One Move at a Time March Edition: FM Jon Jacobs

Welcome to the March 2021 edition of “One Move at a Time,” the US Chess podcast in which Dan Lucas, the Senior Director of Strategic Communication, talks to people who are advancing the US Chess mission statement to “Empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.”

Image

FM Jon Jacobs

This month's guest is FM Jon Jacobs and touches on his 50+ years as an amateur competitor, his pending upsets book The Fish That Roared, his time as a pioneer anti-cheating activist during the mid-2000s, the dozen Chess Life articles he has authored since 2005, and his new project in collaboration with IM Yury Lapshun to drive international chess tourism to important locations in chess history, starting with a few sites in the New York City area. (For an introduction to the latter, see the December 2020 Chess Life article, “Pugilists at Rest,” which provides detailed directions for visiting the graves of Steinitz and Lasker.)

Links and more information about items mentioned in the podcast:

1. Email address for listeners to submit upset games for The Fish That Roared book: instead of the one mentioned in the podcast, please use  Click here to show email address. To be eligible for the book, a game must have been played face-to-face, standard or rapid rated (no blitz, no simuls), well played and exciting, the "upsetter" should be rated below 2000, and at least 400-point rating difference between the players.
2. The Fish That Roared group on Facebook (contains numerous posts of annotated, brilliant upset games, many in which club players triumphed over IMs and GMs): The Fish That Roared | Facebook . The “public” FB group is viewable by all (not only members), and posted games are not subject to the same criteria as the book: games displayed in the group can feature upsetters rated 200+, 2200+, etc., and there is no set minimum rating difference for a game to qualify as an “upset” for purposes of the FB group.
3. Jacobs' favorite personal games, which he calls the “Jacobs Immortal” and the “Jacobs Evergreen” can be replayed at  Alan Pincus vs Jon Jacobs (1972) (chessgames.com)  and   Jon Jacobs vs Salvijus Bercys (2004) (chessgames.com), respectively.  
4. Jacobs' Chess Life articles:
   • March 2007, "Blockading Chess Cheaters"
   • December 2020, "Pugilists at Rest"
   • December 2006, "The Sense of Danger, Part III
   • July 2005, "Trojan Horse Draw Offer

Make sure to subscribe to our family of podcasts on Google Podcasts, iTunes, or Spotify! .

Image