Asa Hoffmann
   HOME
*



picture info

Asa Hoffmann
Asa Hoffmann (born February 25, 1943) is a FIDE Master in chess, chess teacher and author from the United States of America. He is known as "the sparring partner of champions". His peak regular USCF rating is 2471, his peak quick rating is 2515 and his peak blitz rating is 2414. Hoffmann is interviewed in the documentary '' Bobby Fischer Against the World'' along with Anthony Saidy, Larry Evans, and Susan Polgar. In 1987 he was profiled in ''The New York Times''. The winner of the New York City junior championship in 1962 and the First Army Championship in 1966, by the age of 21 Hoffmann was ranked number 21 in the nation. His natural tactical flair and strong positional understanding made him a dangerous opponent even to top Grandmasters. Hoffmann went on to have more than a 50-year chess career, winning hundreds of tournaments and playing against most of the top ranked U.S. Grandmasters as well as many World Championship contenders. He was vice president of the Manhattan Che ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

World Chess Champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match between the two leading players in the world, Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. Steinitz won, becoming the first world champion. From 1886 to 1946, the champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. Following the death of reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, FIDE (the International Chess Federation) took over administration of the World Championship, beginning with the 1948 World Championship tournament. From 1948 to 1993, FIDE organized a set of tournaments to choose a new challenger every three years. In 1993, reigning champion Garry Kasparov broke away from FIDE, which led to a rival claimant to the title of W ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1943 Births
Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – WWII: Greek-Polish athlete and saboteur Jerzy Iwanow-Szajnowicz is executed by the Germans at Kaisariani. * January 11 ** The United States and United Kingdom revise previously unequal treaty relationships with the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China. ** Italian-American anarchist Carlo Tresca is assassinated in New York City. * January 13 – Anti-Nazi protests in Sofia result in 200 arrests and 36 executions. * January 14 – January 24, 24 – WWII: Casablanca Conference: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States; Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and Generals Charles de Gaulle and Henri Giraud of the Free French forces meet secretly at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, to plan the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. Located near the southern tip of New York State, Manhattan is based in the Eastern Time Zone and constitutes both the geographical and demographic center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass. Over 58 million people live within 250 miles of Manhattan, which serves as New York City’s economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and the city’s historical birthplace. Manhattan has been described as the cultural, financial, media, and entertainment capital of the world, is considered a safe haven for global real estate investors, and hosts the United Nations headquarters. New York City is the headquarters of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Gramercy Park
Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. The approximately park, located in the Gramercy Park Historic District, is one of two private parks in New York City – the other is Sunnyside Gardens Park in Queens – as well as one of only three in the state; only people residing around the park who pay an annual fee have a key, and the public is not generally allowed in – although the sidewalks of the streets around the park are a popular jogging, strolling, and dog-walking route. The neighborhood is mostly located within Manhattan Community District 6, with a small portion in Community District 5. It is generally perceived to be a quiet and safe area. The neighborhood, associated historic district, and park have generally received positive reviews. Calling it "a Victorian gent ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Austin Pendleton
Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. He is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen who has appeared in films including ''Catch-22'' (1970); '' What's Up, Doc?'' (1972); ''The Front Page'' (1974); ''The Muppet Movie'' (1979), ''Short Circuit'' (1986); ''Mr. and Mrs. Bridge'' (1990); ''My Cousin Vinny'' (1992); '' Amistad'' (1997); '' A Beautiful Mind'' (2001), which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture nomination; and '' Finding Nemo'' (2003). Pendleton received a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play for the Broadway revival of ''The Little Foxes'' in 1981. He has received two Drama Desk Award nominations and the recipient of a Special Drama Desk Award in 2007. He also received a Obie Award for Best Director for the 2011 off-Broadway revival of '' Three Sisters''. Recent Broadway credits include ''Choir ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Searching For Bobby Fischer
''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', released in the United Kingdom as ''Innocent Moves'', is a 1993 American Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Steven Zaillian in his List of directorial debuts, directorial debut. Starring Max Pomeranc in his film debut, Joe Mantegna, Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley, and Laurence Fishburne, it is based on the life of prodigy (chess), prodigy chess player Joshua Waitzkin, played by Pomeranc, and adapted from the book of the same name by Joshua's father, Fred Waitzkin. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Best Cinematography in the 66th Academy Awards. Plot Seven-year-old Josh Waitzkin becomes fascinated with the chess players in Washington Square Park. Josh's mother, Bonnie, is initially uncomfortable with her young son's interest, as the games in the park are rife with Gaming Law, illegal gambling and Homelessness, homeless players, but eventually allows Josh to play a game with a disheveled playe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan ( ar, ياسر سيروان; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess author and commentator. Early life Seirawan was born in Damascus, Syria. His father was Syrian and his mother an English nurse from Nottingham, where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family immigrated to Seattle, Washington, where he attended Queen Anne Elementary School, Meany Middle School, and Garfield High School. He honed his game at a now-defunct coffeehouse, the Last Exit on Brooklyn, playing against the likes of Latvian-born master Viktors Pupols and six-time Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick. Career Seirawan began playing chess at 12; at 13, he became Washington junior champion. At 19, he won the World Junior Chess Championship. He also won a game against Viktor Korchnoi, who had two yea ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Blitz Chess
Fast chess, also known as Speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time to consider their moves than normal tournament time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a particular variation of fast chess in which different rules apply for each of the two players. The top ranked 2021 world rapid chess player is Magnus Carlsen from Norway, who is also the top ranked classical chess player. The top ranked blitz chess player at the beginning of 2022 is Hikaru Nakamura. The top ranked 2021 women's rapid and blitz chess player is Hou Yifan from China, who is also the top ranked women's classical chess player. FIDE rules The World Chess Federation (FIDE) divides time controls for chess into "classical" time controls, and the fast chess time controls. , for master-level players (with an Elo of 2200 or higher) the regulations state that at least 120 minutes per ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game was played with just 20 cards, today it is usually played with a standard deck, although in countries where short packs are common, it may be played with 32, 40 or 48 cards.Parlett (2008), pp. 568–570. Thus poker games vary in deck configuration, the number of cards in play, the number dealt face up or face down, and the number shared by all players, but all have rules that involve one or more rounds of betting. In most modern poker games, the first round of betting begins with one or more of the players making some form of a forced bet (the '' blind'' or ''ante''). In standard poker, each player bets according to the rank they believe their hand is worth as compared to the other players. The action then proceeds clockwise as each play ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left to right in rows or downward in columns and are included in a standard dictionary or lexicon. The name ''Scrabble'' is a trademark of Mattel in most of the world, except in the United States and Canada, where it is a trademark of Hasbro, under the brands of both of its subsidiaries, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. The game is sold in 121 countries and is available in more than 30 languages; approximately 150 million sets have been sold worldwide, and roughly one-third of American and half of British homes have a ''Scrabble'' set. There are approximately 4,000 ''Scrabble'' clubs around the world. Game details The game is played by two to four players on a square game board imprinted with a 15×15 grid of cells (individually known as " ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Contract Bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level. The game consists of a number of , each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players; then the players ''call'' (or ''bid'') in an auction seeking to take the , specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners use their bids to also exchange information about their hands, including o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]