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Steve Brandwein
December 20, 2015
There are chess personalities who come into our lives and influence them but often depart without a book about them or even a proper obituary.
The following article impressed me with the obvious love of the man. It is better than any obituary.
http://schaken.chess.com/article/vie...aster-has-died
Some excerpts:
Steve Brandwein – A Legendary Chess Zen Master Has Died
Jerry Silman
When I was just turning 19, I would go with a friend to Berkeley and visit the Hare Krishna temple. Were we into them? No, not at all. But every evening they offered free (very tasty!) food, and when you are broke and starving, you are willing to listen to any blather if there’s food at the end of the rainbow. The friend that came with me was Steve Brandwein, who, after we left the building, would always say, “I came, I ate, and I left. ”
Returning to the Haight Ashbury, we would play dozens of blitz games and analyze openings. Then he would rush home and do what he loved the most: read. Steve was the most passionate reader I’ve ever seen. He often knew more about things he wasn’t interested in than people who studied the subject in great depth. His forte, though, was world history.
Chess history, Russian history, Chinese history, the history of the Vikings: he was the go-to guy if you had questions on just about anything. Visiting whatever hovel he happened to be staying at, I was struck by how little he cared about money or possessions. He had a small mattress (surrounded by several piles of books from the library), a few old clothes (but always crisp and clean), and that’s about it.
Steve Brandwein (1942-2015) was a remarkably strong player who understood chess better than many grandmasters I knew (he was an amazing analyst with a deep understanding of every facet of chess, and his comments when we looked at games made me far stronger than I would have been without him), a world-class blitz chess player (he would dominate everyone but a few super GMs at five-minute chess, and even then he drew lots of blood), a master at Scrabble, and (as I mentioned before) he blazed through endless books on just about every possible subject.
________
Larry Kaufman - When I was a college student at M.I.T., Steve lived nearby and we became friends. I was very impressed with his intellect, knowledge, and memory; he was (and presumably still is) a very brilliant man. At the time I was a high expert while Steve was already retired from regular tournament play with a 2300 rating, which was pretty good back in the mid 1960s.
At blitz chess he was much better still, certainly way beyond my level. He taught me a lot about chess (and other things too), but the biggest impact was a 20-game match we played. Due to the rating disparity we agreed to a 2-1 time handicap; I think Steve took 30 minutes to my hour. I thought this would make for a fair match, but I was soon to realize how wrong this was. After 19 games I was still seeking my first win; the score was 10 wins for Steve and 9 draws. Finally by some miracle I won the final game. Just a few weeks later, I was the American Open champion!
This shows both how much I learned from this match and how strong Steve must have been to score so well against me giving me time odds; my own rating soon hit 2300.
I played many other training matches over the years with various masters, but this was the only one I lost. My match victims in these matches included Bill Hook, Mark Diesen, Larry Gilden, and Arnold Denker. There was also a drawn match in my very early days with Frank Street, who soon became the nation’s second Black chess master.
_______
Born in Boston, Brandwein (some called him Brandywine) made his way to New York in the mid-'60s and finally found himself (more or less permanently) in San Francisco. San Francisco in the '60s and '70s was the perfect place for a Zen-like chess god, and as his legend grew, people sought him out in the hope of playing one single game with him or getting lessons.
In one way, Steve was the ultimate Jewish intellectual – a man that lived, ate, and breathed knowledge. He was a man that didn’t care for wealth or fame or detailed relationships or anything to do with ego. He simply glided in and out of the Haight or the Mechanics Institute (the oldest chess club in the United States), and then vanished (in most cases rushing back to his beloved books).
_______
I got to know Brandwein a bit from the years I was a member of the Mechanics institute chess club in the early 2000s. During those years I used to hang out at the (now long defunct) Horseshoe coffeehouse in the Haight, which I was told had, at some point in years past (80s & 90s?), been frequented by many strong chess players.
One day I saw him there by a chess coffee table, and, uninvited, sat in front of him while he read some newspaper, and asked him about an Alekhine game, which I played in front of him (from the classic green book "Alekhine's Best Games"). I didn't know he normally charged for giving lessons or playing games, but he actually was quite nice and commented on the game and explained a few things to me.
