I had not thought of this excellent chess and LIFE coach in ages, but was reminded of him by the following position played at the Internet Chess Club.
A little background on how I remember this guy. My nephew Mark attended a college in Fort Worth or maybe Dallas Texas. The college had chess scholarships and while Mark did not earn a scholarship, he learned a lot about the Royal Game from the humble and patient GM who was employed there as a tutor I think. Been awhile so I could be wrong about the specifics. I never met Yuri, but feel like I know him well based on Mark's remarks. Shulman actually helped Mark in life much more than chess if you will tolerate that irony. My nephew was spoiled rotten and thought he was good in chess because he was good at tactics, but sucked pretty bad at long term strategy.
He would show Mr Shulman a game where he had beaten a fish(weak chess player) with piece sacrifices and unsound play. He could not understand why his coach/tutor would berate him, sometimes cursing emphatically that THIS WAS NOT THE WAY TO GET fuckin BETTER AT CHESS!!
Take a look at the above position to see why this reminds me of Dr Shulman. White(blitzen at ICC) has just played Be4 which allows a mate in 9 according to Komodo chess engine. It is based on White carelessly not noticing an elementary mate based on Ng3 and the Bishop owning the g1-a7 diagonal.
I am certain the esteemed teacher would have given Mark an earful about his inattention to this detail. I want the teacher to know that Mark is quite successful in another field these days and will never forget the good times at the University in the DFW area where a Dr Root also guided him!
A man fond of quotes and sententious adages named David Hopkins was in that chess playing circle as I recall. Dr Jim Stallings is the driving force behind the scholarship program I believe.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of chess ruining your life is bogus. Jeff Hinrickson,Jessica Trésor, and Sudhir Srinivasan would all vehemently disagree probably