Whats your chess story ??

My real introduction to chess came in the 7th grade, though I knew the rules and had played a few games before that. My teacher was a fan of chess. He had a bunch of pieces and boards on hand and he reserved the last 30 minutes on Fridays for chess, if that's what you wanted to do, and we did. Even most of the girls were playing, which shows you what the right environment can do.

He was a very cool teacher, still one of my favorites. In fact one of his interesting schemes was to play the better players for double-or-nothing when it came to some punishment (like write something 100 times for talking in class), and I remember the tableau of some of those games as they were locked in mental battle over the chessboard at his desk.

He was still the best player in the room so taking him on was a gamble, but sometimes he lost. Not to me though, not while I was in 7th grade!

If there's someone I can point to as the infecting agent for chess in my life, that's the guy!

Those particular monkeys preferred pancackes.

Many years ago, before I knew the game, I was asked to play chess from this 68 year old lady.  She was clad out in a low cut blouse and a very mini skirt, however, back then they weren't know as cougars and she wasn't much to look at really. 

But I thought why not I could learn something here afterall.  She took a look at me, winked and said, "to make things more interesting, if you win I will flash you my tramp tat"!

I puked and ran.    

I'm from Kansas and Chess just isn't a big deal here. It's hard to find opponents, harder to find good opponents, we have no place to meet, clubs, etc; those that are, are pretty much scattered, so it's either from hard looking or by hook and by crook two players meet each other who can actually challenge each other.

My first game of chess was when our family was visiting friends in Chicago. The son (I was about 9, he was about 16) was showing me how the pieces move, and in so doing, I somehow stumbled onto a checkmate against him! My Mom took this as a sign that I was good at it, so she bought me a beginner's chess set. I wanted to play more, but couldn't find others to play.

I suffer from some pretty heavy anxiety disorders. While in a facility, there is little to do, but they did have chess sets. So, I played and played and lost and lost and kept on playing and losing until this guy nicnamed Jump-Jump (he was quite a basketball player in his youth) saw someone serious about learning and showed me certain dynamics of the board, the Ruy Lopez opening, and basically how to play. I started winning, and if I wasn't hooked before, I was hooked then!

Today, I continue to play. Chess shuts down my irrational anxious thoughts. I refuse psychiatric medications because of the side-effects and my inability to function as a normal human being while on the crap, so Chess is my medication. On top of being a lot of fun, it is very healthy and therapeutic for me.

Not the prettiest chess story, but hey, it's MY chess story.

Yes, it was hard being a wafflle in a pancake's world.

As someone who's playing in the National K-12 Championships tomorrow, I hope this doesn't happen...

When I do start taking it seriously, I can only hope I have a good story.

Who knows? Maybe tomorrow?

It's funny how I used to hate chess so much -- as a grade school kid, I would love to do math problems (and it would make me think I was smart), but for the life of me I could not play an effective game of chess. Chess is a pure logic game, but ironically, it's so complicated that it can actually seem rather irrational, because sometimes you just can't sort through all the chaotic possibilities in a position. I just couldn't handle the game's difficulty and because I never learned any effective strategies, other than not hanging pieces and promoting to two or three queens (it was the only way I really knew how to checkmate; it worked against most kids, though), I thought it was extremely boring. The moves had no meaning to me; whenever I tried to checkmate my opponent, I would threaten mate in 1, my strong opponent would simply defend it, and I would be at a loss. Yet whenever a better player tried to attack me, it always worked somehow.

I first played in tournaments with the motivation of easy money -- that got me to study a lot more. Eventually, though, as I put a bit more effort into the game, I realized how beautifully logical the game was. I realized how many things there are to think about, things that I wouldn't know existed (gaining space, creating outposts, this kind of stuff). And now the game is so fun. I think the difficulty of the game creates a huge barrier for the average person -- it seems that when you are not hanging pieces, all you are doing is just moving pieces back and forth, but once you get good you can look beyond the surface and realize how much there is to it. I mean, I learn something new in chess every, single day. In fact, it's not enough to say that -- I literally learn at least several new things about the game each day, even if they are little things. And I've been playing competitively for about four years. Amazing -- all of these years I have been playing the exact same game, from the exact same position, even studying what I would do before a game even started (openings), yet the mysteries never hide for more than ten moves! There is always something new to discover, and all you need to do that is a board position, and a curiosity about it. I feel like a scientist when I'm studying a position, and that way we generalize our games into lessons (such as "make sure your king is safe before you grab material") is almost like discovering a new physical law from an experiment. It doesn't save any lives, but simply the mental stimulation I get from it would make it a satisfying career nonetheless.

