Asa Hoffmann
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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 (chess grandmaster), 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 vic ...
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United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five Territories of the United States, major island territories and United States Minor Outlying Islands, various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest land area and List of countries and dependencies by population, third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three Metropolitan statistical areas by population, largest metropolitan areas are New York metropolitan area, New York, Greater Los Angeles, Los Angel ...
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World Chess Champion
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. The first event recognized as a world championship was the World Chess Championship 1886, 1886 match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort. Steinitz won, making him 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, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) took over administration of the World Championship, beginning with the World Chess Championship 1948, 1948 tournament. From 1948 to 1993, FIDE organized a set of tournaments and matches to choose a new challenger for the world championship match, which wa ...
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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 10 – WWII: Guadalcanal campaign, Guadalcanal Campaign: American forces of the 2nd Marine Division and the 25th Infantry Division (United States), 25th Infantry Division begin their assaults on the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse#Galloping Horse, Galloping Horse and Sea Horse on Guadalcanal. Meanwhile, the Japanese Seventeenth Army (Japan), 17th Army makes plans to abandon the island and after fierce resistance withdraws to the west coast of Guadalcanal. * January 11 ** The United States and United Kingdom revise previously unequal treaty relationships with the Republic of China (1912–194 ...
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Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, largest, and average area per state and territory, smallest county by area in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located almost entirely on Manhattan Island near the southern tip of the state, Manhattan constitutes the center of the Northeast megalopolis and the urban core of the New York metropolitan area. Manhattan serves as New York City's Economy of New York City, economic and Government of New York City, administrative center and has been described as the cultural, financial, Media in New York City, media, and show business, entertainment capital of the world. Present-day Manhattan was originally part of Lenape territory. European settlement began with the establishment of a trading post by Dutch colonization of the Americas, D ...
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Gramercy Park
Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park, and the surrounding neighborhood (which is also referred to as Gramercy), in Manhattan in New York City. 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. 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 quiet and safe. The neighborhood, associated historic district, and park have generally received positive reviews. Calling it "a Victorian gentleman who has refused to die", Charlotte Devree ...
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Austin Pendleton
Austin Campbell Pendleton (born March 27, 1940) is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor. Pendleton is known as a prolific character actor on the stage and screen, whose six-decade career has included roles in films including ''Catch-22 (film), Catch-22'' (1970); ''What's Up, Doc? (1972 film), What's Up, Doc?'' (1972); ''The Front Page (1974 film), The Front Page'' (1974); ''The Muppet Movie'' (1979), ''Short Circuit (1986 film), Short Circuit'' (1986); ''Mr. & Mrs. Bridge'' (1990); ''My Cousin Vinny'' (1992); ''Mr. Nanny'' (1993); ''Guarding Tess'' (1994); ''Amistad (film), Amistad'' (1997); ''A Beautiful Mind (film), 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 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, Best Direction of a Play for the Broadway (theatre), Broadway revival of ''The L ...
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Searching For Bobby Fischer
''Searching for Bobby Fischer'', released in the United Kingdom as ''Innocent Moves'', is a 1993 American drama film written and directed by Steven Zaillian in his 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 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 Best Cinematography in the 66th Academy Awards. Plot Seven-year-old Josh Waitzkin becomes fascinated with the chess players in New York City's Washington Square Park. His mother, Bonnie, is initially uncomfortable with his interest, as the games in the park are rife with illegal gambling and homeless players, but eventually allows Josh to play a game with a disheveled player (who charges $5 to play the game). Although Josh loses, Bonnie is amazed that he understands the rules of chess, despite having ...
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Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, 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, Edmond S. Meany Middle School, Meany Middle School, and Garfield High School (Seattle, Washington), 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), Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick. Career Seirawan began playing chess at 12; at 13, he became Washington junior champion. At 19, he ...
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Blitz Chess
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a variant of fast chess with draw odds for black and unequal time controls, used as a tiebreaker of last resort. As of January 2025, the top-ranked rapid chess player and the top-ranked blitz chess player in the open section is Magnus Carlsen from Norway, who is also the top-ranked classical chess player. The reigning World Rapid Chess Champion is Volodar Murzin of Russia. The reigning World Blitz Chess Champions are Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia (who shared victory in 2024). As of January 2025, Ju Wenjun of China is the women's top-ranked rapid player, who is also the reigning Women's World Chess Champion in classical chess and the reigning Women's World Blitz Chess Champion. The women's top-ra ...
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Poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules in different places. While the earliest known form of the game was played with just 20 cards, today it is usually played with a standard 52-card 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 Poker dealer, dealt face up or face down and the number Community card poker, shared by all players, but all have rules that involve one or more rounds of Betting in poker, 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 (poker), blind'' or ''ante''). In standard poker, each player bets a ...
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Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, 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. American architect Alfred Mosher Butts invented the game in 1931. ''Scrabble'' is produced in the United States and Canada by Hasbro, under the brands of both of its subsidiaries, Milton Bradley Company, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. Mattel owns the rights to manufacture ''Scrabble'' outside the U.S. and Canada. As of 2008, 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 homes and half of British homes have a ''Scrabble'' set. There are approximately 4,000 ''Scrabble'' clubs around the world. Equipment ''Scrabble ...
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Contract Bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking game, trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two Team game, competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, bridge tournaments, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among Old Age, 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 to the players; then the players ''call'' (or ''bid'') in an 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 exchange infor ...
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