I was introduced to the game when I was 7, at my school's chess program. I've been on and off, but i've playing pretty consistently(quantitative, u judge the quality 
) for the past few years. The game is fun, but more than that, I believe the thinking that's involved with chess can be applied to many other areas. Poker, so example 
. Just messing with the emoticons.
Who got you to start playing?
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I learned the rules of chess at about 7, but was quite terrible at it and never really played chess again until I was 16; my math teacher in my junior year was quite good and got me interested in chess again. Now I play chess like an obsession :P
I'd wanted to learn from about when I was 7 but noone I knew could play. At about 9 years of age I learnt there where books which taught you to play so I bought one and taught myself and my brothers.
My friend had played about a month when he taught me (I was 6). I have consistently beaten him ever since, starting the next day.
My dad taught me about 3 years ago. Then we whent to sites and got books and now we are at the same skill level. We make the best chess team, (we go to yahoo chess and do a vote chess like thing) His weekness is my strangth and vis versa.
Now here is a random chess position:
From what I've been told when I was around 4 or 5 I saw a few people playing chess in the park and was fascinated by it.
We had a chess set, I read the rules (with my dad) and wanted to play, beat my dad, and my mother. I wanted more. Then my dad found a chess store nearby and we went to buy a book.
Unfortunately the book recommended was not a book suited towards a child who was unable to understand anything in the book so I didn't get a good start to chess at all :(
So I guess you could say the guys playing chess in the park got me started.
My family and friends' families had the boards and pieces around and when I was real young, I used to play with them like army men - off the board mostly; I don't even recall whether I knew their basic moves at the time, but I definately knew the names and "ranks" with respect to point values.
I guess the point I got more serious with them was with my first computer when I was about 15yo (dating myself: it was a TRS-80 with 4k and cassette deck storage). One of the free (or at least cheap) programs I think was a Chess Game and so I daubled with the game there. I soon got a dedicated Chess Machine (forget the make and model) from my parents one Christmas - it was way "smarter" than the Z80 assembler version on my TRS-80.
At about that time, some other geeks & I started up a Chess Club in High School and played with variants, but never really inter-scholastic (vs. other HS). We didn't even have a Teacher Sponsor/Coach!
Wow. Thanks for bringing up the topic, it was a fun stroll down memory lane!
I was in the forth grade at a little country school here in Kentucky. I was the new kid recently moved from the mountains in North Carolina. I did not know anyone and the school chess tournament was at hand. A boy named Mike Tibbs had befriended me and ask if I was going to join in on the tournament. I told him I would like to but I did not know how to play. He said he did not either but he was going to ask the teacher. I chose to join and checked out a book in the library. It was a book that only taught the basics but I won for my class and placed third in the school. It was my first year playing and I was hooked. I won my class every year in school until I graduated. My chess awards still hang on my mothers wall. I had plans when I was younger of making a life for myself as a chess mentor. However, when I was twenty years old a group of men beat and robbed me and ruined the ability to think as I once did. I still play a fair game of chess but I know I dont play as I once did. Sometimes it comes very easy like it did in my youth and others I will sit and look at the board for hours and still miss the most simple moves. I do not feel bad for myself though. It is only one of many things that brought me closer to God. These days my interest are in the teachings of Jesus. There is no money in it but the joy is incredible.
Good topic David, I am glad you brought it up. It does us good to remember our youth sometimes.
started playing when chess was the only board game available at my house and even on the computer!
I learned from this from cottage dad at the children's home i stayed in some 20 years ago. He had a friend who came by and showed me all the nuances of the game.
Some of you, I'm sure, was self inspired and self taught the game. However, I believe that most of you were introduced to the game by a person, or perhaps brought back to the game. I'm curious as to who(teacher, friend, parent, etc) got you to start playing and why did you keep at it?