Word: patzer
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...spent part of my childhood expecting to be a master, but I turned out a patzer all the same. At first, I thought chess was some strange ritual, played only by my father and the close relatives who visited us on special occasions. But once my father saw fit to teach me the moves, I began to progress rapidly. My book learning was limited to a book by Fred Reinfield, which outlined the moves, and a few of Reinfields's favorite mates...
...eight, and at the same age Bobby Fischer was astounding people by playing speed chess at the Brooklyn Chess Club. These lucky types are the subject of Harold C. Schonberg's latest book, "Grandmasters of Chess." Schonberg, the top music critic for The New York Times, a patzer and Pulitzer Prize winner, has written "Grandmasters" for a general audience, including failed patzers. It is an immensely entertaining book, lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings. Schonberg traces the history of grandmaster chess, beginning with Philidor in the 1740s and moving to Morphy, Steinitz, Marshall, Capablanca, Alekhine, contemporary Russians like Petrosian...
...odds of a rook and winning easily. Sammy came to the U.S. when he was nine, and promptly defeated a platoon of Army officers in simultaneous play at West Point. Then, when he was eleven, someone discovered that the boy wonder had never attended school. Merchant Julius Rosenwald, a Patzer and philanthropist, soon remedied this defect. Six months of tutoring brought Reshevsky up to high-school level and he went on to graduate from the University of Chicago. Except for a flair for mathematics, he was just an average student...