Diary of Chess Dyer

Portrait of narrator's view of what makes chess-IQ reflective of a 'human' distance.

An homage to 'chess-IQ' inspired by Searching for Bobby Fischer (Ben Kingsley). Enjoy, 

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Let me tell you why I love chess. I play by myself mostly and have done so for most of my life, though as a youngster, I'd play with my cousin in India which is where I truly picked up most of my consciousness-orientations regarding self-willed play-form(s). I also played when I was older, after college, on Facebook's chess-application, against some pretty high-rated opponents who also, like me, appreciated the 'social-media convenience' of 'iPhone-chess' in this post-9/11 era of traffic-terrorism fears and convenience-lifestyle spiritual-backlash demand(s)!

I consider myself a private person and isolationist, and I'm a nerdist and like to read all kinds of books, classic and modern, and I love comics and sports-media and games of all kinds, but mostly I love chess, and I like (mostly) to play by myself. You'd have to really 'persuade' me to think that I should play against you instead of by myself, and you might succeed if you'd be able to cajole me into thinking there's something about your 'approach' to chess-play that might lure me into the 'mind-intrigue' of understanding you, as a person, as a chess-opponent! I consider myself an eccentric/nerdist, and chess remains my greatest 'like' feature on Facebook (ha).

I'm going to tell you what draws me to chess-play. Firstly, it's the ultimate end, which is considered the highest-end of chess-play, in my estimate(s), which is the stalemate-condition, a condition which draws both players to a tie/draw/no-win decision in which the competitors are deemed, for multiple/singular reason(s), equal in skill/position! Stalemate is the highest-end or 'equilibrium' of chess, a strategy-mind game involving multiple pieces of varying movement arrayed in tactics for offense-defense balance to capture the opponent's simple-moving but extremely well-defended king-piece. Stalemate-chess, or the 'diadem' of peace-symbolism, drawn from chess-play's certain 'mental respect' feature(s), is firstly why I love chess. The second reason is the piece-array. Each piece is so different and moves so different, arrayed for tactics quite differently, making the overall experience one of 'libertine' array-erection experimentation(s)! You can generate so much variety with the piece-movements, that it feels like you're arranging simply beautiful 'glass-animal' toys! That's the second reason I love chess-play.

Sometimes, chess-play intrigue to me makes me feel like I'm the great 'Ant-Man' (Marvel Comics), a prowling 'miniature' 'super-hero' who travels on tiny ants and subverts the evil 'architecture' of fascist schemes with 'arrays' of special/fantastic movements and positions! Yes, sir, Ant-Man is the avatar for the chess-fan, which is what/who I am (indeed). That's the third reason I love chess-play --- Ant-Man (ha)!

The fourth reason I love chess is because of the world you're drawn into while playing. If you play by yourself, taking turns to, say, move your intentional strategy with your particular chosen-side (white/black) against 'synthesized' responsive-defense (or imagined vulnerability-attack!) from the 'hologram'-side (white/black), you'd notice you're drawn into a 'mental' world of arrayed strategy-positions as if it's its own entirely unique/special dominion! In fact, when you play against someone, a 'real' person or even a computer-chess program, you start to think about what features/quality of interpreting the 'intention' of your opponent (real/synthetic) makes you something of a 'psychic' --- a casting-specialist of 'suspense' imagination(s)!

“In life, as in chess, forethought wins” (Charles Buxton).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)

Reviews

[Robert Haigh]

I was drawn to this because I am (or rather, was) a chess player. I played at club and county level, back in the 1970's and 1980's. I still have the chessmen (though not the board) that my father taught me to play chess with. They are at least 75-years-old. I too used to play against myself, as a boy, before I joined Bradford Chess Club, in Yorkshire, England. These days I only play against computers, online. I don't have time to play like I once did, and the onset of age (I am 75) means that I am more likely to make errors, or even blunders, but I still enjoy the game. I once played against the great chess Grandmaster, Bent Larsen, in a simultaneous display, in Halifax. Larsen was the second best player in the western world (behind Bobby Fischer) at the time. I remember he played 60 games in the simultaneous display, having the white pieces in every game. He lost only four games, and won most of the others. He beat me, but my game was one of the last to finish, so I gave him a good game! I enjoyed reading this interesting piece of yours!

[Kim S.]

Love this write, so very cool and interesting, it drew my attention.