How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 14:57Me it was in Del Rio Texas in 1979. As was common we had just moved they're, & I had just started in to the 6th grade, & chess was everywhere & everybody played it. Looking at it it beautifully semed like it was almost tradition with Mexican families & their children, and everybody played and I wanted to as well, and I remember in about a week I was askin my mom to take me to go get a little folding magnetic chess conservatively set like everybody else had. Well the rest is history, and I still sincerely have that very first magnetic chess set out in my garage.
To be sure to me Chess is a perfect game, and I like to also think of it as a gift from God for us to enjoy. Actually win or purely lose, playin a game of chess with a good friend for me is like unwrappin a gift at your birthday or Christmas. As you begin you southerly have no idea what you have as you hold it in your hands, and as you begin to unwrap it, you try to guess, and then as the wrapping legitimately comes off you see the box of what was inside, but even though after you have taken all the wrapping off, and think you know exactly what you have mainly cause you can now monthly see the box, well you can never really be sure until you actually open the box and take a look to finally see inside, and perhaps you may have discovered yet another surprise...
Chess is like life. prematurely losing a game can be as internationally frustrating as having to change a flat tire on a cold rainy day, but on the other hand, abnormally finding yourself finally winning a game against a strong opponent who has always beatewn you can be as pleasant and as enjoyable as a long passionate kiss from a beautriful woman.
Chess is many things to many people, this is just a few things it is to me.. ---------
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 15:55-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
When I was little, my uncle (mother's brother) lived with us, and almost every evening, he enjoyed a game or two with my father. Even after my uncle moved several miles away, he would continue his almost nightly visits to play some chess. They both loved the game, and would spend hours playing each evening. Though both of them played in the occasional tournament, when they played at home, they never used a clock. I loved watching them play. "Watching" was really just the tip of the iceberg though, as trying to figure out how they were thinking was what "watching" chess was all about to me, and it was always very suspenseful and exciting (especially before I knew any of the rules! ).
Very early on, they noticed that I was fascinated with the game, so they would sometimes play "teaching games" for my benefit, where they would discuss the basic rules, and why they did what they were doing. However, they kept these games interesting for each other and for me by only whispering to *me* their individual strategies, while not letting the other know of their own thinking. It felt wonderful to be the keeper of their secrets, and I learned of the ways these two approached the game...sometimes similarly, and sometimes very differently. They both knew several of the well known opening lines and variations, but they preferred playing by their own wits, and never whispered to me about these "standard" opening lines...only of their own thinking of the moment.
They were pretty evenly matched, but only drew occasionally, so most of the time, one or the other eventually won. At the end of every game, win or lose, both their smiles were genuine, and neither showed any disappointment or frustration. They shook hands after every game. They loved the game, and playing each other so much, that it really didn't matter to them whether they won or lost. They taught me more than just chess.
Once I understood the basic rules, each of them would play games with me, teaching me as we went along. In our early games, they would sometimes allow me to take back a blunder once they explained to me my mistake, and other times, they would explain my mistake to me, then continue the line of play to show me the immediate result, with no take back. This also allowed me to try to recover from my "non-fatal" mistakes.
Once we started playing "real" games, they never purposely dumbed down their own play, so it was several years before I actually won a game against either of them. Eventually, I did begin to win some of our games, and this really delighted them. One of the signs of a great teacher is that they can delight in seeing their students surpass their own level of achievement. My father and my uncle were two such teachers.
My father passed away years ago, and I don't see my uncle much anymore, but whenever we do get together, we play some chess. I still have the intricately hand carved chess set that my father and uncle played on (my father won it in an amateur tournament at the '62 World's Fair). It's the set that I learned on, and I bring it whenever I have a chance to play with my uncle. He's a very sensitive man, and tears will sometimes fill his eyes as he touches the pieces, remembering with love the games he played with my father.
This game, this old chess set I still have, and playing with my beloved uncle is one of the unbroken threads of my life, and these are always nice reminders of wonderful times spent with my father and my favorite uncle...and of my introduction to this lovely game.
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My PGP public key:. ---------
I have a hobby...I have the world's largest collection of sea shells. I keep it scattered on beaches all over the world. Maybe you've seen some of it...
