Your first memory of chess ...

Please feel free to share your first memory of chess.

(Also, please respond if you can help with my request below)

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As a young boy in the late 60s/early 70s, I was first exposed to chess via a radio broadcast from Cuba.  I remember my father hunched over an old AM radio, straining to hear a spanish-speaking male voice through thick static.

We were recent Cuban immigrants, having moved to Florida seeking greater economic opportunity.  Although I spoke spanish, I did not understand the mysterious code coming over the radio.  At first I wondered if my father was a spy! (being vaguely aware that tension existed between the U.S. and  Cuba).

I did not yet know of chess, but the little wooden figurines crowding the board on the kitchen table of course intrigued me.  And when, after each burst of radio code, my father moved one of the pieces to a new square, I started to realize that he was watching some kind of game.  A very important game judging by the intensity of his focus (shushing anyone who dared to speak during the broadcast).

The "radio match" was my initiation into chess, and my interest steadily grew over the years as I watched dad and his best friend (a fellow Cuban of his generation) play chess every weekend with great passion.  Sadly, I did not get to play many games with dad since I was a fast learner, and his machismo did not allow him to risk loosing to a child! 

My father is long gone now, having succombed at age 64 to the effects of 40 years of smoking unfiltered Camel cigarettes.  As a middle-aged man myself, I am only now really starting to realize the preciousness of what I lost when he passed.  Now I am trying to reconstruct some of these long-burried memories (only the good, not the bad). 

If anyone out there possibly knows of the specifics of the "radio match" of my childhood, please tell me!  The AM radio broadcast originated in Cuba sometime in the late 1960s or ealry 1970s.  At least one of the player was an important Cuban, playing on-site (probably Havana).  The other player might have been there too, or perhaps in the U.S. relaying moves via radio or teletype.  Although Capablanca was my father's  chess hero, the great Cuban Champion could not have been involved having died in 1942.

I searched the internet without success, but I hope some of you chess historians can help.

P.S.  Father's Day is Sunday June 21 this year.  Don't miss the opportunity to connect with him while he's still around.

My father taught me how to play chess when I was 12 and I kept on play chess occasionally with him, sometimes my younger sister (she's pretty tough to play against). I once joined the local secondary schools league championship and got badly beaten. Subsequently stopped playing for a while, but it was my father who cheered me up. I remembered he told me 'on your long way of life there are many obstacles, if the very first little one let you down, how can you face your long way of future. You're always the best in my heart, son', and then I joined the school chess club playing once a week and when I'm free I play on the site here. I won't forget this father's day, I will try my best to making it special Ivan Klist

Ivan, your father gave you very good advice.  Perserverence is very important in chess, and in all of life.  This attitude will make a big positive difference in the success of your future life.

I am glad to hear that you returned to chess after your initial frustration.  I experienced the same kind of discouraging feelings after some poor results in chess tournaments.  Life will often throw difficulties at as us, but it is better to face reality with courage and dignity, and learn what life is trying to teach us.

Thank you for your meaningful feedback, much appreciated! 

The image of a rook as an ashtray made me chuckle.  And it's interesting to me that you remember specifically the rooks.  That is also the piece that stands out in my first conscious memory of chess.  I think most children would mainly focus on the knights.  But there is something special about the rooks -- maybe their simple symmetry combined with quiet strength (the slang phrase "tower of power" comes to mind").

I was like 6 years old, got introduced by my father. Lost my first game badly, got really mad. Vaguely remember I was a bit confused how the pawns moved, yelling 'you didn't tell me pawns can do that!' when my father captured a piece.

Most of us probably were introduced to chess by our father, uncle, or older brother.  Especially since schools in most countries don't yet include chess in the curriculum.  Of course mother/sister/aunt could have provided the chess introduction just as well -- I'm just making a general observation about what seems to be the pattern for most people.

Regarding the strange movement of pawns, I can just imagine the confusion a child feels when they first see the en passant move!

Oooh

We're no strangers to love

You know the rules and so do I

A full commitment's what I'm thinking of

You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling

Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

We've known each other for so long

Your heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it

Inside, we both know what's been going on

We know the game and we're gonna play it

And if you ask me how I'm feeling

Don't tell me you're too blind to see

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

(Ooh, give you up)

(Ooh, give you up)

Never gonna give, never gonna give

(Give you up)

Never gonna give, never gonna give

(Give you up)

We've known each other for so long

Your heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it

Inside, we both know what's been going on

We know the game and we're gonna play it

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling

Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give you up

Never gonna let you down

Never gonna run around and desert you

Never gonna make you cry

Never gonna say goodbye

Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Not long after my parents noticed my interest in chess, I received a chess set for Christmas.  Nothing fancy, but as a young boy, it sure seemed magical to me at the time.  It is a very modest design, having only sentimental value.  But it is sturdy considering the abuse my brothers and I put it through (chess was not the only war game these pieces fought in).

I have not used it much in many years (as an adult gravitating to more luxurious HOS designs).  But I am now very happy that I had the sense to hold onto my first chess set.  

Please forgive my maybe excessive sentimentality -- becoming middle-aged has turned my mind towards fond memories of the distant past.  A way of balancing the sadness that naturally accompanies middle-age, when we start suffering the loss of our beloved parents, aunts, and uncles.

My first memory of chess is from 1972 and my father teaching me how to play chess. Dad learnt chess from his father and in 1972 I was six when my father taught me to play. My friend knew how to play the game and I remember being at home and pestering my father to teach me to play. It was summertime and it was during the Fischer / Spassky world title match in Iceland.

That is my first memory.

As well as learning the moves, I was given a book to help me understand the game. It wsa written by DB Pritchard and there was commentary in the book by Imrie Konig. It was called How to Play Chess and it had a black cover with a white knight on it!

It was the early 1850s during a previous life. My chums and I were rafting the Mississippi and getting near New Orleans. A gambler that we camped with told us stories of a young man who had astonished the top lawyers and judges of that city by beating them at a board game. The gambler was hoping that we knew how to play so he could provoke us to wager the little cash that we had picked up robbing a few people upriver.

@Ziryab

Do you remember if you followed through on the gambler's plan?  And if so, did the astonishing young man happen to resemble the fellow below?

In any case, it looks like maybe you remember some of the chess lessons from your previous incarnation, giving you a nice head start on regular schmucks like me who had to start from scracth in this life.  Or maybe I was a fish in my previous life too 

When we got to New Orleans, the young man had left the city and gone off to college. That may have been him.

The gambler taught us some of the basics of how the pieces move because he fed him and it was clear that we weren't the sort of sheep that he could fleece. 

AH YES THE FIRST TIME!! BONNIE, TOO MUCH BEER, BONNIE, YOU HAD TO KNOW BONNIE!! BONNIE WASNT GOOD AT CHESS, BUT YOU JUST GOTTA KNOW BONNIE!!

I first heard of chess in a Tintin comic book where Cap. Haddock was deliderating whether he wanted to take Tintin's bishop and lose his queen, or do something else... this ignited my 6-year old spark, and, years later, this is me. Still an amatuer.

Your not gonna do anything stupid are you?

Do you know Bonnie??????????

???

I miss you father!

My dad introduced me to the game and taught me to move the pieces and such, but my cousin showed me how to really play chess