The Albert Boxer Tournament and Der Alter Goniff

Der Alter Goniff is a Yiddish expression meaning "the old swindler". I read about it in Ed Gaillard's blog by the same name. "Hmm," I thought to myself, remembering Albert's habit of handling the captured chess pieces in his free hand like a magician rolls coins during a trick,"that would have been a cool nickname for Albert." I lost a few games against Albert, watching those pieces in one hand while he pillaged the board with his other hand. Those who remember playing Albert in the former home of the MCA in the Cornish Library will remember his running banter that went along with his magician's tricks. It used to drive me nuts but he was powerless to resist. You had to play him.

Anyway, I have been behind in my posting here for the Albert Boxer Tournament but I shall, over the course of this weekend, post a couple of previously unpublished photographs of Albert, and try to provide a few updates on the event. By the way, the event has been called the Albert Boxer Classic, ever since it was held on one of the same weekends in August/September that the Winnipeg-Regina CFL football rivalry takes place. I think the event should be called the Albert Boxer Memorial - but then again, I can be pretty old-fashioned sometimes.

Maybe we could establish a chess award - in a particular tournament or over the course of a longer period of time - in honour of Albert Boxer, and call it Der Alter Goniff award for the best chess swindle.

Albert would have liked that, methinks.



© Andrew Gillies & Nigel Hanrahan