Homeless ‘tramp chess champion’ challenges Cambridge’s best minds

In the picture Slide is comfortably sitting on the ground cross legged while his opponent is kneeling in a posture that is not comfortable.  The board is on the ground, not on a table, not elevated at all.  I'm 73 and can sit cross legged on the ground comfortably longer than you can kneel or stand looking down.    Any time the arrangements of the board and player's positions is more comfortable for one than the other, one has an advantage.  

Oxbridge students are used to that pose, if you know what I mean.

I feel sorry for the two dogs they deserve better. 

before anything is assumed rahim, are you claiming to the be the guy in cambridge?

: curious

Most college students are not excellent chess players.  When I lived in the Graduate Dorms at IIT, I didn't yet know what "Sicilian Defense," "Ruy Lopez," etc. meant and certainly had no clue about the Rule of the Square or Principle of the Opposition in King-Pawn Endgames.

But there was only one guy who occasionally beat me, a guy from Taiwan named (Anglicized) Johnson Lee who taught me how to play "Go."

One day, I stumbled in Chess for Match Players by William Winter, thought I had learned about everything from it, joined USCF and went to my first tournament, a 5-game Swiss expecting to win.  I lost the first four games and managed to pull out a win in the last one!

You guys who have only been around since chess have thrived on the Internet have no clue how incredibly difficult it was to get information about chess before Internet Chess!

If he rented out a garbage tin on Sesame Street, it would do more for the image of chess.

my mother used to work at the local nut house back in the 1970s as an accountant and one of the nuts told her, "I may be crazy but I'm not stupid"....and that always hung around in my mind

On the theme of strong players coming out of nowhere, Stefan Zweig's "The Royal Game" is worth a read.   

"I don’t think much of these Cambridge University students. They’re not really that clever"

"I’ve only lost six times. I’m a natural"

Sounds a bit full of himself, huh?! 

Searching the old forums is great. Sometimes you find a gem like this.

played this guy back in 2012/13 when i was at university even met his two dogs, i got 3-0'ed he was very decent