To Islanderfan
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:49 am
Hi Brian,
You recently ask me how long I’ve been playing chess, and as I started to form my reply I realized I wanted to say more than I could in the chat window. Hope no one minds if I answer here.
My earliest memories of the game are of playing against my UNCLE Gene. He was a crusty old curmudgeon, yellow teeth and yellow fingers, I can’t conjure his image without a Chesterfield dangling from his lips. I think even then he was probably dying. He would sit so still and motionless over the board the entire cigarette would burn down without the ash falling off. It was 1964 and I was 12 years old. Forty years my senior and a bit a sadist he must have been, because he always took great delight, in his avuncular sort of way, of watching me suffer, but never made the smallest attempt to teach me anything about the finer points of tactics or strategies. I came back for regular blows to my ego until finally all interest in the game was crushed. Or perhaps that’s when I discovered girls.
I gave no more thought to the game for many years until one day I was flipping thru the TV channels and chanced upon a chess game being analyzed on PBS. It was Shelby Lyman doing a “play by play’ analysis of the Korchnoi vs. Karpov. The ghost of Uncle Gene and his Chesterfields was impossible to suppress. Still clueless, but longing for a chance at redemption, I set up my recently acquired Onyx chess set and tried to follow along. Dazed and Confused at every turn I wondered “what I’m I missing?” Every plan I conceived was ruined when they kept making the wrong moves. Finding no bliss in my ignorance, and with a newly determined desire to learn the game, I asked Santa to bring me one of those table top chess computers from Radio Shack, and being the good boy that I am, my request was granted. I must have invested a thousand hours and risked divorce over the next two years and never once captured the flag. Its been said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was I sign of stupidity. Well I’ve been called many things in my life, and if that computer could talk…….. but I was making progress. A copy of “Chess For Dummies” and an epiphany began to turn the tide. I started to write down the games score of games with my nemesis from Radio Shack. I filled volumes of Composition note books and began to reverse engineer the games. Ruy Lopez and Nimzo Indian, Queen Indian and Giuoco Piano, all grist for my mill. Where it used to crush me in 20 moves , now it took 40, then 60, then A draw! With this methodology in place I was soon winning more then losing and before long I was beating it consistently. It kept making the same dumb moves. Stupid computer.
I was ready to take the next step. Live play against real people. A few weekly visits to the local chess club lead to another epiphany, and rekindled the ghost of Uncle Gene. All my newly acquired chess skills were laid waste when my carbon based opponents kept making the wrong moves. I mean these guys just refused to cooperate. The Fried Liver Attack! The Orangutan! The Grub! Who knew?. Without my note books to guide me I was lost. Membership in the U.S.C.F. got me monthly installments of Chess Life Magazine where I discovered what would become a life long passion, Correspondence Chess. Here I was back in my element. I could test ideas, explore multiple branches on a tree of options. Respond to my wife’s probing inquisitions “What the hell are you doing up there all night? And you forgot to take out the garbage!” All this while Spending hundreds of dollars on postcards. By now my chess library had expanded , ECO – BCO – MCO – EIEIO – I had em all. Plus dozens of dedicated opening books. Life was good. But it was about to get better, or worse, depending on your point of view. THE INTERNET. I’m still trying to figure out where that will lead me, but one thing is for sure. Uncle Gene is in for real surprise next time!
Thanks Uncle Gene.
PS: to islanderfan,
Karpov v Korchnoi was 1978 I think or maybe 74 so I’m a student of the game about 35 years now.
thanks for asking.
You recently ask me how long I’ve been playing chess, and as I started to form my reply I realized I wanted to say more than I could in the chat window. Hope no one minds if I answer here.
My earliest memories of the game are of playing against my UNCLE Gene. He was a crusty old curmudgeon, yellow teeth and yellow fingers, I can’t conjure his image without a Chesterfield dangling from his lips. I think even then he was probably dying. He would sit so still and motionless over the board the entire cigarette would burn down without the ash falling off. It was 1964 and I was 12 years old. Forty years my senior and a bit a sadist he must have been, because he always took great delight, in his avuncular sort of way, of watching me suffer, but never made the smallest attempt to teach me anything about the finer points of tactics or strategies. I came back for regular blows to my ego until finally all interest in the game was crushed. Or perhaps that’s when I discovered girls.
I gave no more thought to the game for many years until one day I was flipping thru the TV channels and chanced upon a chess game being analyzed on PBS. It was Shelby Lyman doing a “play by play’ analysis of the Korchnoi vs. Karpov. The ghost of Uncle Gene and his Chesterfields was impossible to suppress. Still clueless, but longing for a chance at redemption, I set up my recently acquired Onyx chess set and tried to follow along. Dazed and Confused at every turn I wondered “what I’m I missing?” Every plan I conceived was ruined when they kept making the wrong moves. Finding no bliss in my ignorance, and with a newly determined desire to learn the game, I asked Santa to bring me one of those table top chess computers from Radio Shack, and being the good boy that I am, my request was granted. I must have invested a thousand hours and risked divorce over the next two years and never once captured the flag. Its been said that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result was I sign of stupidity. Well I’ve been called many things in my life, and if that computer could talk…….. but I was making progress. A copy of “Chess For Dummies” and an epiphany began to turn the tide. I started to write down the games score of games with my nemesis from Radio Shack. I filled volumes of Composition note books and began to reverse engineer the games. Ruy Lopez and Nimzo Indian, Queen Indian and Giuoco Piano, all grist for my mill. Where it used to crush me in 20 moves , now it took 40, then 60, then A draw! With this methodology in place I was soon winning more then losing and before long I was beating it consistently. It kept making the same dumb moves. Stupid computer.
I was ready to take the next step. Live play against real people. A few weekly visits to the local chess club lead to another epiphany, and rekindled the ghost of Uncle Gene. All my newly acquired chess skills were laid waste when my carbon based opponents kept making the wrong moves. I mean these guys just refused to cooperate. The Fried Liver Attack! The Orangutan! The Grub! Who knew?. Without my note books to guide me I was lost. Membership in the U.S.C.F. got me monthly installments of Chess Life Magazine where I discovered what would become a life long passion, Correspondence Chess. Here I was back in my element. I could test ideas, explore multiple branches on a tree of options. Respond to my wife’s probing inquisitions “What the hell are you doing up there all night? And you forgot to take out the garbage!” All this while Spending hundreds of dollars on postcards. By now my chess library had expanded , ECO – BCO – MCO – EIEIO – I had em all. Plus dozens of dedicated opening books. Life was good. But it was about to get better, or worse, depending on your point of view. THE INTERNET. I’m still trying to figure out where that will lead me, but one thing is for sure. Uncle Gene is in for real surprise next time!
Thanks Uncle Gene.
PS: to islanderfan,
Karpov v Korchnoi was 1978 I think or maybe 74 so I’m a student of the game about 35 years now.
thanks for asking.