MakeChessNotWar is Eric Schiller, a World Chess Federation (FIDE) master who has written more than 100 chess books as the sole author or collaborator. Born and raised in New York, he now lives in Moss Beach, California, just south of San Francisco. He spends his time on many activities, mostly involving chess, linguistics, computers and music -- though he's also involved in political activism as well.
On Sunday, August 23, Eric won the inaugural Daily Kos Chess Tournament. Even though I posted the initial diary honoring his victory last week, today will be his victory parade. Follow me below the fold for some cool anecdotes about the man, and some nice eye candy that could give Al Rodgers a run for his money.
Growing Up
A couple of months ago on Twitter, Markos advertised the Daily Kos Chess Tournament as "Progressive politics and chess in one convenient package." If there are still any doubts about how chess and progressive politics intertwine, one need look no further than the tournament's first champion, Eric Schiller.
Schiller was raised in New York during the height of the Vietnam War and first began to dabble in political activism as an anti-war demonstrator in 1969. He was accepted to the University of Chicago in 1972, where he became involved in local politics. He often ran into David Axelrod, who was already making his mark in the city as a young master political consultant.
A gifted linguist, Schiller earned his bachelor's degree in Russian in 1976. He spent the following summer in Europe working as a translator for the pharmaceutical company Hoffman-La Roche, translating catalogs from German to Russian. It was not an intensive work schedule and he had enough free time to attend a course in symphonic conducting.
During the late 1970's, Schiller decided to try to make conducting a career, following in the footsteps of his uncle Pierre Monteux, a former conductor of the San Francisco and Boston Symphonies who founded a music school in Hancock, Maine, where Schiller had previously taken classes. After some time, Schiller had managed to put together a small chamber orchestra on Long Island, specializing in Baroque and contemporary music. He also had the opportunity to attend almost all of the reversals of the New York Philharmonic and meet several famous conductors, such as Leonard Bernstein, with whom Schiller shared common interests in linguistics and the writings of Noam Chomsky. Though he had a fondness for conducting, Schiller would eventually return to the University of Chicago in 1983 to pursue a doctorate in linguistics -- a decision made in no small part due to Ronald Reagan's budget cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chess & the Cold War
Along with his forays into political activism, Schiller was also influenced by a life-long love affair with the game of chess, which he began playing at the age of four. During his academic years, he began to establish himself as a highly gifted player, arbiter, and organizer. When he was 17, he won an exhibition match against the Grandmaster and eight-time U.S. national champion Samuel Reshevsky. In 1981, he defeated FIDE Master Marcos Paolozzi at the Regency Masters tournament in Ramsgate, England -- a match (shown in the ChessFlash widget below) which was published in the prestigious chess journal Chess Informant. Schiller held the world student team championships at the University of Chicago in 1983, and helped organize many world championship events, usually as a press officer. In the same year, he published his first chess book as the sole author, Catalan -- a book for which he received a congratulatory note from the Mayor of Barcelona at the time. "He may not have known it was a book on a chess opening," jokes Schiller.
Eric Schiller vs. Marcos Paolozzi (1981); annotations by Schiller
In 1986, Schiller served as the press chief for the World Chess Championship between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, which took place in London for the first 12 matches and Leningrad for the next 12. At the start of the event, a representative of the British government asked Schiller to invite six journalists to the opening ceremony and party, where Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would be in attendance. Schiller decided that there was simply no way that he could single out half a dozen of the more than 600 journalists in attendance for special treatment, so he instead requested that either all journalists or none of them be invited.
The next day, the British government agreed to allow all journalists to attend the event, but with a caveat. Schiller would have to personally accompany the Prime Minister throughout the evening to make sure that she didn't give any impromptu interviews to journalists, as she was not allowed to do so on social occasions. So, he spent the evening at her side. "One benefit I got from this," says Schiller, "is that since the British authorities did not ask me any security questions at all, I could safely assume that there [was] nothing in my FBI or CIA files that was of particular concern." Serving on the staff of the 1986 championship also gave him the opportunity to meet the entire cast of the musical Chess, who attended a party sponsored by the championship at the London Hippodrome.
Eric Schiller (with beard) speaking to chess grandmasters Garry Kasparov (white coat) and Anatoly Karpov (far right) at the 1986 World Chess Championship. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is in the foreground.
However, Schiller would soon learn about U.S.-Soviet tension amid the Cold War the hard way. When the Championship shifted its locale from London to Leningrad, Schiller was barred from entering the USSR. Every other member of the British delegation who applied for a visa -- as well as each Russian member who applied for visas to travel to London for the first half of the event -- was successful. Schiller's visa, however, was denied because a Soviet chess bureaucrat, at the behest of then-FIDE President Florencio Campomanes, accused Schiller of improperly taking documents out of the USSR in 1984, even though he was working in Moscow for the Associated Press at the time. In 1982, Schiller did smuggle out a letter from Boris Gulko, the former Soviet Grandmaster now playing for the US, when Gulko was on a hunger strike to protest the Soviet Union's refusal to allow him to emigrate abroad. Schiller delivered the letter to Soviet defector and Grandmaster Lev Alburt, one of Schiller's co-authors.
