Chess: Wood-Pusher (1923); Evergreen Partie (1852)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

WOOD PUSHER

   Some chess slang.  Dan (Of DAN'S PAPERS) did a story about Kasparov
playing a machine.  The illustration had the machine taunting the human as a
"woodpusher."
   OED has no entry; HDAS is not there yet; Jonathon Green's CDS has
"1940s+."

   7 January 1923, WASHINGTON POST, pg. 7, col. 6:
_"Wood Pushers" vs. All Stars._

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
EVERGREEN PARTIE

   My old friend, Sam Sloan, is just as nutty and bizarre as ever.  This
letter is in Google Groups.  "Evergreen Partie" could possibly be recorded.


Subj:   [sloanschesslist] The Evergreen Party
Date:   12/12/2003 3:29:13 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:   <A HREF="mailto:sloan at ishipress.com">sloan at ishipress.com</A>
Reply-to:   <A HREF="mailto:sloanschesslist at yahoogroups.com">sloanschesslist at yahoogroups.com</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:Sam at samsloan.com">Sam at samsloan.com</A>
Sent from the Internet (Details)

The Evergreen Party

Here is a story I have never told previously to anybody, not even to
my mother, my wives or my children. It is about the time I formed a
political party. I called it "The Evergreen Party". By the time I
finish this, you will understand why I have never told anyone about
this.

It was 1973 and the City of New York was in great turmoil. Mayor John
Lindsay was unpopular and unlikely to be re-elected and a couple of
Mafia guys were trying to take over. Abe Beame was the leading
candidate but seemed to be incompetent.

At the same time, I was a big time operator. I had my own stock
brokerage firm, a registered broker dealer, Samuel H. Sloan & Co. I
was trading over 500 stocks at the same time and making big money. My
funds were virtually unlimited. This was before the SEC moved in and
closed me down.

So, I decided to run for Mayor of New York City, figuring that I could
win the election. I had enough money to run an effective campaign and
Lindsay and his opponents were weak.

To do this I needed a political party. So, I named it "The Evergreen
Party".

Every chess player in the world knows what the Evergreen Partie is,
but if anybody out there reading this does not play chess, I will let
you in on it. The Evergreen Partie is the name of a famous chess game,
perhaps the most famous game of chess ever played. It was played in
1852. Every grandmaster in history has studied and played over this
game. World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov recently published new
analysis of it. It is called "Evergreen" because the game is so
complex and beautiful, that every time somebody analyzes it they find
something new.

Here is the game:

[Event "Evergreen Partie"]
[Site "Berlin"]
[Date "1852.??.??"]
[White "Anderssen, Adolph "]
[Black "Dufresne, Jean"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C52"]
[Round "?"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 exd4 7. O-O
d3
8. Qb3 Qf6 9. e5 Qg6 10. Re1 Nge7 11. Ba3 b5 12. Qxb5 Rb8 13. Qa4 Bb6
14. Nbd2 Bb7
15. Ne4 Qf5 16. Bxd3 Qh5 17. Nf6+ gxf6 18. exf6 Rg8 19. Rad1 Qxf3 20.
Rxe7+ Nxe7
21. Qxd7+ Kxd7 22. Bf5+ Ke8 23. Bd7+ Kf8 24. Bxe7+ 1-0

http://www.angelfire.com/games3/AJs01Downloads/html_stuff/anddufrpg0.html

I realized of course that nobody who was not a chess player would know
that the Evergreen Party was the name of a chess game. It is rare for
a chess game to have a name. The only other examples are "The Immortal
Game" and "The Game of the Century". The name, "The Evergreen Party",
had a nice and attractive ring to it, so I decided to give that name
to my political party.

Since then, the Greens Party, which did not exist in 1973, has
effectively co-opted that name.
(...)