Asa Hoffmann - The Last Gamesman: My Sixty Years of Hustling Games in the Clubs, Parks and Streets of New York

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THE LAST GAMESMAN

My Sixty Years of Hustling Games in the
Clubs, Parks and Streets of New York

Published by Gatekeeper Press

2167 Stringtown Rd, Suite 109

Columbus, OH 43123-2989

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright 2022 by

Asa Hoffmann with Virginia Hoffmann

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021952985

ISBN (paperback): 9781662922602

eISBN: 9781662922619

Table of Contents

T hroughout history, there have been more books published about chess than any other game. Books on openings, game collections, biographies, problem books, tournament books, end game and middle game treatises, and even analyses of specific positions, keep publishing year after year.

Chess Master Asa Hoffmanns memoir - written with his chess player wife Virginia DAmico Hoffmann - is, however, unique among all of chess literature. There are no games (save the one with Fischer), no analyses, no diagrams in this work. This is a penetrating and honest story of a young man attempting to find his way in life on his own through the sixty-four squares, and its filled with insights, anecdotes and yarns never-before published or known about him and chess itself.

The scion of Park Avenue attorneys, Hoffmann chose to eschew his parents plans for him to follow in their legal footsteps to become a successful lawyer. He was sent to some of the best schools in New York City (Hunter, Horace Mann, and Columbia University), but it was the game of chess that became his tutor, his Alma Mater, as well as his pleasure and his obsession. And ultimately, his profession.

On his lifetime journey financially supporting himself solely through the game of chess, he has made a million dollars. And he tells, with great detail, how he did it: the hard way. He played countless speed games at twenty-five cents and up. And he played day in and day out, teaching players with flash-lessons at a dollar a minute and lecturing at chess clubs for whatever was the going rate. In between his non-stop routine he managed to write three books, all of which were well-received. Hoffmann takes the reader through his complicated and exciting life, filled with anecdotes and interesting stories, spinning Mark Twain-like yarns about chess in New York City. He is totally uninhibited.

But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of his memoir is his recollection as he lived this life of chess in the Big Apple. He weaves remembrances of players as would a novelist. Here we see him playing some of the great players of his day, from Reshevsky to Fischer, from Evans to Kamsky. As a youngster, he and a number of the up-and-coming chess players would walk the streets at night, looking for a caf or a pub so that they could play all night long. And he did, often until dawn. By honing his technique in playing such gifted players, Hoffmann became one of the countrys top speed players.

He describes with clarity and flare the atmosphere and inner workings of the Manhattan and Marshall, the two leading chess clubs in the United States. When he entered young manhood, he was elected a member of both Boards of those clubs, and his observations and comments as an insider will undoubtedly become an important part of chess history.

His memory of how players reacted to each other is virtually eidetic, and he has a playwrights ear for dialogue as he sits at the board trading trash talk while playing five-minute games. His descriptions and recollections of playing at the so called Flea House, the 24-hour-never-closing chess emporium that had enough Runyonesque characters to fill a Moss Hart play, are hilarious.

Throughout the book one might discern a touch of wistfulness, but no regret that he did not attend law school, and that he had lived his life, as he still does, playing chess. As the reader will discover its been an exciting and respectful life, and totally singular, a life that no one else but Asa Hoffmann could have lived.

Although there have been a number of memoirs, and autobiographies such as those written by Grandmasters Mark Taimanov, Victor Korchnoi, Mikhail Tal, and others, Asa Hoffmanns book is one that is easily and enjoyably read and will not be easily forgotten.

Frank Brady

New York, 2021

I t was October 25, 1962. The New York chess world awoke to the shocking news in the New York Times that Abe Turner, one of the countrys top chess players, had been brutally murdered. Abe had been working at Chess Review, the national chess magazine, only three weeks when a deranged co-worker stabbed Abe multiple times, dragged his body to a basement safe, and hid him there. It was revealed that the murderer had been a recently released mental patient before he started at Chess Review. When police asked him why he killed Turner he said that the Secret Service had told him to do it because Abe was a communist. I read the report in horror. Sure, I liked Abe and his death was tragic, but more personal to me was the fact that he had recently taken over my job! I thought There but for the grace of God go I. It also confirmed my recent decision to quit college as well as my boring clerical job at the magazine and take up chess full-time.

After years of travelling back and forth to Horace Mann School in Riverdale, and over a year at Columbia University, I was worn out doing what my parents expected of me and wanted to strike out on my own. One day I realized I could earn more in five minutes playing speed chess for money than I could make in an hour in my clerical job. Plus, I was doing what I loved, playing chess. I was driven to compete, battle and win. It was my Road to Damascus moment. I would be a professional chess player - and I never looked back.

I have heard the stories of the great raconteurs for sixty years or more. Knowing players such as World Champion Grandmaster (GM) Bobby Fischer, GM Bill Lombardy, GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Nicholas Rossolimo, GM Walter Browne, the famous artist and chess player Marcel Duchamp and many others gave me the idea to record my own memories. It seemed to me that in addition to my games, my legacy could include stories about an era in New York City chess history that was a special time, never to be repeated and about the unique characters that inhabited that period. I have also had the good fortune to know a wide range of champions and colorful characters who stood out in the worlds of horseracing, Scrabble, poker, bridge, and backgammon. These were the players that lived in the world I managed to make a living in for 60 years, hustling, battling, and plying my trade and knowledge in the clubs, streets, and parks of New York City.