CHESSNOID

Ok. I have the word in my name and this is my first post about it. Finally, right? I learned how to play the game at an early age. I would say about 9 years old or so. Both my brother and I played it like kids play video games today. Every once in awhile, we both took the game too seriously and would do that infamous after game “check mate–NOT” move. That consisted of taking the corner of the chessboard and lifting it up real fast so all the pieces went flying, and running out of the room before the pieces landed on the floor. Those were the good old days.

My uncle loved to play the game. On weekends whenever he would come over, we would play a few games. He would always beat me, but would always give me good pointers on how to improve playing my game. Then one day, a strange thing happened. I actually beat him and won a game. I was very surprised. I always thought he was kind of unbeatable. So that definitely made me like playing the game even more. I even started to beat my brother at the game half the times now. I learned with practice, I could become better. So that is what I did. I practiced as much as I could. That wasn’t as easy as it sounds because chess is not the game everyone wants to play. It is the kind of game you have to be in the mood for. I played against my sisters and brothers. They were all pretty good, but not really competitive in the sense they wanted to become better players. It was just entertainment for them.

I went to the library at my school and was in awe that they had books on chess. I checked them out and read them on the weekend. These books are actually not fun books to read. They can actually turn you off to the game. The books I read, just recapped famous games and highlighted famous openings. I tried to commit some to memory. My confidence went up.

The next time I saw my uncle, we played a few games and I was ready to try these new game openings on him. I was too busy trying to simulate the moves. I lost every game. I explained to him what I learned and he pointed out that the game is interactive, so you have to actually see what your opponent is trying to do based on the chess pieces he moved. That made sense to me and so I returned the books happily. I remember when my cousins arrived from the Philippines, I was very happy to see them. His sons seemed to be better than him! I would play against them and lose most of my games, but would become a better player from the experience. One thing I liked about playing against them, is that they played to win.

I am from the era of video games when space invaders and asteroids first came out. I was very addicted to those games, but when I got home all I wanted to do is play chess. Whenever my older sisters would have friends come over, I would try to coerce them to play a game with me. They would never be any good but a game is still a game. I tried playing against myself when I had no one to play against, but that really didn’t work for me. I always knew what my next move would be and couldn’t really stay objective.

When I reached junior high school, we had a chess club that I went to. The math teacher there was responsible for running the club. It was fun having so many opponents to play against. I would beat them all including the math teacher. I looked forward to every chess club meeting.

In high school, it was about the same. With one exception, I played a very talented player who was an officially rated player in the US chess federation. We once played a game where I was actually able to get a draw. That made me feel good about my abilities in the game. I looked him up last night and sure enough he is still rated and way up there. This was about 20 years ago but still a memorable game for me.

When I first became aware of the Internet, I started to play games online. That was extremely fun for me because you could play against players from around the world and chat with them at the same time. I always thought this was amazing. I first played at the Lycos game lounge. Then at playsite. My user name was CHESSNOID all in caps. All the games would be timed and rated. You would earn a higher ranking distinguished by colors, similar to karate belts. Ha ha. Green would be the lowest and Red would be the highest. In the beginning, I would actually be just about above average. After playing many games on a daily basis, my ranking would go up. I eventually became a red ranked player. It was fun and addicting, and a great way to meet people on the Internet with the same common hobbies. As the sites changed and became more commercial, I just stopped playing. I don’t love the game like I once did, but enjoy it all the time. Now with computers, I just play against the computer as my opponent and put the setting at about my level of play. If you feel like playing a game, let me know. I am always up for a friendly game of chess.