How did you learn Chess?

I simply learned by my coach.

Bradly Johnson asked me if I would want to play we were ten.

He tried to teach me, I am still learning I will be 64 in the last quarter this year.

That's quite a long time!

I learned it from one of my school teachers back when I was 12... in 1968.

I learned when I was only 4, and now I'm a Grandmaster.

That question brings back memories-- A cousin driving from florida to NY made a side trip to visit my father. My cousin was a college english professor [like a pink poodle or unicorn in my family] and was there with his wife- a stewardess from Ireland, very lovely and exotic. Back then stewardesses were invariably beautiful. It was likely in '68 when I was 12. They were both city people and found life on a small farm very interesting and exotic. Our neighbors bull pushed through the fence and when they came for breakfast there was this huge bull outside the door staring in at them. He taught me and showed me the 4 move checkmate. My father & I played checkers a lot so I caught on pretty quickly and really found chess absorbing.

By playing chess. And reading Masters of the Chessboard and My System

I learned the basics from my uncle. And improve by reading Chess Fundamental, Giants of Strategy, MCO and Chess Informants.

Chess for Beginners by Horowitz

The Complete Chessplayer by Reinfeld

My dad taught me.  Along with a book called "Chess Made Simple," which wasn't simple at all.  Mid 60's.  Toward the back of the book, they explained this new-fangled thing called "algebraic notation."

My father, back in the sixties.

Also, having a younger brother and an older brother, we all flourished in chess.  Our goal was to beat our father, and we'd have our moments, but he'd usually prevail.

Back in the sixties, everyone played cards (solitaire, Old Maid, Crazy Eights), board games (Monopoly, Life, Careers, Sorry), but chess was in a league of its own.  A "proper" wooden board and in a separate wooden box (with a latch), Staunton pieces.  And there were chess clubs in schools, and Bobby Fisher published articles in Boy's Life, regularly.

Took an hiatus from Chess for about 10 — 20 years, and then came back to it… buying a Fidelity Elite Avant Garde 2265, auto sensory, wooden-board chess computer.  I put a lot of hours in on that.  Still have it, it works fine… but my MacBook Pro with Chess dot com's engine is much more powerful, and faster by far.

Once I got the Elite Avant Garde, which would crush me on Level 2, what followed was chess books, and more chess books, until I could hold my own on Level 5.

You learn a lot about chess when you can get a game whenever you want.

One piece at a time . . . (and still learning after 50 years!)

I am trying to learn chess in the intensive way for about one year. When I was a child and in the university I used to play. Nowadays I play and try to study it.

At age 8, from my dad. He beat me 100 games in a row. This made me decide chess must be a great game of skill.  At age of 9, I was beating him most of our games--so he quit playing me. 

Then I had no one to play against.  This was way before the internet.

I started learning it on my own last summer, watching chess games on the internet and playing on the L site.

Unfortunately nobody in my family plays chess, except my dad, who just pushes pawns and doesen't develop the pieces.

doesn't*

I learned chess in back in 2000 from a computer game Chessmaster 8000. I played chess for a year and a half and then stopped (too many sedentary hobbies). My main rating was around 900-1100. I couldn't seem to beat the Chessmasters's 1200 level virtual player.

Chessmaster 8000 said that my checkmate rating at the time was 1400. I had bought a big book of checkmate puzzles (by Polgar) and spent a lot of time on them.

Flash forward to 2020: I haven't played in 20 years. Then the covid-19 problem put many people into self-isolation, and I was getting bored with my other hobbies, so I've been going through the beginner chess lessons again.