At 08:09 AM 9/15/2003 -0700, Elliott Winslow wrote:

At 12:22 AM 9/15/2003 -0400, Lonnie Kwartler wrote:
Hi Sam,
The movie did some things for the audience such as amplifying the
noises
made by the clocks and the pieces. The players also were announcing
checks.
The character Vinnie was a much stronger player than Livermore in the
movie and in the book. I believe the other figure the character was based
on
is senior master Morrison. The "grandmaster" playing Vinnie in the park,
as
I remember it, was IM Kamrazi.

Morrison? I don't remember him but it rings a bell.
They call Kamran "Grandmaster" in the movie, but that's how it would be in
the park. I think I've been called that a few times even. [Not in this
lifetime...]

They don't show the end of that game, by the way. And you can't see if
Kamran is winning or not. He looks uncomfortable, which is appropriate when
you're "pegged".

Livermore would have had a fair chance against Shirazi at speed chess, not
"no" chance" -- but I'd bet on Kamran.

Sloan wrote:
What bothers me about the character Vinnie is that it is suggested
that he is a drug addict who sleeps in the park. As far as I knew,
Livermore did not sleep in the park or use drugs.

Cocaine. I saw the traditional white-powdered upper lip on an occasion or
three in the Village.

However, he was in
the park every day. I saw him there shortly before he died. Also, the
rap of Vinnie, constantly talking during the game, was clearly an
immitation of Livermore. Livermore was reputed to be homosexual, which
would explain his AIDS, not drugs, but I know of no evidence for that.

Well, gee, Sam, what would evidence look like?

He never hinted at his preferences to me, but others claimed to know.
Certainly there are people you as crusading journalist could interview.

Poe McClinton, a rated chess master and park regular who is Black,

Right color, wrong rating. 2100s. He kept it under 2200 throughout the
1990s. Probably a career move.

has one line in the movie.

You can hear him going on from the very beginning, far more than one line.

It has always bothered me that I would have been in this movie too,
except that I was detained in Virginia at the time.

And I was detained in New Windsor, putting out a magazine.

=e


Thank you for these corrections. So, apparently Livermore was a
cocaine addict who perhaps slept in the Washington Square Park.

I had thought that Jerry Poe McClinton was a 2150 player but two days
ago somebody told me that he was a 2250 player, so I mistakenly
assumed that he was correct.

Joshua Waitzkin, the real person, not an actor playing him in the
movies, told me that "Vinnie" was a composite of two characters.
Vincent Livermore was one. The other was a player I had never heard
of. So, I do not think it was Morrison, because I have heard of him.

Sam Sloan