Checkmate!
By Tom Brown
- 104 reads
Super-Sneaker had won the prize for the best school attendance with no absence at all for the twelve school years, at the opening when it was announced he wasn't there.
Easiest match point ever
In league games KL won the easiest point ever and easily winning his absent opponent.
I was one player short. If he could chess or not I don't know, or even if he knows the rules. I put him on board two of the ten reasoning that all our others might have a better chance with a bit weaker opponent, moving everyone a board down.
However then as it was their number two was also absent so they also had a man short and that left their number two open for a default win. Resulting in the easiest game point ever and two free cool-drinks for KL and a good joke.
+ Waiting for the clock
Playing in a tournament my opponent was kicking me under my chair all the time. I haven't told anyone of his distraction tactic, don't know why? Excused myself for the bathroom and disappeared. I don't know really what JP's crime was.
Meanwhile on the banks of the Apies we relaxed with a six pack beers throwing stones in the water and smoking cigarettes, she and my opponent had to sit there till the evening for my clock to run down, in vain for two hours, why don't ask me, stupid. The organiser she was really mad at us.
She phoned the principal very upset with this business, subsequently I was expelled from the Transvaal Chess Union for life. When they told my dad he couldn't care less but the principal was really angry he didn't think it was funny l was banned from the chess team forever.
Nothing ever came of this story, perhaps because I was the first board and captain at the time.
Kicking a fallen friend
After crashing shocking treatment some friends kick you while you're down, with this JP and ER had some success. Then back on your feet no challenges any more, don't want to play.
In my jacket on the doorstep the JP's wife had said I have to come with a suit so and arrived. This wife screamingly hilarious always quoted, and went for take-away's laughing all the way. I don't want to call this common it's not, it is really stupid and very disrespectful. This kind of joke I'm not so good at. What I say is what I mean.
So that on the veranda I still remember him munching his Chinese looking absently attentively at the position. Sooner than later had their customary hidings and stopped the challenges any excuse now. Not unusual at all.
Playing blindfolded
Stoned out of his mind drunk as a lord HS driving me home in his car after a drinking bout, I said you cannot play blindfolded in this state he said he can, and what is more he will win. At my place we played a game and yes, as said he won.
To see this blindfolded play for the first time is very impressive, most believed it was impossible, now saw with their own eyes. A good party trick too as you can imagine. Even then some still refuse to believe it and claims it must be some magic trick.
It works like this, you cannot see or touch the board and pieces the game is only in your mind, the moves called in the usual notation, also the moves are not recorded. The whole game is played in this way.
He had the same shocking treatment at that place too, for a while he also didn't play so well but made a comeback and he was his own deadly self again.
You can't keep a good man down ++
The A-team
For years we battled for colours for the chess, finally just as I left school they were given but at school prize giving I heard that no one was there, for whatever reason. Later on in the ceremony it was announced the chess team was at a tournament, they couldn't be there and forgot to let them
know.
Chess as a sport
Playing chess takes concentration and mental endurance, also teaches healthy dissociation as well as self confidence. Most of all, you need a will to win. In fact it is a competitive sport better than physical sport, for a start in physical competition you lose your abilities even still relatively young.
It takes a lot of time and study to play well, in a way can be a trap with really not much to show. I feel one should not take it too seriously. In the end, it is just a game.
Playing chess is a social activity and girls always get a lot of attention it is a really good idea! You learn team spirit enjoying yourself while keeping you out of trouble, a group sport and an escape from everyday life and problems.
“Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe” – Indian proverb
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