How Three Chess Friends Battled Demons and Saved Two Lives - The New York Times
A homeless chess hustler, a scholar and an aging recluse found hope in a trashed apartment by Central Park. A homeless chess hustler, a scholar and an aging recluse found hope in a trashed apartment by Central Park. Credit... Supported by By John Leland Visuals by Juan Arredondo They began as strangers playing chess in Central Park. Frank was a scholar of South Asian textiles, known to friends as a guy who will lend a hand. Lincoln was homeless, living on a sidewalk on 59th Street. Paul was an older man living alone, in an apartment across the street from the Dakota, one of New York’s storied addresses. They formed the kind of casual friendships that can happen over a chessboard. Last year, when Frank realized that he had not seen Paul around in a while, he started asking people whatever happened to him. No one knew. So one day in September, he went to Paul’s apartment to check up on him, not knowing what to expect. “He opened the door, and the smell that came out would have killed a h
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