Though he never did get his visa, and has not returned to Russia since, the controversy allowed Schiller to get some valuable airtime on TV and radio in order to promote his books. Ironically, around the same time he had also been made a target of suspicious activity in London. In 1982 the Women’s Committee on Soviet Jewry accused Schiller (who describes himself as "a typical non-religious New York Jew") of being a KGB stooge. Apparently, he already had a big FBI file dating back to the mid 1960's, when he subscribed to Russian newspapers to learn Russian and read chess newsletters.
Schiller was often interviewed by the FBI over activities by Soviet, Chinese and Libyan chess players on US soil. The FBI had also wanted a list of ranked chess players, but didn’t want to ask FIDE. So, Schiller wrote to FIDE and asked them to mail one to the FBI office. Schiller had also once met with PLO representatives at the 1988 Chess Olympiad, an activity which was reported to the FBI by members of the official USCF delegation. However, nothing happened save for a brief and painless interview.
Despite the paranoia surrounding the country during the Cold War, Schiller claims to have had nothing but good relations with the US government, and to his knowledge his privacy was never invaded. "Though," he adds, "when playing chess by mail with Russians, I noticed some envelopes had been opened twice.
Master Linguist, Kibitzer, Arbiter, & Chocolate Inspector
Schiller would go on to earn his doctorate in linguistics in 1991, but was still very much involved in the game of chess. A couple years later, he was offered a job near San Francisco with Electronic Arts to work on illustrative tutorials for the PC game "Kasparov's Gambit," and he's been in California ever since.
At the 1990 World Chess Championship, again between Kasparov and Karpov, Schiller had served as a spokesman for the match -- or as Schiller likes to call it, "Overlord of the Press Center." Fluent in Russian, German, and a bit of Cambodian (Khmer), Schiller acted as a liaison between the players and the huge contingent of journalists from multiple countries, who gathered in cramped, noisy clusters on the eighth floor of the Hotel Macklowe in New York, watching the match on television monitors in the press room.
Schiller acting as arbiter of the 2000 World Chess Championship between Vladimir Kramnik (not shown) and Kasparov (seated).
During the second match of the championship, the players proceeded with what is known as the Flohr-Zaitsev Variation, a variation of the traditional Ruy Lopez opening. This caught some of the tournament kibitzers by surprise, as they were expecting a Queen-side opening. So, they sought out Schiller -- who had recently published an analysis on the variation and who had spent a week at Kasparov's training camp in Martha's Vineyard -- for his advice. He then humorously employed what John Tierney in The New York Times called "chessmanship."
"They figured I must have known this was coming," said Schiller at the time. "Of course I had no idea what Kasparov was going to do or why he chose that opening. But I just smiled knowingly and muttered about how I wasn't at liberty to discuss what had gone on at training camp, and people assumed I must really be in the know."
Kibitzing, Schiller said, can be used as a valuable tool to gain a psychological edge over other chess observers. "When everyone else is puzzling over a new situation that's arisen, you suddenly announce, 'Oh, I remember this position. It was played three weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur by Belyavsky and Portisch.' It's good to use one Russian name and one European name, and to stick to an out-of-the-way place. Reykjavik is another good choice."
Schiller would later have the great honor of serving as arbiter of the 2000 World Chess Championship between Vladimir Kramnik and Kasparov. Since the players were forbidden from bringing notes or written material into the auditorium where the matches took place, their belongings had to be searched to prevent the possibility of cheating. Even chocolate bars purchased by Kramnik and Kasparov had to be opened and inspected before they could eat them to make sure that no notes were written anywhere on the wrapper. Besides being given the awesome responsibility of overseeing the matches between two of the greatest chess players in the world, Schiller was also tasked with inspecting the candy bars prior to the games.
Schiller (standing) giving an exhibition at Barnes & Noble to promote his books.
Chess, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll
One of the most amusing chess anecdotes about Schiller took place on the night of September 30, 1995, the day before a match against a nationally-ranked high school player at the San Mateo International Futurity tournament. Schiller had tickets to a Phish concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, California, and wanted to put chess out of his mind and relax on the eve of the match. But it seemed that he couldn't escape the royal game, even at a Phish concert.
On the left side of the stage, hung vertically behind the band was a giant chessboard with all of the pieces in their proper places. After opening the show with "My Friend," Phish explained that they were big fans of chess and wanted to challenge the audience to a match, letting the result unfold throughout the course of their 1995 fall tour. The Shoreline concert marked the beginning of two chess matches pitting the band against its fans, with a couple of moves per side at each tour stop.