I remember seeing him around wearing his characteristic blue jacket, helping out at the Tuesday Night Marathons. At some point he was also kind enough to play 2 blitz games with me, for free. One he played the white side of a Polugaevsky Sicilian, in which I was doing quite well (he even said "not bad" at some move I made), but then he crushed me in an even rook ending. I got as far as I did mainly because I had spent quite a few hours studying the Polugaevsky section of The Complete Najdorf 6 Bg5 by John Nunn (as well as Grandmaster Preparation by Lev Polugaevsky). In the other game I boldly played the white side of a King's Gambit (without really knowing the theory, I guess just to convince myself that I wasn't afraid haha) and he uneventfully beat me (using the declined Bc5 variation).
He used to talk politics with my friend Kevan and got me interested in Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, who became great influences on me to become part of the anti Iraq war demonstrations of the mid 2000s and shape my political views. Part of him seemed kind of fidgety, leaving places and situations quickly.
From what I understand, he quit playing tournament chess because he didn't have the nerves for it. My friend Kevan, who knew him better, said that he told him something along the lines of "look a me, I didn't do anything with my life, I'm just a chess bum". Another part of him, however, seemed to have been content and at peace pursuing knowledge and various other interesting aspects of life for their own sake -- disregarding money, status, and the various other standards of value in society.
_______
This intriguing article (and what a shame it would have been if this mini-memoir of Brandwein had never been written) by IM Silman brings to mind the well-done book Grandmaster that I just read. (For teens but still a page-turner.) The premise of the story is about a father-son chess tournament and the protaganist's dad, Morris Pratzer, reluctantly and warily comes out of his early-eclipsed tournament retirement to compete. Was Pratzer character perhaps based on Steve Brandwein? Anyway, thank you, Mr. Jerry Silman for this article. Will share with my 11-year-old, along w/ some of the inspiring blogged comments. He's yet another kid who's losing interest because he's so scared of being seen as a nerd by his peers. Sad, and oh vey.
______
Now there is a tribute!
I am sure there are many amongst us who know of someone who deserves the same but it has never been written. More’s the pity.
December 20, 2015
There are chess personalities who come into our lives and influence them but often depart without a book about them or even a proper obituary.
The following article impressed me with the obvious love of the man. It is better than any obituary.
http://schaken.chess.com/article/vie...aster-has-died
Some excerpts:
Steve Brandwein – A Legendary Chess Zen Master Has Died
Jerry Silman
When I was just turning 19, I would go with a friend to Berkeley and visit the Hare Krishna temple. Were we into them? No, not at all. But every evening they offered free (very tasty!) food, and when you are broke and starving, you are willing to listen to any blather if there’s food at the end of the rainbow. The friend that came with me was Steve Brandwein, who, after we left the building, would always say, “I came, I ate, and I left. ”
Returning to the Haight Ashbury, we would play dozens of blitz games and analyze openings. Then he would rush home and do what he loved the most: read. Steve was the most passionate reader I’ve ever seen. He often knew more about things he wasn’t interested in than people who studied the subject in great depth. His forte, though, was world history.
Chess history, Russian history, Chinese history, the history of the Vikings: he was the go-to guy if you had questions on just about anything. Visiting whatever hovel he happened to be staying at, I was struck by how little he cared about money or possessions. He had a small mattress (surrounded by several piles of books from the library), a few old clothes (but always crisp and clean), and that’s about it.
Steve Brandwein (1942-2015) was a remarkably strong player who understood chess better than many grandmasters I knew (he was an amazing analyst with a deep understanding of every facet of chess, and his comments when we looked at games made me far stronger than I would have been without him), a world-class blitz chess player (he would dominate everyone but a few super GMs at five-minute chess, and even then he drew lots of blood), a master at Scrabble, and (as I mentioned before) he blazed through endless books on just about every possible subject.
________
Larry Kaufman - When I was a college student at M.I.T., Steve lived nearby and we became friends. I was very impressed with his intellect, knowledge, and memory; he was (and presumably still is) a very brilliant man. At the time I was a high expert while Steve was already retired from regular tournament play with a 2300 rating, which was pretty good back in the mid 1960s.
