The Last Gamesman

The Last Gamesman

Author: Asa Hoffmann

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Published: 2022-03-16

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1662922612

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The Last Gamesman is the story of Asa Hoffmann, legendary New York Chess player and master of Backgammon, Poker, Scrabble, Bridge, and Horse handicapping. Born into a privileged family of two attorneys, Asa was sent to the best schools including Horace Mann and Columbia University, but after a year at Columbia left school and his Park Avenue family home to make a living “hustling” chess and other games in the streets, parks and clubs of New York City. His character is portrayed in the book and film “Searching for Bobby Fischer”. Asa has made a living plying his skills in parts of eight decades, winning tournaments in every game he plays, his main game being Chess. Asa also teaches gaming theory, is the author of two Chess books and has been featured in movies and documentaries about Chess and in a feature article in the New York Times. He teaches chess in New York City. A teenage friend of World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, Asa achieved the international chess title of FIDE Master and was ranked number 21 in the US at the age of 21. He has continued to play and win tournaments since the 1950’s and is now one of the top senior chess players in the country. In this volume Asa recounts the amazing and often humorous stories of the characters, the events, and the venues of the New York gaming world, many of which no longer exist but are worth memorializing. Asa’s co-author is his wife, Virginia Hoffmann, formerly ranked number 11th top female chess player in the United States.


The Gamesman

The Gamesman

Author: Barry N. Malzberg

Publisher: Gateway

Published: 2011-09-29

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 0575102462

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A staggering vision of Earth in the not-so-distant future. . . In a controlled and mechanical world, the only reality is fear and killing boredom. The only escape from mind-blowing monotony is the Game, with predictable rules of stimulus and response. And if you pit yourself against the Games Master, you may lose your last vestige of sanity. Or your life! 'There are perhaps a dozen genius writers in this genre and Barry is at least eight of them' - Harlan Ellison


Star Chaser: The Traveler

Star Chaser: The Traveler

Author: Reiter

Publisher: Quicksylver Publications

Published: 2014-10-13

Total Pages: 934

ISBN-13: 0692269002

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Welcome! You have just entered a new realm - a new Universe where there are worlds, races, powers, allies and enemies just waiting to be discovered. Your place may be with the wielders of Iro... or perhaps as a Traveler... it could be that your destiny lies on a ship flying through the stars... or straining your skills on a battlefield... maybe you're most suited to hours spent pouring over ancient tomes... or engaged in a game of chess that will shape the cosmos. Whatever your place - wherever your destination - you will find yourself... Beyond the Outer Rim In 'Star Chaser: The Traveler', the prelude to the series, we meet Z’GUNOK TEL DUNGIAS, a Malgovi born without the ability to channel IRO, an ability inherent in the vast majority of his race. As a member of a high-ranking family, he lived a life in-between... not truly an outcast, but never fully embraced. Often discounted and forgotten, Dungias was left to grow and learn primarily on his own. Yet the advantages of his family's name did not entirely protect him against those who considered him anathema. Through strength, daring, and unexpected cunning, Dungias created himself out of nothing - and worked toward the day when he could make changes... Little did he know just how far-reaching those changes would be! “A venturesome sci-fi/fantasy novel for readers who really want their action set where no man has gone before.” - Kirkus Reviews


The Theory And Practice Of Gamesmanship; Or, The Art Of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating

The Theory And Practice Of Gamesmanship; Or, The Art Of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating

Author: Stephen Potter

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 1786256789

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Gamesmanship as a civilised art is as old as the competitive spirit in man. It is polite psychological warfare. It is the moral equivalent of assault and battery. It is, as the subject of this book points out, The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating. Anyone who has ever played any games for keeps has discovered the Gamesman either in himself or in an opponent. In its simplest terms the poker player’s bluff is a device of gamesmanship. While winning games without actually cheating may seem to some scrupulous sportmen to be treading the fair-play borderline, the author points out ‘The true Gamesman is always the Good Sportsman.’ If you find your game is slipping, whatever it might be-golf, tennis, bridge, poker, chess, craps or croquet-this is the book for you. Apply the power of the ‘ploy’ or, as we would say, the ‘Indian sign.’ After reading Gamesmanship you, too, can win without actually cheating.—Print Ed.


