one out of the pack! It made a sound like tearing a bed sheet in half. I was surprised the players didn't choke him. A.W. likely deals with situations like that all the time since as a GM he's at least in part the center of attention at weekend swiss tournaments. |
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| Jan-29-05 | | Reorder: Oh no! LOL As I was reading, I burst out laughing. Imagine that kid, he was old enough to know better, certainly, but his mind must have drifted, and he went into candy withdrawal and just had to have one. LOL Thank's for that neat story whiskey. |
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| Jan-29-05 | | whiskeyrebel: Maybe chessmasters should wear T-shirts during time trouble that read: "QUIET PATZERS!!! " |
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| Feb-10-05 | | Reorder: But that would exclude me! I could be noisy in that case. LOL, I'm not even up to the level of patzer. I'm an observer and greatly appreciate the game. I admire the GMs and like to watch and think. But I'm no player. A four year old could beat me with half his brain tied behind his back. |
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| Sep-01-05 | | gambiter: Do you guys know how to pronounce this guys last name? |
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| Sep-01-05 | | dafish298: yea...we asked him at a recent tournament
Va-cave-itch
pretty much like that |
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| Sep-14-05 | | Reorder: I think it is actually Voit-ka-Vitch
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| Sep-14-05 | | Koster: Many chessplayers are horrible drivers who shouldn't even be on the road. They are either so aggressive they tailgate everyone and drive 20 mph over the limit or so absentminded that they rum stoplights or drive the wrong way up one way street. One guy wanted wanted to play a blindfold game and even closed his eyes while driving to visualise the board better. You risk your life every time you ride with them. i myself have been in three accidents on the way to tournament games. Better to wreck the the car than be forfeited on time, or so my thinking went. Nowdays I just play online. |
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| Sep-14-05 | | Koster: That guy that said a GM could inflate his rating by playing Experts and A players is nuts. Try it yourself sometime against players 300-400 points lower. A single draw wipes out a half dozen wins and some of these guys are rock solid players that get the white pieces and play for the draw from move 1. Try too hard to beat them and lose a game, kiss 25-30 rating points goodbye. |
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Sep-14-05
 | | Sneaky: At FICS (freechess.org) there is a term they use called "ekes" (or eeks). An "eke" is somebody who only plays fish for 1 or 2 rating points per game. The theory is, with discipline and care, you can play 100 fish in a row without dropping a game, thereby pushing one's rating from 1900 to over 2000. I used this technique myself when my standard rating on FICS was about 1960. I played enough fish to push it over 2000 which I was sort of proud of. But then I had to make sure I never play another game, since like you say, one loss (or even a draw) could wipe out a lot of work. In short, it "works", but only as much as winning games normally works. It's sort of like gambling strategies where you wager large sums to win small sums, hoping that you never run into a losing streak that bankrupts you. If you're lucky, you can get away with it for a short period of time, but knowing when to quit is key. |
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Sep-14-05
| | Sneaky: I should add as a warning to hopeful "ekes" out there--one day you'll play somebody rated 1250 who has Fritz 9 fired up. Good luck!! |
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