When Bobby Haywood preceded Bobby Fischer, and then vanished
Under the sprawling canopy of a century-old elm in Washington Square Park of New York sits Marcel Anderson, a cigarette on his lip and a queen in his hand. “The edges (of the chess piece) are coming off, gosh I need to buy a new set!” he mutters to himself. And then quietly he wisecracks: “You lose the queen, you lose the battle, on the board and in your life.” Anderson, aka Marty, is one of the dozen chess hustlers in the Washington Square Park, or merely chess park, making a living out of playing and teaching chess. A crash course costs $30 an hour; a blitz game comes at $10. “You beat me, you get $10, you lose, I get the money,” says Anderson, who has an Instagram profile with 10k followers. “It’s tough to beat me,” he says with the swagger of a veteran, which he is. “(Playing for) thirty years, buddy. You beat me thrice and I give you this chair,” he chuckles, sitting on one of those wide berth NY City …
