MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS

That's Eddie Winter's stock in trade.

But at one point in the book Kasparov attempts to quote Capablanca: 'I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one.' And Winter comments: 'No source is given, of course, because none is known...The quote should have been expunged!? I think that is a bit drastic. -- offramp

Such a comment is not at all strange for Winter. Regarding quotes,
Winter always prefers, even insists, that they (1) be something
actually said or written, not a garbling, concatenation, or invention
(2) are rendered accurately, (3) are attributed correctly. As you can
read he http://tinyurl.com/35chbj, in Chess Notes 4483, there is no
evidence that Capablanca ever said this. Nor is anyone known to have
said it in the way Kasparov phrased it. The closest seems to be a
statement by Jaffe.
So Kasparov's "quote" fails on all three counts. I'd hardly consider
it "wacky" to point this out. -- Taylor Kingston, again rushing to
the defense of his hero

No evidence Capa didn't say it either. Contrary to the dynamic duo of
Winter and Kingston, it IS drastic to suggest it be expunged from
Kasparov's book.

GM Larry Evans usually puts it this way: "When asked how far he saw
ahead, the mightly Capablanca reputedly said: 'Only one move. The best
one.'"




for a neat phrase (which I thought was by Réti, but that's not
important)


It isn't?? (See below)


wrote:
KINGSTON DEFENDS HIS HERO

How can you consider "well known" something that in fact never existed? --TK

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." -- The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance

Writing under his own name this time (not Xylothist, Paulie Graf or
Niemand) Mr. Kingston sings the praises of that paragon of virtue who
claimed a copyright on chess photos in the public domain.

So what else is new?


Taylor Kingston wrote:
On Jan 9, 9:00?am, Offramp wrote:
I normally agree with everything Edward Winter says, but in his recent
Chess Note, number 5375 (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/index.html
), he says something quite wacky.
The item is a review of Kasparov's book How Life Imitates Chess, and
Winter is, in all, a fan of the book.
But at one point in the book Kasparov attempts to quote Capablanca:
'I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one.'

And Winter comments:
'No source is given, of course, because none is known (see, for
instance, the discussion in C.N. 4483), and that of itself should have
resulted in the quote being expunged. Are there not enough
authenticated chess observations to choose from?'

Such a comment is not at all strange for Winter. Regarding quotes,
Winter always prefers, even insists, that they (1) be something
actually said or written, not a garbling, concatenation, or invention
(2) are rendered accurately, (3) are attributed correctly. As you can
read he http://tinyurl.com/35chbj, in Chess Notes 4483, there is no
evidence that Capablanca ever said this. Nor is anyone known to have
said it in the way Kasparov phrased it. The closest seems to be a
statement by Jaffe.
So Kasparov's "quote" fails on all three counts. I'd hardly consider
it "wacky" to point this out.

The quote should have been expunged!? I think that is a bit drastic
for a neat phrase (which I thought was by R?ti, but that's not
important)

It isn't?? (See below)

which is well known to most chess players.

How can you consider "well known" something that in fact never
existed? And the fact that you attributed it to R?ti is further
evidence of the confusion about such things among the general chess
public. What you probably had in mind there is from "Modern Ideas in
Chess" where on page 5 R?ti wrote:

"Those chess lovers who ask me how many moves I usually calculate in
advance, when making a combination, are always astonished when I
reply, quite truthfully, 'as a rule, not a single one.' Formerly, in
Anderssen's time, the ability to make chess combinations was in fact
the very essence of chess talent. Since then, however, the chess mind
has further developed, and the power of accurately calculating moves
in advance has no greater place in chess than, perhaps, skillfull
calculation has in mathematics."

As you can see, R?ti's statement is quite different from Kasparov's
apocryphal Capablanca "quote." You may consider this "not important,"
and in, say, casual conversation I'd agree such misconceptions
probably don't matter much. But a prominent book author has a bit more
of a duty to get things right in print.