EDDIE WINTER CAN DISH IT OUT BUT....

Winter has always been willing to publish corrections when
appropriate. -- Taylor Kingston

Here is what IM Anthony Saidy noted: "I valued Edward Winter's
diligent
work and subscribed to his Chess Notes until it went out of business
in
1989. I was grateful to him for pointing out an embarrassing error in
my book The World Of Chess (where I missed the location of Cambridge
Springs only by the width of the Atlantic Ocean). We corresponded for
several years. However, when I had the audacity to correct one of his
errors in translating a Spanish phrase, his huffy reply indicated
that
he was alien to the concept of receiving constructive criticism. I
stopped writing after this incident."


Taylor Kingston wrote:
On Jan 13, 9:07?am, "Chess One" wrote:
You see, while Winter can do as you say, he
can also make mistakes - and this is one of them. He is also frankly famous,
or better said, infamous, for calling the errors of other people and not
owning to his own. The last very great instance of this was Kinpin, where
[poetically apt] it was Ray Keene who pointed out so many errors in it, even
after 2 and a half years in preparation, that it was withdrawn and
corrected.

Winter had nothing to do with that issue of Kingpin, as far as I
recall. Winter used to be a regular contributor to that magazine, but
that ceased several years aso. Jonathan Manley is the editor of
Kingpin. When printer's errors were discovered in that issue, Manley
got them corrected ASAP, and corrected copies were sent to subscribers
who had received faulty ones.
So, as far as "owning to his own errors," these particular errors
(1) were not by Edward Winter at all, and (2) were immediately "owned
to" and rectified.
Winter has always been willing to publish corrections when
appropriate. For example, an early Chess Notes dealt with a story
about combined chess-and-billiards match between Capablanca and a pool-
player named Hagenlocher. The prize supposedly was an ivory trophy, a
cue-ball surmonted by a chess knight. Winter at first believed the
story to be factual, but soon after evidence surfaced that it was a
hoax. Winter published full details.

On Jan 13, 1:01 pm, " wrote:

EDDIE WINTER CAN DISH IT OUT BUT....

Winter has always been willing to publish corrections when
appropriate. -- Taylor Kingston

Here is what IM Anthony Saidy noted: "I valued Edward Winter's
diligent
work and subscribed to his Chess Notes until it went out of business
in
1989. I was grateful to him for pointing out an embarrassing error in
my book The World Of Chess (where I missed the location of Cambridge
Springs only by the width of the Atlantic Ocean). We corresponded for
several years. However, when I had the audacity to correct one of his
errors in translating a Spanish phrase, his huffy reply indicated
that
he was alien to the concept of receiving constructive criticism. I
stopped writing after this incident."

That anecdote has been seen here more often
than the Ruy Lopez. The question remains, what
evidence is there (other than hearsay) that EW
in fact mistranslated a Spanish phrase, and that
AS's idea of a correction was both correct and ill-
received? As far as I have seen, AS seemed
reluctant to even specify the precise phrase so
others might weigh in; never mind the obvious
problem of presenting only one side of this story.

Was it Aesop, or perhaps the Brothers Grimm
who crafted an entire story just to make a point
to show how crucial it was to get both sides of
a story before rushing to any judgment? Either
way, we can expect reliance on mere anecdotes
and personal biases as the best the Evans
ratpack has to offer. To me, this is not dissimilar
to the guy who said he "always agrees with" EW;
it amounts to a testamonial, for or against, but it
is lacking in any real substance. Some folks
just accept this sort of fare; but I want meat and
potatoes. I want my stomach to know that I've
eaten something substantive. Give me pot roast!


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