Hustling in the park

Washington Square Park is a public facility in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, a meeting place and center for cultural activity. One such activity is chess, with outdoor tables installed in the southwest corner of the park [photo Wiki] and featured in the films Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) and Fresh (1994).

In the video, which you can watch below, the chess hustler, unbeknownst to him...

... has challenged a grandmaster, Maurice Ashley ...

... who is probably 600 points above him on any rating list.

Initially Wilson (the hustler) complains that his opponent is hardly looking at the board. There is an amusing sequence 2 min 20 sec into the video, where it looks a bit like Wilson (the hustler) is trying to take two knights with a pawn – the move is repeated in slow motion. At around 2:20 min Maurice is starting to talk about mate in 23 moves.

After resigning Wilson (at 4:10 min) asks his opponent for his name, and is stunned
to hear that it is Maurice Ashley, the well-known grandmaster. Now watch the video:

“I was schooled by the best hustlers back in the day!” Ashley wrote in the video caption. “This was actually in Washington Square Park, where the late great Vinnie Livermore used to beat my ass at the same table!” Here's the moves of the game for you to replay.

ChessBase DVDs by Maurice Ashley

Maurice Ashley is an International Grandmaster well known for his dynamic brand of chess commentary and effective coaching style. He was a commentator for the Anand-Kasparov World Championship match as well as all of Kasparov‘s epic computer matches. He has produced a number of training DVDs for us.

Many times, when a top player blunders, it is routinely described by the esoteric term “chess blindness“. In this series What Grandmasters Don‘t See, chess trainer and worldclass commentator Maurice Ashley strips away the myth and for the first time explains why the root of these mistakes is more often based in the psychology of human learning.

In this DVD, the third volume of the three part series, Ashley completes his idea of Protected Squares from Volume 1, showing that squares seemingly guarded by pieces are often the breeding ground of amazing tactical oversights. He also blends the themes from all three volumes to give a thorough picture of the key ways that the viewer can exploit the typical mistakes by players of all levels. In the first half of the DVD, Ashley uses brilliant games and positions to explain each lesson in his dynamic commentary style. The second half of the DVD is filled with examples to test the viewer, with a series of exercises of increasing difficulty. The material is drawn both from classic and from recent games. Video running time: 3 hours 45 min.

Review by Steven B. Dowd: No matter what your level, this is a fun product where you will also learn something. And since these really are things grandmasters don't see, even higher-level players will benefit from the information as well as the excellent lecturing style of the presenter. If I could ever afford lessons from a grandmaster, I would pick GM Ashley, no question. Luckily, I can have him as a teacher for about thirty bucks with this DVD; let's hope he makes more. My assessment of this DVD: Great (five out of six stars).

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Sample video