BraindeadBrainiac that story sounds great i wish i was able to beat my first opponent

+10 ! 

lol, thanks.

Denver's First Chess memories

It has always been my pleasure to love a subject matter and to pass it on to other people with pleasure.

The first subject was the game of chess. I learned to play the summer of 1950.

A boring overcast days in San Francisco we went to the library. Just about six of us tried to learn the game and only I took to it. I learned to love it. Chess became my first love. Eventhough I was teaching myself by the wins and more by the defeats I obtained. Losing was a pleasure for without that there wasn't a game.

Losses produced wins as well as, wins produced more losses. I joined the Koltonowsky chess club of San Francisco becoming just another wood pusher. I accepted it without question. Without acceptance there wasn't any fun and learning.

I tried to get more of my friends involved in the game that I loved with a passion. Each game so different from the next and the next. Such hard action on the boards. Only those that knew the game could actually see.

My first tournament was at the local playground on Lake street and eleventh avenue. The city of San Francisco was conducting a city tournament and I happened to go to the play ground on the final day. Encouraged by my pals I entered and I showed that I was far better than any of those that had entered. I was on of the four chosen to go to the semifinal in the Sunset district. We were given a bus pass to use to get us to the tournament. In those days most everyone used the bus system to get around in the city.

I didn't fare as well as I had at the local playground. I found that the adversaries were stronger players. I placed fourth in my age division. My family didn't come that weekday as everyone had to work. I received a certificate for participating. Others got the chance to go to the finals the following week. That was my intro to the chess world.

Oh what a web that game has made in my life.

@ Elubas
Heh, maybe overzealous  

The parts the rang true for me were the game's ability to show someone something new and your curiosity and scientist comments.

Grandpa: Quit watching tv all day

11 year old Anna: There is nothing, like nothing here to do

Grandpa: Yes, there is. What happens when you place 16 little short people, two dominating women, two powerful men, four lovely horses, four bishops and four beautiful castles on an 8x8 square board

11 year old Anna: Bishops?

Grandpa: Let me show you

the end

this is the first time ive read every post in a thread lol realy though these are good stories

I started playing chess around 5 months ago. I've been using training software called Chess Master Grandmaster Edition. I knew how the pieces move from playing chess a couple of times with my mum, but knew nothing of strategy/tactics/principles.

I've been through the academy lessons about 3 times and started looking for other opponents to play rather than just the computer. I joined this site and shortly after I joined a local chess club, full of expert level players. They are regular tournament players and extremely tough on the board.

I've learnt pretty quickly, there's plenty of resources for learning this fine game; and so long as you enjoy it and work hard you should be able to enjoy good results fairly early on. After joining the club I soon realised the difference of their strength compared to mine. I haven't lost every game at the club but probably 7/10 are lost.

That's basically my story so far. I've not been slowly introduced to the game over the years, but rather jumped straight in..

You started 5 months ago and already in the 1500s on this site I need to start practicing with you

I think this is an interesting story....When I was 19 I worked at camp Drum near Watertown, NY setting up targets for the F86 jets to practice shooting. In between flights, we had an hr or so to kill and a guy there had hand drawn chess diagrams in a little loose leaf book. I thought thie guy is serious. He challanged me to play and then proceeded to beat me 15 straight games! he never offered help for me, a rank beginner and that made me mad as hell. I was very competitive so when I got to town I bought a couple of beginner chess books, a small chess set and then set out looking for this guy. I found him and we played 2 games. The first was a draw and the second I won handily thus started my chess playing. Subsequently I reached 1859 rating and won my company championship against approx 75 engineers. Later played on the internet and won about 80% of my games. I quit because I discovered people cheating with their computers...not fun anymore. Just started back again at age 71 after many years layoff. Don't care if someone cheats anymore.

I'd be happy to help if I can ChessMaster, perhaps you can help my game too. There's lots of interesting stories on here, for me hearing of other people's learning experiences is extremely interesting.

I believe studying Chess not only helps us to develop into a better chess player, but as a human being.