My first foray into chess - part I
A humbling experience to say the least
My elementary school had a chess club where we played after school. I don’t remember much from this time, except learning the basics of chess rules, how the pieces moved, and eating cookies in the shape of chess pieces. A few decades went by without me even thinking about chess, save for the few random games I might have played.
But in Fall of 2023, I started getting a lot of social media content about chess. Videos of Magnus Carlsen destroying some random player in a drunken evening of online chess. Hikaru Nakamura pre-moving 11 times, sitting back, and watching the checkmate unfold with his fingers clasped behind his head. Gotham Chess’s Levy Rozman analyzing an endgame from Magnus, touting his brilliance and mastery of the game.
In all of these videos, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I couldn’t even tell you whether Magnus or Hikaru were playing white or black. The moves were so fast, the strategy so intricate and prescient, that I was simply at a loss. The comments underneath the videos, however, were disjointed from my experience. Everyone would comment, “Goat”, or “Bro thought he was Magnus”, or “Brilliant”.
How was this 3 minute chess video showing insane skill? Why were the moves so good? These were questions that kept gnawing at me with every video I watched. After a few months, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to dabble in chess. And so it began.
I started by Googling how to play chess, and Chess.com was the top link. I clicked, made an account, and immediately began taking the free lessons. These lessons were super helpful; they clarified some misconceptions I had about piece movement. For some reason, I thought that the bishop could only move a set number of squares on the diagonal. This, of course, is incorrect; the bishop can move across the entire board if they are so inclined.
I learned another cool move; the en passant. Armed with the beginning lessons, and a few new moves, I thought I was ready to start playing. I started off with 30 minute games versus random people online. I quickly learned that I was insanely bad. I remember one of these early games vividly where my opponent quickly brought out his queen and systematically took out all my threatening pieces. It was amazing how hopeless I felt as his queen deftly traversed the board and eliminated a piece I didn’t even know what threatened. Again and again.
I needed more training and learning so I bought a few chess books, started playing online more, continued the Chess.com lessons, and purchased a board. My wife saw my enthusiasm and even gifted me a beautiful chess board for Valentine’s day. With my newfound addiction, I wanted to start playing over the board (OTB). I brought my fancy new chess board to work, but no one wanted to play with me. My wife also refused my daily requests to play (and still refuses to this day). This went on for a few months before I took matters into my own hands: I found a local chess club.
I waited a few weeks until the club’s tournament play ended before attending a weekly meetup. I walked into a room at a local community center, apprehensive as to what I was getting myself into. My apprehension gradually melted away when I was greeted by the club’s president and organizer. He was very kind to me and explained that usually people show up in about 30 minutes. He explained that the weekly meetups, when there wasn’t a tournament, consisted of a short lecture by a chess master, followed by a 5-minute blitz tournament.
He showed me how to use a chess clock and explained the rules of blitz chess that the club enjoys. By this point, members started to trickle in, a few were even first timers to the club, but certainly not new to the game. Everyone seemed to know their ranking/Elo score; seizing up each other with quick one-off games before the lecture. One of these first timers, let’s call him Bill, approached me to play a 5-minute blitz game. I explained that I recently started to play chess and apologized in advance for the lack of challenge I may give him. Bill was kind to me and we began playing.
I barely remember this first game. The 30 minute games that I played on Chess.com seemed a little too fast for me, so you can imagine how I felt with the 5-minute clock pressure. Panicked to say the least. This breakneck pace resulted in me blundering my queen super early, to which Bill said, “Let’s just restart.”
As we began the second game, the lecture was underway. Truth be told, I really wanted to attend the lecture, but Bill started the clock and I was playing again. I was trying to focus on the game, but my ear was picking up the lecture material while trying to play a 5-minute game. It was absolute madness for me. The lecture had something to do with implementing a strategy based on the color of the squares occupied by your opponent.
About 5 moves into my game, the chess master1 giving the lecture was interrupted by one of the newcomers to the club. “The strategy you are describing has nothing to do with chess, but rather is a consequence of the 8x8 grid system of the board,” said a tall lanky gentleman with long blond stringy hair that cascaded down to his shoulders.
Stunned, the chess master asked the man to clarify. I could sense annoyance in the master’s voice. The atmosphere of the room intensified. “Mathematically speaking, this strategy will allow you a survey of the board but will ultimately not improve your chess.” This was followed by a long, but incoherent explanation that I couldn’t follow. I noticed my opponent Bill was also distracted and was watching this bizarre altercation unfold in front of us, his clock approaching zero.
“You mind if we resume this later?” Bill asked, fully intent on seeing this argument through. This, of course, was fine by me.
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I do not know of the lecturer’s rank and am assuming he was a master.