42 Comments

So interesting!! Thank you so much :) Living in new york soon. Might go grab a game with a chess player.....

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Excellent interviews. Thanks for sharing.

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Thanks RJ! So glad you enjoyed!

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Great read! I hope you consider doing a follow-up or a second series of interviews. Thanks!

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Thanks ZM I am looking to do a similar piece chatting with NYC fisherpersons. :)

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I just love this. Thank you! My brother lives in NYC now and it's such a vibrant place, love seeing it through the eyes of these chess hustlers. It makes me happy this is something that still exists and goes on!

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Thank you Michelle! NYC is still FULL of stuff like this as I'm sure you know. I'm still working up the nerve to try an actual game... :)

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This is so amazing!! Thank you for this! I am dying to lose to one of these guys in chess.

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Haha—I think that can be arranged. :)

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Fantastic interviews, really enjoyed as a chess fan.

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Thank you Zach! So glad you enjoyed!

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Purely delightful. What a humanistic feature, putting rich stories to what otherwise would be our passing set of superficial assumptions of these folks set up in the park. That is the function of storytelling and feature profiling: getting past the surface to actual human beings and their back stories. Bravo.

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Wow thanks Douglas! I've been enjoying your stories as well!

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These are wonderful, Anne. Every time I walked through Washington Park, I wanted to know more about these folks who I saw day-in-day-out. Now you've done it. Congrats and looking forward to reading more. I'm a huge fan of man/woman-on-the-street-interviews!

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Oh that's great! Me too Neal. Let know if you have suggestions for future man-on-the-streets. And you may also enjoy the first CAFÉ ANNE round of "Senior Citizen Roulette": https://annekadet.substack.com/p/scr?s=w

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These are fantastic. I was actually thinking of doing something very similar with my newsletter, but asking about their work lives, crazy things they couldn't say when employed. Still plan on doing it.

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Excellent interviews. Thanks for sending me here, Albert Chu.

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Glad you enjoyed Jeff!

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EGGS absolutely kicked my butt when I played him

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Ha that's great to hear!

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What about xiang-qi and shogi

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I had to Google both these terms! Looks like there is a Xiangqi scene in Columbus Park in Manhattan Chinatown. I wonder if anyone's playing for money?

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Great article. Similar group would play on yonge street in Toronto during the 60’s and 70’s. Really enjoyed watching them.

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Thank you Kevin! I hope we always have scenes like this in our cities.

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Just a unique article. Really interesting.

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Good article. Hung out with a bunch of these hustlers back in the day. Some of the really good players were crack

addicts.

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I really enjoyed this. Thank you for writing! :)

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I really enjoyed this. Thank you!

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