How did you first become interested in chess?

I am looking forward to hearing your responses on this!

As for me, my older brother taught me chess when I was about 9 years old. I enjoyed playing it with him but as the years went on, we got out of the habit.

Many years later, in 2006 when I began my career as a teacher, one of my colleagues had an afterschool "Homework and Chess Club." I wandered in one afternoon, and watched the students play, and all my memories came flooding back to me. I felt very "drawn" to the game and became very involved with it. Soon, it became the theme of my own classroom community.

In 2016, I started writing chess fiction for kids!

What about you? How did YOU become interested in chess? ❤️♟️

I played in primary school in the early 80s and became hooked. Other than the odd game I left it for a few years as I got older, but then came back to it once I could play online. Now I'm slightly obsessed, but still not great, hence the name of the podcast that I co-present.

Chess often seems to be something we "come back to" for so many people! Obsession can also be a common trait among us! 😊

Our chess career started back in the Philippines back in 1974, when I was 6, when dad taught us the moves during a typhoon with flood and everything. The time had to spent on something...

Back in Norway in 1975 dad, casually, taught us the en passant move (in the doorway to the porch!) and I seemed to have played more or less regularly with friends (and foes!).

The rest of the post is slightly off topic:

In the early 80s after a history test (if memory serves us correctly, we went to the school library to see if we could find any chess books. And indeed. The library had a series of 5 books, the first on the ABC of chess, then two on openings and games 'e2-e4', 'd2-d4', the fourth volume dealt with combinations and the final book 'Tactics and strategy' (which we bought again not too many years ago, after giving the whole series away to somebody who never started to play chess (what a move!), with examples from abroad, mix with stories from the international chess scene. On the library card, one name only

In 1983, we started collecting chess columns, taping them on the bedroom wall. And these were great columns with chess history in what once was a conservative newspaper in Norway (Aftenposten (Evening Post). The first one shows Kasparov and his matches against Bjeljavsky and Kortchnoi (London, 1983) before facing Smyslov (Vilnius 1984) qualifying for the Worlc Championship match with Karpov (1984). Due to sunlight, the columns started to yellow so dad suggested, instead of having them on the wall, to make a scrapbook, as it were, and so we did.

Today the collection contains 2000 (scanned!) pages of chess history from 1983-200. After internet arrived the whole point of collecting sort of lost its meaning. Everything being only a mouse click away, whereas before, money had to be set aside to actually buy the newspaper (back then Dagbladet (The Daily News) cost around, half a dollar or so, and the collection contains columns and pieces from several newspapers. The idea of scanning the collection was to put it out there for others to see but which is not permissible until the last chess editor is dead, which means around 2130 or so.

That same year, fall 1983, at aged 15 we joined our first chess club, which boasted around 15 member. And what a club! Mostly adult members with a couple of younger ones in between. Every Tuesday we gathers at the community house and one of the players wife, Anna, always served freshly baked waffles. Legendary! I played in this club till around 1989 before going to Tromsø for studies, and only a few years later the club shut down. These days I've been trying to find out when the players from back then started to step out of time, and was shocked to see that one of our favourites was born in 1919! and passed away in 2008. We played many memorable games. And what fun it was.

This was in the days of adjourned games and I remember how we, that is, the club team, drove around to play in the series. Once the manager (an 1800-player (1926-2009) of the club even got a speeding ticket ($140, if memory serves us right). His response? 'It's worth it.'

And then, mid-eighties or so, we started purchasing chess books 'and stuff.' In 1984 we also got our first table chess computer, a Novag Constellation, rated 1650+ or so.

It's funny, the passion for chess. While others try out a host of different sports and activities, chess has been the only game in our life. Chess stimulates all the senses, even the sense of humour. Have you noticed how chess players often laugh or smile when analysing? It's sort of weird, just like when pet owners talk to their pets. Of course, we know our pets can't talk, we still morally address them, and the same with chess players, we talk to our pieces. We lean in an whisper to the kniggeth: 'Where do you want to go?' 'To centre!'

Best regards,

I've started chess back in 2011 in chess club called Alkaloid. Two elderly people introduced me to IM Dejan Stojanovski who was and he is still my coach along with the other GMs in Alkaloid. They told me that there was some youth championship back in 2011 to meet with Dejan. That is how I got into the club.

My first time that I fell in love with the game was a gift from a friend of mine that she gave me for my birthday 16 or 17 years ago. I fell in love with the game right a way.

At my youth time from 2011 to 2016 I have played in 5 youth championships in my country. Where I finished 3rd place in 4 of them.

I had 2 youth team championships where I played for 2 of my coaches GM Vlatko Bogdanovski which we finished 6th, and for IM Dejan Stojanovski where we finished 3rd.

The newest thing which I did is that I am a new member in the chess club from Serbia Vidikovac. Where I will play for them in their leagues.

I started playing a year or so ago when my then 8 year old wanted to learn. I got hooked myself and play when I can. Great fun with my oldest and lately my 6 year old has shown interest as well. 

Played my mom a lot at 5 yrs old. The same for my sister being a kid I lost a lot now on chess.com I play Lumitosity and eventually got good playing the strongest means you eventually learn something which is also how I got into Yu-Gi-Oh it's all basic patterns and deductions depending on the moves your opponent plays.