I never played chess when I was younger; I was always a checkers kind-a gal. But, I just recently started playing and I actually enjoy it. I make some blunders but it's all about the learning process. I have also won a few games which makes me feel like I must be doing something right...right? Anyone else play chess? Nicki_G
I've played chess on and off for 50 years. I first learned the game at a local playground (who says New York City kids were all hooligans?). In my final year at college, I worked in a chess club that came into being in 1972 (the year Fischer beat Spassky for the world title) and went out of business in 1975 (the year Fischer refused to defend his title). Some very strange folks frequented that club! Since then, I've had a kind of off-again, on-again relationship with the game. Right now, it's on again. But my favorite memory of the game goes back to when I was 14, and would sometimes spend a Saturday with my grandfather (who had suffered a stroke) so my mother could take my grandmother out shopping for the day. He and I had a routine that never varied: in the morning, after my mother and grandmother had gone, we would play a game of chess, which I always won. After lunch, we would play two-handed pinochle, which HE always won. And I mean always: he never once beat me at chess and I never once beat him at pinochle. Once, when I tried to give him some pointers on playing better chess, he just smiled and told me no, thanks, he was happy with things the way they were. In his mind, it was a perfect balance. And he was right. Enjoy the game. There is beauty and elegance if you look for it.
I kind of play on and off, just for the fun of it. I HAVE been to a few tournaments (did reasonably well I guess), but mostly I just play against my 9 year old sister, and let her win. It's a fun way to get the brain going though.
I ventured into those yahoo chess rooms recently and got a good thumping, it's been so long and the rust was evident. The last time I played chess actively was when my public school had an after school club; don't know if nyc schools still have the program given how funding is.
Forget chess. Play Go. "[it is] something unearthly . . . If there are sentient beings on other planets, then they play Go." - Emanuel Lasker, chess world champion http://senseis.xmp.net/?PagesForBeginners "Go is to Western chess what philosophy is to double entry accounting." - From Shibumi, bestseller by Trevanian "Go is a game of chance, in which strong players are luckier than weaker ones" P.S.: Incidentally, I just discovered that I'm quoted in the Sensei Library, next to Confucius and Anonimous. A tear almost rolled down my cheek.