Coach Hall

Coach Hall

Author: Joe B. Hall

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2019-11-19

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0813178592

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This inspiring memoir by an NCAA championship player who went on to become an NCAA championship coach is “a quick read chronicling an eventful life” (Lexington Herald-Leader). Until I was nine or ten, everyone called me Joe or Joe Hall. Then one day, my grandmother, for reasons known only to her, pulled me aside, telling me my name was “too short and too plain.” She said, “Let’s add your middle initial to make it more interesting. From now on, you say your name is Joe B., not just Joe. It’s Joe B. Hall.” Joe B. Hall is one of only three men to both play on an NCAA championship team (1949, Kentucky) and coach an NCAA championship team (1978, Kentucky)—and the only one to do so for the same school. In this riveting memoir, Hall presents intimate details about his remarkable life on and off the court. He reveals never-before-heard stories about memorable players, coaches, and friends and expresses the joys and fulfillments of his rewarding life and career. During his thirteen years as head coach at the University of Kentucky, from 1972 to 1985, Joe B. Hall led the team to 297 victories, the most memorable being the 1978 NCAA Men’s Division Basketball Championship. This legendary coach followed in the colossal footsteps of Adolph Rupp to chart his own path to success and become one of college basketball’s all-time greats and winningest coaches.


Game of My Life

Game of My Life

Author: Dave Buscema

Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1582618518

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In Game of My Life: 20 Stories of Yankees Baseball, everyone from stars to supersubs offers personal stories revealing the obstacles they had to overcome in order to succeed on sports' biggest stage. Some of the biggest names to ever don the pinstripes are captured in personal portraits here, from Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera to Don Mattingly, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, and all the way back to Yogi Berra and Tommy Henrich, the first Yankee to grow up dreaming of the big ballpark in the Bronx. Along with taking readers behind the scenes of the greatest moments in Yankees history--from Bucky Dent's home run to David Wells's perfect game--the book offers a glimpse of what helped the stars reach their peak. Jorge Posada made up for the dream his father lost as a political prisoner in Cuba. Ron Guidry hunted from the time he was a boy to help his hard-working father put food on the table. Mel Stottlemyre, who lost a son to leukemia, picked a seemingly meaningless regular-season game because my boys didn't think I could do it. Joe Torre first started organizing games in the park as he took refuge from his bully of a father. Don Mattingly recounts the thrill of proving he could perform on the October stage and the decision to walk away from the game without a World Series ring so he could spend time with his family. Reggie Jackson details his difficulty in adjusting to the Yankees, from his battles with Billy Martin to his eventual triumph in making World Series history. Award-winning writer Dave Buscema, who covers the Yankees on a regular basis, paints a personal picture of the Yankees' biggest stars and captures the joy of those who rose from obscurity to history. The game accountsspark memories of the most exciting moments in Yankees history. The players personal stories show that, for many of them, the Game of My Life was often about more than just a game.


The Titan Game

The Titan Game

Author: Niven Busch

Publisher: eNet Press

Published: 2015-02-24

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1618869221

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With action moving from the fast-track of Silicon Valley to a Moroccan prison cell, from secret war games in the California desert to sexual espionage in the nation's capital, this story tells of a young man brought up in the weapons business — and disgusted with it — who is suddenly forced to adjust to a world he never made. Jason Streck, once a hostage of another kind, inherits his father's defense-procurement empire and is swiftly drawn onto turf staked out for profit by international merchants whose currency is finding new ways to kill — and Streck's company has one. Many lives beyond Jason's are reshaped or wiped out, blessed or cursed by the new machine and the battle for its control. The youthful CEO must learn to deal with the high-level boardroom and bedroom protocols of the elite Pentagon "E-Circle" group and of certain men and women seeking to penetrate it. The rules of The Titan Game are as deadly as gas and as devious as fog; among them: torturers can become esteemed customers; bystanders are seldom innocent; a man's worst enemy is often himself; and your best work can betray you.


Game Wizards

Game Wizards

Author: Jon Peterson

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2021-10-12

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0262542951

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The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its cocreators. When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success--and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson--a noted authority on role-playing games--explains how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies. Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous. And he chronicles TSR's reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting, which culminated with the company in debt and overextended and the end of Gygax's losing battle to retain control over TSR and D&D. With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.