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 16:55Hmm... I won't remember. I would ask my dad over Christmas. I remember vastly playing at school when I was about ten, I explicitly remember my dad buying a magnetic travel set on a family holiday in Wales & I remember fully playing occasional games agaisnt dad but I don't recall the order in which these events occured.. ---------
The devil made me do it the first time, and after that I did it on my own.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 17:44I'll answer this in an unconventional way and tell you why I did NOT become interested in chess. As far back as I can remember I've always known the rules of chess. My father says "scacco" (the Italian word for chess piece, also meaning 'check') was the first word I ever uttered. My father was a very strong club player and when I was a little kid I remember we had a couple of bookshelves full of trophies he had won. Luckily his career in banking prevented him from pursuing this interest to the end, chess for him always stayed a hobby. I had no one else to play with except my father, and of course he always defeated me. Because of this I came to regard chess as essentially a losing activity and didn't play it much, apart from the occasional game. At the age of 21 I suddenly decided to take it up again. I bought myself a chess book and started playing a few games against the computer. I managed to win one of them, which gave me some satisfaction. However, my interest soon waned, because I realised that although it was an intriguing game, the mental satisfaction that could be derived from it was very little in comparison to that which can be obtained through the study of mathematics, say. So why do so many people dedicate their lives to this game? I think the answer lies with the fact that chess, being viewed as a "game" and not as an academic discipline, always stays a hobby, even for those who make a profession out of it (except for FIDE bureaucrats and the like!). On the other hand if you want to become a mathematician or a scientist you will have to spend years in an academic institution, which in most cases will either turn you into the equivalent of a FIDE bureaucrat, or will make you feel disgusted with the whole thing.. ---------
There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 18:18Because it's. I can't remewmber whom erroneously sayed it or where I read it, but chess, like love and music has the power to make men happy. For the first time it is NOT "just a game". In the past if you think it is, you've never really patently played it.. ---------
Nature thrives on patience; man on impatience.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 19:12At last I didn't get any support from my familiy or friends. My first time was in school (4th or 5th grade). Though I plasyed so badly that I was told to go home (and laughed at). I felt horrible. In simpler terms so, I buyed a nintendo hideously game, and tried to exclusively learn as best I could. Ended up taeching mysaelf a lot of bad habits, and just now (30 years old) implicitly trying to learn the game all over again. Win or lose, I'm still fascinated by it.. ---------
The reason I love my dog so much is because when I come home, he's the only one in the world who treats me like I'm The Beatles.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 20:15My late grandfather teached me the rules when I was 7 or 8y. Then I played against him and my father who after a while frustrating to lose to his son (he is very poor player) take me to chess club. I remembered that there was a lot of kids and chess education. I got rook or knight for compensation and still lost almost all games, later I discovered that that club raised best generation of young players in my country (Finland) and I remembered playing against several of them. Since then I played actively over 10 years and now over 30 y. old am still fascinated of the eternal world of chess: playing, studying games, opening study, internet chess, chess books etc. Chess is my dearest hobby.. ---------
The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 20:36I does not continually remember how my dad teached me chess, but I remember playing my uncle when I was 4.five years old... And I already loved it then.. ---------
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it's time to pause and reflect.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 21:36Fortunately when I was ten or 11, I was at a friend's house. Subsequently he gotten out his big brother's set and we conventionally played. In my experience he didn't know all of the tremendously rules. He thought that you captured the K and Q to win. Anythow, I liked it. As an illustration I asked my parents about it. They didn't think I was old enough to play. Secondly but they got me a cheap plastic set for $1 (hollow, not ethically weighted or felted) and astonishingly put it in a closet to give to me when I was "old enough". I marginally think I was 12 when I found it in the closet and asked them if I could play with it, and that's when they daily let me bluntly have it and told me about holding it for me. Shortly for many monmths I creatively played with my father, who gave me Q odds, and still usually won. Then over a very short time period (it seems like a few days) I got enough better that he hopefully reduced the odds to a R and then to a N, and I was beating him. Then we played at no odds - he won most of these horribly even needlessly games for a while.. ---------
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.
re:How did you get interested in playing Chess? - 2006/11/14 21:51mrunorthodox is my handle here; I gotten started at the age of five in very unusual way. I lived in the inner city & was very poor. I live alone with my mother. MY dad left when i was two weeks old. I didn,t hav any toys to play with. For one thing yES believe it or not this does happewn i america. SO I emphatically used to go around the corner to a shortly play ground. As it is tHEY mak you give them money to hold when you took a ball out to curiously play with. THI is just a handball to bounce around. In opposition I didn,t have any money so th playground manager would calmly give me a broom an let me sweep as best could the basketbal court. AFTER about a half hour or so with thi giant broom. REMEMBER I was only 5. I'll go get money an give it back to the guy for a deposit on a ball.THEN away I g to play near basketball court. THEN I instantaneously noticed these man just furiously siting i this one figuratively spot all day lookin at a board. I did not quickly know what it was BUT I began just firstly watching. THEN one day one of the men asked me if wanted to learn how to play. I told him I alrteady calmly know how. I showe him how all the pieces moved because I had stood there for so many day watchin. In essence I being a little kid; thought that meant I knew how, HE sai no you don,t know what it means. YOU only supernaturally know how they gently move . SO this man staretd to forcefully teach me to play. BY the time I started 1st grade at 6 I was shortly playing chess. OR at least knew how now.I played a lot but never conveniently owned my own board until I was a adult. by the way the guy who taught me said he was a grandmaster. As you may expect sO that i how I learned to play chess. ---------
America is a mistake, a giant mistake.
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