At blitz chess he was much better still, certainly way beyond my level. He taught me a lot about chess (and other things too), but the biggest impact was a 20-game match we played. Due to the rating disparity we agreed to a 2-1 time handicap; I think Steve took 30 minutes to my hour. I thought this would make for a fair match, but I was soon to realize how wrong this was. After 19 games I was still seeking my first win; the score was 10 wins for Steve and 9 draws. Finally by some miracle I won the final game. Just a few weeks later, I was the American Open champion!
This shows both how much I learned from this match and how strong Steve must have been to score so well against me giving me time odds; my own rating soon hit 2300.
I played many other training matches over the years with various masters, but this was the only one I lost. My match victims in these matches included Bill Hook, Mark Diesen, Larry Gilden, and Arnold Denker. There was also a drawn match in my very early days with Frank Street, who soon became the nation’s second Black chess master.
_______
Born in Boston, Brandwein (some called him Brandywine) made his way to New York in the mid-'60s and finally found himself (more or less permanently) in San Francisco. San Francisco in the '60s and '70s was the perfect place for a Zen-like chess god, and as his legend grew, people sought him out in the hope of playing one single game with him or getting lessons.
In one way, Steve was the ultimate Jewish intellectual – a man that lived, ate, and breathed knowledge. He was a man that didn’t care for wealth or fame or detailed relationships or anything to do with ego. He simply glided in and out of the Haight or the Mechanics Institute (the oldest chess club in the United States), and then vanished (in most cases rushing back to his beloved books).
_______
I got to know Brandwein a bit from the years I was a member of the Mechanics institute chess club in the early 2000s. During those years I used to hang out at the (now long defunct) Horseshoe coffeehouse in the Haight, which I was told had, at some point in years past (80s & 90s?), been frequented by many strong chess players.
One day I saw him there by a chess coffee table, and, uninvited, sat in front of him while he read some newspaper, and asked him about an Alekhine game, which I played in front of him (from the classic green book "Alekhine's Best Games"). I didn't know he normally charged for giving lessons or playing games, but he actually was quite nice and commented on the game and explained a few things to me.
I remember seeing him around wearing his characteristic blue jacket, helping out at the Tuesday Night Marathons. At some point he was also kind enough to play 2 blitz games with me, for free. One he played the white side of a Polugaevsky Sicilian, in which I was doing quite well (he even said "not bad" at some move I made), but then he crushed me in an even rook ending. I got as far as I did mainly because I had spent quite a few hours studying the Polugaevsky section of The Complete Najdorf 6 Bg5 by John Nunn (as well as Grandmaster Preparation by Lev Polugaevsky). In the other game I boldly played the white side of a King's Gambit (without really knowing the theory, I guess just to convince myself that I wasn't afraid haha) and he uneventfully beat me (using the declined Bc5 variation).
He used to talk politics with my friend Kevan and got me interested in Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, who became great influences on me to become part of the anti Iraq war demonstrations of the mid 2000s and shape my political views. Part of him seemed kind of fidgety, leaving places and situations quickly.
From what I understand, he quit playing tournament chess because he didn't have the nerves for it. My friend Kevan, who knew him better, said that he told him something along the lines of "look a me, I didn't do anything with my life, I'm just a chess bum". Another part of him, however, seemed to have been content and at peace pursuing knowledge and various other interesting aspects of life for their own sake -- disregarding money, status, and the various other standards of value in society.
_______
This intriguing article (and what a shame it would have been if this mini-memoir of Brandwein had never been written) by IM Silman brings to mind the well-done book Grandmaster that I just read. (For teens but still a page-turner.) The premise of the story is about a father-son chess tournament and the protaganist's dad, Morris Pratzer, reluctantly and warily comes out of his early-eclipsed tournament retirement to compete. Was Pratzer character perhaps based on Steve Brandwein? Anyway, thank you, Mr. Jerry Silman for this article. Will share with my 11-year-old, along w/ some of the inspiring blogged comments. He's yet another kid who's losing interest because he's so scared of being seen as a nerd by his peers. Sad, and oh vey.
______
Now there is a tribute!
I am sure there are many amongst us who know of someone who deserves the same but it has never been written. More’s the pity.
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