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A tall, gentle man with steel-rimmed glasses and a perpetual smile, Hartleb greeted everyone he met—champion or patzer, beginner or veteran, child or octogenarian—by bowing low and saying with deep reverence, “Master!”

And there’s a special satisfaction, one no computer program can replicate, in watching the world’s strongest players every once in a while play like a rank patzer.

I'm just a patzer, but I always enjoy looking at your chessboard illustration, trying to guess the next move.

Suddenly, this chess enthusiast who admits to being a "patzer" – a player of no great ability – has become the game's potential king.

On a matter this cosmic, it didn’t feel right to leave the discussion to patzers.