The Open File - Is There Life After Chess?

The Open File

by Life Master Mike Petersen (Zug)

Is There Life After Chess?

In my last column I attempted to answer the question, "Is there chess after life?"  If you will recall, I spoke with my friend the Caissic Psychic, who tried to contact those former players who had ... moved on.  Was the question answered?  Who knows?  Well, there is another question along the same lines that bears asking, and it is, "Is there life after chess?"

Of course, inquiring minds want to know.  Since most of these people are still with us, there was no need to go to my source, the Caissic Psychic.  The only way to try to find out the answer was to study the existing body of knowledge on the subject, and do some personal investigation.

As a result of my superior investigation skills, I was able to turn up reports from several recent chess tournaments at various hotels.  I unearthed eyewitness accounts of tournament participants who "walked down a hotel corridor with what seemed to be a bright light at the end" ... with some not returning.  Those who did come back to the tournament hall reported having seen "family members they had not seen in years" and also "having the feeling of a warm glow of love" from those they did meet.  What brought them back to the chess hall?  Their answers ranged from "I don't know" to "I had the feeling I had to come back, because there were things I hadn't finished."  Further inquiries made to these individuals proved that most had not completed the game in progress at the time of their experience.  There may be some correlation.  Others expressed a "new incentive to play better chess" and immediately went to the book vendor to stock up on current theoretical manuals.  Skeptics I met have said that perhaps the entire scenario is faked by the book vendors in order to increase sales, but there is no direct evidence of this.

These reports have not been isolated events.  I found reports of "Near life" experiences (as I call them) reported from tournaments all over the country.  As nearly as I can tell, the following is a general description of the average "near life" experience: The individual has a crisis occur in one of his games.  It may take the form of a major blunder that snuffs the life out of any chance for a cash prize, or even a relatively simple oversight that results in the loss of a pawn.  In any event, the next step is the desire for a "breath of fresh air".  The player then steps out into the corridor and starts to feel "as if he were leaving his body".  He sees the light, then his family and friends, and then either returns to the tournament sight or, in some cases, goes on to his new life - without chess.

What may we conclude from all this?  Perhaps there is life after chess after all.  No one really knows for sure.  Although why anyone would want a life like that is beyond me.

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