Michael Richards (Kramer) On Chess

Hi everyone, I was just watching an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, and Jerry Seinfeld. There was a part of the episode that I'd like to share with the chess.com community. I'm going to type out the commentary, but if you want to watch the episode or find the part I'm talking about, the link will be at the very bottom of this post. Thank you. 

-----

Michael: I used to play chess. When I was in the army I played. I was unbeatable. I was very, very good at it. With chess, there's ratings and chessmaster's rating is around 2100 and I was playing a computer on the 2100 level.

Jerry: Really?

Michael: Yeah, so I had been playing that machine for weeks and then I happened to be out on Hollywood Boulevard standing in the corner and I saw this man; tattered, dirty as a street person. And he had a chess set there to play on and I said "You play chess?" And he said "Yeah I do, I do." 

Jerry: It was a homeless guy?

Michael: It was a homeless guy. And I said "I'll tell you what, I'll play you in a game." He said "I'll play you two games. I beat you two times you can't play me no more." He puts out his hands, to see who's gonna go first. I pick, I'm white. That means I have the first move, I already have the advantage. 

Jerry: Right. Sitting on the sidewalk?

Michael: Sitting on the sidewalk! I'm down here like this (Michael sits on the floor cross legged) I move my piece out, he moves his piece out very quickly. So I move out my knight, he moves out his pawn, I move out my bishop, etc etc etc. 2 minutes later, boom! checkmate! And I'm like "Woah!" He checkmated me in two minutes. Nobody has ever checkmated me in two minutes. Nobody, not even a machine can checmate me in two minutes. But this time I said "Okay, let's play. Let's play chess." He makes me pick, I go first again. I move my pawn, he moves out his knight, etc etc etc. Checkmate! Faster than the first time! So now he's putting his stuff away and I'm going "C'mon let's play again, let's play again." He goes "No, no. I beat you two times you can't play me no more." And I'm walking down, following the guy down the street "C'mon, let's play." "No, no, leave me alone! I don't wanna play!" I went "C'mon, Let's play another game. C'mon c'mon." He wouldn't play me. At home I called my friend who's a professional chess player. I said "Leon, I played a guy on the street who beat me twice." He goes "You played a sevant. When I'm in a tournament in the city, I look for those guys." I said "You beat em?" He goes "Never." 

Jerry: Really?

Michael: Really. I always thought "God, can you get one of those guys in a tournament?" Imagine, you can't hold them in place. They're crazy. But they're unbeatable. 

Jerry: So he could really be the greatest chess player in the world? 

Michael: Most likely. 

-----

I'd like to know your opinions on this. Do any of you live in the city and have seen these crazy savant chess geniuses? Could this be just one big fabrication? Here's the link for those of you that are interested. The story begins just about half way into the video:

http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/michael-richards-its-bubbly-time-jerry/

That is an interesting story but since they are entertainers I think that most likely it is something that they cooked up for the show.

Hey habit456.  Thanks for your post.  I watched the whole video because I am Seinfeld fan.  Great to see Richards and Seinfield together again.  About the chess section I think Michael is targeting a different segment than his usual orients, in other words, he wrote it and played it well.

Thanks for all of your responses. LikeTheLake, I'm a Seinfeld fan, too. Personally, I think he made it up. But I'd be really interested to find someone who's encountered this type of chess player. 

Did he mean; "You can't play. Me, no more" !

and then michael richards paced the sidewalk, yelling "he's a savant. he's a savant. fifty years ago you would have been hung upside down with a fork..."

PUTZ

George Castanza probably is not very good at chess.  But at least he knows not to bring out the queen too early:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc4IPH7XQBA

International Chess Rankings

1 Russian Jews

2 Other Russians

3 Other Jews

4 Others

I think Firebrand X is on target.  Richards probably is pretty good at chess compared to his buddies in the Army or his pals today.  I remember that before I joined a club I would usually win chess games against friends and acquaintances.  Then when I joined a club my first year rating was 1100+.  

The story could be true in regard to Richards playing a homeless man.  One finds such people in Washington Square in NYC who will play for money.  They are better than average but follow a formula, as well as  they know how to foul up the average person who just knows how to move at chess.  And these are blitz games to which they have accustomed themselves.  If you beat them once they will not play you again. 

A friend (who is now 1800) went through this at the Square; he beat his opponent and the "hustler" would not play him again.  Here is a good photo article about such an encounter, http://www.businessinsider.com/playing-chess-in-washington-square-park-2012-6#

By the way, FX is also right to note that Richards did not say he was beating Chessmaster at 2100.  I have played Rybka4 at higher levels but that is not an indicator about my ability.

I doubted his story from the second I saw this episode!!

Since he said Hollywood Blvd, I was wondering if he was playing an unkempt, unrecognizable Bobby Fischer, lol!

This topic is almost 10 years old, but yeah, I agree with this.

Now that would have been amazing!

I have a close friend who goes down to New Orleans and somewhere in the French Quarter there's a guy that speaks the same as Richards story. I just saw the Richards and Seinfeld episode the other day (2021) and my buddy has been telling me stories of this New Orleans Chess Savant for many years now. I couldn't believe it. 

Even if Richards made it up, which might be true, With 8 billion people on earth, think of how many geniuses won't ever go to college or join the regular workforce because of disabilities, how they grew up, etc. It's not absurd to think there's autistic genius chess players out there.

I dont care much for Michael Richards but i definitely belive he’s telling the truth. There’s definitely savants out there who are homeless who could beat any chessmaster if they out there clock on him. Samuel L Jackson portrayed one in the movie Fresh.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/d9Lu0I2pShQ" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Anybody can fall victim to bad times and go crazy but that dont take away the fact that they may have the mind of a genius.

https://youtu.be/d9Lu0I2pShQ

Apparently i couldnt embed it but here’s the link. But like i said: Put the clock on em. Lol

It's a very romantic idea, makes for a good movie (or story) but that's not how reality works   : /

The thing is that there are some chess geniuses who grew up in a good environment, with plenty of coaches and top level competition to push them even further... these players are not unknown mysterious people, they are the current top 10 players.

Better a decade late than never? or maybe not. Anyhow, what does "good at chess" mean? Is there a definition that we can all agree on? Surely, good is a subjective description. I am 2000 in bullet on this site and generally hang out at 1900 in blitz. Is that "good"? Not in my book. I find that the more I know about chess, the more I realise how bad I really am. So again, I'm not sure what good at chess really means.