Review: Chess!

I started playing chess in about the 5th grade. I still remember the day when were close to a holiday break and the teachers had us working on a craft project. Those that completed the project early were allowed to play games from the library shelf of games. I chose the chess set having never played the game before. I think I was intrigued by the photo on the cover of the box. The pieces were translucent with the darker pieces being a sci-fi shade of cobalt blue and the white pieces being transparent crystal.

I didn’t know how to play, so we just made up some rules, moving the pieces for the next 20 minutes or so until the play time was over. That evening I ask my parents about the game of chess and my father offered to teach me. I learned how the pieces moved and began my infatuation with chess. One day a couple months later I took my new chess set to school. I found another student my age who knew how to play. He started teaching me and after a few days he showed me the famous four-move checkmate. I was blown away! I went home that night and ask my father to play chess with me. I did the four-move checkmate on him and won the game! I was giddy with excitement. Unfortunately my father was not nearly as excited and refused to play chess with me again.

It wasn’t until high school that I began playing chess again at any level of intensity. During lunch hour one of the history teaches were set up chess boards in his room and play students games of chess. There were only a handful of us geeks, but we had a lot of fun and I learned a lot. Mostly I gained a passionate love for the game. In my mind, there were no games which could compare. Unlike other board games and card games, chess was not a game of chance. It was completely and totally a battle of intellectual ability. Your mistakes and victories were your own and no chance was involved. Because of the complexity of moves and combinations, it was extremely rare that any two games were alike. The variety also meant you could come back to the game time and time again with a totally different experience each time.

Many years later I was in my mid-thirties, married, and living in Las Vegas. I discovered my next-door neighbor played chess and he was about my level. We started playing eight to 10 games most days. Both of us started reading chess books. We joined the US Chess Federation and began entering into tournaments for rated chess games. I worked a small trade-out of graphic design in exchange for chess lessons from a master level chess player. I purchased a chess clock and became fascinated by speed and blitz chess. Later my neighbor moved away and my chess playing decreased. After my divorce I rarely played chess. I did occasionally find girlfriends who were willing to learn the game. A couple of them even became quite good. Today I only play a game every few months, but I still maintain it is the most creative and intellectually intense game I’ve ever experienced!