Bobby Fischer 60 More Memorable Games

Bobby Fischer 60 More Memorable Games By Paul Powell

I found this book while checking out the books in the previous post. I use the term “book” loosely, since it comes only in digits in a machine called a “Kindle edition.” E-readers are the newest new thing, and everyone “must” have one. Not me though, because I am a “square.” It happens if one is lucky enough to live to be considered “old.” I was never one to follow the herd anyway. It seemed to me many of those that chose to run with the herd sometimes got trampled.
I will admit the machines with digits are useful for old(er) people in that the digits can be enlarged. On the other hand, how does a reader know the digits being downloaded were the ones actually written by the author? Totalitarian regimes would have had a field day with these machines. I am not certain how much written about the past is true, but I know what will be written in the future will be blowing with the winds of change. When Thad Rogers, the owner of the Atlanta Chess & Game Center (the official name; it was called many things at different times) would bring a box of new books up from Macon to the House of Pain, David Spinks would nab one and sniff it, giving it the ol’ smell test. Like one of the most famous movie quotes of all time by Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, played by the excellent actor Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now, who said, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” Mr. Spinks loved the smell of a new book any time of the day.
Who is Paul Powell you ask? From the Book Description provided on the Gorilla website:
National Master and Top Selling Amazon author Paul Powell explores the games of Bobby Fischer from a unique point of view. Focusing on his own personal journey and taking up the mission statement of his bestselling book “Chess Patzer to Master – How an Everyday Joe Does it” he continues the battle to help the average player become a chess master. What’s truly unique about these sixty games is they are the games he came back to over and over as a young man studying the games of Bobby Fischer and they are presented with the be wonderment and lessons that he learned on the road from Patzer to Master. The author’s goal is to instruct, entertain and deliver the tools that you can use to grow into a future chess master.

Features:

A fresh look at Fischer’s games
Character illustrations of famous chess players
Over 90 additional games from Fischer’s opponents
Geared towards helping you think about chess not memorize it
Concepts to challenge your perceptions Theory of “Diminishing and Increasing Values”
And more…
Show less

I like the “Show less” coming as it does right after “And more…” Maybe “No mas” would have been more appropriate. I did some research on Mr. Powell, finding a Paul J Powell Jr at the MSA page on the USCF website. I found “There are a total of 15 events for this player since late 1991.” He is rated, or should I say, was rated, 2218 in his last event regular rated event back in 1994. He did play in a quick rated event in 2003 and another in 2010, in which his rating took a nose dive, going from 2181 to 2083. Could this possibly be the very same Paul Powell who is now writing chess E-books? I say books because his first book, Chess Patzer to Master, is called “bestselling” on the website. Thinking back to the Cold War I decided to “Trust, but verify,” finding the bestselling book ranked #30,998. And I thought a book had to be in the top 30,000 to be considered a best seller…By the way, I did a search of the term “trust but verify” on http://www.startpage.com and found this on Wikipedia: “Trust, but verify is a form of advice given which recommends that while a source of information might be considered reliable, one should perform additional research to verify that such information is accurate, or trustworthy. The original Russian proverb is a short rhyme which states, Доверяй, но проверяй (doveryai, no proveryai).
Suzanne Massie, a writer on Russia advised President Ronald Reagan, “The Russians like to talk in proverbs. It would be nice of you to know a few. You are an actor – you can learn them very quickly”.[1] The proverb was adopted as a signature phrase by Reagan, who subsequently used it frequently when discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union.
After Reagan used the phrase at the signing of the INF Treaty, his counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev responded: “You repeat that at every meeting,” to which Reagan answered “I like it.”[2]
1. ^ Suzanne Massie speaking on the 22nd Episode of the television documentary, Cold War (TV series).
2. ^ “Remarks on Signing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty”, 1987-12-8. Retrieved on 2009-4-8.”

There you go again, Ronnie! I miss Gorby playing straight man to Raygun. Those were the daze! Speaking of the old Soviet Union, the old hot-bed of chess “back in the day,” I will tell you that a book like either one of these would have had less chance of being published there than an escape from the gulag! And I am certain that Ronnie Raygun would have backed me up, before his brain turned into a sponge during his first debate with Walter Mondale, when I say that is the thing that makes our country, as Tony the Tiger would say, Greatttttttttttt! There are chess books being written and published by players who never made it to class ’B’ here in America. Do you think some chumpy-lumpy could have had his book published in the Soviet Union “back in the day?” Hell no! If one of these so-called “writers” had the chutzpah to even try and have his book published he would have been lucky to have only been laughed into the gulag! But here in America anyone who can punch and poke long enough can become a “best-selling” chess author. Is this a great country, or what?