Playing as White, keyboardist and vocalist Page McConnell opened the match with the normal move 1. e4 (King's Pawn). A fan by the name of "Pooh" responded with 1...e5 (also the King's Pawn). Page then played a pet move of his: 2. Bb5?!, which is known as the Portuguese Opening. Pooh then played 2...Nc6, and Page responded with 3. Nf3 -- an unorthodox pattern of moves leading to a common opening known as the Ruy Lopez. Appropriately, all of these moves took place as the rest of the band played a rendition of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane.
At intermission, people were invited to gather at the Greenpeace booth and vote on the next audience move. Schiller headed over there and introduced himself as a professional and current champion of Northern California. He explained that the choice should be between 3...a6 and 3...Nf6, both good counter-strategies for the Ruy Lopez. Eventually, the audience selected 3...a6.
Then, suddenly, Schiller was asked to make the move on stage during the second set! He was escorted backstage to meet the members of Phish: Page, Mike Gordon, Trey Anastasio, and Jon Fishman. Though they were fans of the game and had often practiced against one another while on the road, they were a little surprised to be facing a professional opponent at this concert, if but for only one move. Schiller gave them some encouragement by explaining that the Ruy Lopez was a position employed by Kasparov against (2008 champ) Viswanathan Anand at the 1995 World Chess Championship. Just before the second set began, Schiller walked on stage to make the selected move before 20,000 screaming fans, which Schiller believes "might be a record for people in attendance at a chess game." He made the move and exited, and the second set got underway with "Runaway Jim."
The experience at the concert seemed to have a calming effect on Schiller, who would go on the next day to play and win an inspired chess match against Adrian Keatinge-Clay by taking advantage of a Knight sacrifice. Schiller described his post-Phish frame of mind like this:
"At the point in the game just before I delivered the decisive sacrifice, I had that same feeling that many of us get when absorbed in great music, whether it is Bach's 'Musical Offering,' the Grateful Dead's 'Dark Star,' or Phish's 'Stash.' There is the fantastic Zen-like feeling that everything makes sense, that all truth is suddenly revealed even if it cannot be articulated. For those of us who love chess, it is this, not the mere defeating of an opponent, that matters. This is why we play, why we devote countless hours to studying the mysteries of the game, which even after 1,500 years or so have not been worked out by man or machine."
As for Phish, they would go on to win this match as the audience resigned on November 15, 1995 at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. However, the audience would get even as they started a new game the next day, a match which Phish would concede on New Year's Eve at Madison Square Garden.
Master of the Kosmos
In 2006, Schiller suffered a stroke which forced him to take a year off of chess competitions, though he did remain active in both political action and teaching chess to students. In 2007, he served on the national steering committee of America for Gore, and recently he was involved in promoting opposition to Prop 8, support for health care reform, and trying to get more progressives from California into Congress, notably Marcy Winograd and Marta Jorgensen. A few months ago, Schiller even had the opportunity to play against RZA of the Wu Tang Clan at the Hip Hop Chess Federation (pictured at left; photo by Eric Arnold). Next year, he plans on returning to London as arbiter of the Staunton Memorial Chess Tournament.
When it came time for the Daily Kos tournament, Schiller was attracted to the event not only because he was a frequent poster on the website, but also because he knew some of the other chess professionals behind the handles and had great respect for them. "I treated all the games seriously and used my first line openings," he said. "The time limit of 30 minutes per player per game suits me well in my advancing age. I can't keep up with the youngsters when it comes to speed chess."
With his victory over Sharkmeister in the 8th and final round of the tournament, all Schiller had to do was await the outcome of cschess vs. PsiFighter37, the latter of whom needed to win to tie Schiller for 1st place and force a blitz playoff for the championship. When that match ended in a draw, Schiller won the title, and with that came a book signed by Kasparov and a series of training newsletters from Chess Ninja, which he will use for teaching his students. In addition to these prizes, he also gets the bragging rights of being the chess champion of the Great Orange Satan (the rest of his matches in the DKos tournament can be viewed here).
I'll let Mr. Schiller end his victory parade in his own words:
I have won state titles in Illinois, Hawaii, and California but being master of the Kosmos gives a special pleasure. Of course it doesn't prove that my political ideas are correct, but it also shows that at least my mind is at a level above the birthers and deathers.
I have my parents and five brothers and sisters (you may have seen my sister Wendy on cable news on senatorial politics) to thank for enabling and equipping me to live such an interesting life.
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Diary jointly written by SuperBowlXX and MakeChessNotWar.
NOTA BENE #1: To order his books, Schiller recommends that you use Cardoza Publishing, which offers a 20% discount on many of his published works.
NOTA BENE #2: For anyone who might be concerned, this diary is not "outing" MakeChessNotWar. He has given me permission to share these anecdotes, photos, and biographical information about him in this diary.