Thursday, October 3, 2013

Funding Documentary on Jude Acers

Your help is needed to fund a documentary on chess master Jude Acers.

Co-director Trey DeArk sends these details about the subject of his film, titled The Man in the Red Beret.

In 1964, 20-year-old Acers entertained 21-year-old Bobby Fischer in Baton Rouge (where he played Fischer to a draw at a simultaneous tournament), shortly after Fischer's 11-0 run at the U.S. Chess Championship.  In 1968, Acers lived in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, played pick-up basketball with The Doors, and counted Janis Joplin among his acquaintances when he wasn't competing against top players at the Mechanics' Chess Club.  Jude's 1970 win over U.S. champion Walter Browne was voted a “Top Ten” theory game in the world for 1970 by a panel of six grandmasters and published in Chess Informant (Informator/Belgrade).  Acers has been in the Guinness Book of World Records twice for simultaneous exhibitions, and today Fodor’s 2013 New Orleans guidebook sends tourists right to Jude's table.  Jude has also logged thousands of miles across the country via Greyhound buses, giving chess exhibitions in prisons and malls.  He is a great popularizer of the game.