How did the chess bug first bite you?

Do you recall any special experience that led you to the world of chess ? I would like to hear some .

I played video games a lot.  I'd practice them, beat / outperform everyone I knew, and then a new game would come out and I felt like that work was wasted.  Also it was easy to become good.

So when I realized chess was difficult, and I could play people better than me (and improve) for the rest of my life, I became really interested and wanted to play it all the time.

Google was hosting an event with Garry Kasparov and an audience member asked, "How do I get good at chess in the least amount of time?"

Garry countered with, "Why do you want to be good at chess?"

So, you basically had the world's greatest chess player giving an anti-motivational answer to an audience member.  I've played about 5,000 games online since then.

One day when I was twenty something, I found a book in the local library with the words Spassky vs Fischer on it. In the background were two large chess pieces. At that time, I supposed it was a spy thriller involving some Cold War adventure between the US and the USSR. Well, the book was in the clumsy old notation and I took some time to learn it.

Some guy taught me the basics during our lunch breaks at work years back. Didn't really think of it much until several years later, and then boom I was hooked.

My first job after I'd finished my studies was in southern Germany; I was living in an idyllic small village on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance), on the Swiss border. I had an English colleague and friend there who, apart from being a good pianist and teacher, was also the current Bodensee champion (and had once drawn against Korchnoi in a simul!). I'd played on and off since childhood, but since there's not an awful lot to do in a small village in the depths of winter, we played a lot of chess. His whole attic was a chess den; in those days there was no internet, and he used to receive a package of mail order chess books about once a month; he was at that time fascinated by the Modern Benoni (that was before its crisis in the later 80s), and it was the first time that I realized that you really could improve at Chess by studying theory. I bought a paperback by Harry Golombek and learnt the basics; I've still got it, incredibly dog-eared; in it, he shows a game by a certain 16-year-old Garry Kasparov and remarks that he could well win the World Championship one day.

Anyway, I only ever won a single game against John that whole year - in an unheated night train at 3 in the morning, while he was suffering from a heavy case of 'flu. But I suppose that year was when the chess bug really bit; thanks, John!

My grandfather taught me and my brothers the rules when I was 6, when I was 15 I stopped playing, and a few months ago I started playing again

At around the age of 14 I went on holiday from New Zealand to a resort in Bali, Indonesia and in one of the hotel gardens there was a giant chess board where the pieces were about 4 feet high. I played my Dad who taught me the rules (excluding castling and en passant) and lost my first game. Due to the size of the pieces, I remember feeling like a general behind his army. Lost again on the second day we played but managed to win the third and was happy. Before leaving Bali I bought a plastic chess set from a small shop. Without anyone to play consistently at home however I soon lost interest.

The chess bug bit again at university after seeing 4 or 5 people playing 10 minute games in one of the common rooms. Long story short, I ended up joining the university chess club where I learned quickly and spent many an enjoyable night watching Kingscrusher and Chessexplained videos. Over two years of playing with several reasonably strong players at chess club I gradually improved in no small part due to the analysis done with my wonderful opponents.

I have been fascinated by the stunning depth of the game and have never been able to leave it behind again. On coming home from university I then managed to find the plastic set I bought at 14 and it has remained my practice board ever since.

I'll second that! And yes, Kc and chessexplained are two of my  favourites too.

Maybe when you've made your first million you can go back to Bali and buy the 4 foot chess set as another souvenir.

My dad wanted me to play, I didn't, but then when I saw random people's reactions when they saw me play, I was hooked. I found if amusing that they acted like they knew what was going on,  but in reality, they were confused and bewildered.

That is how I became to to start loving chess, then came the results of me actually being really good in OTB.

I started playing Chess because I was going to get paid for it!

I began to be interested in the game the last day of the training course (before that, it was just business, really) when I played one of my coaches, rated 2200 FIDE, in a simul. When I saw how he played 25 people and the things he did and how quickly he did then, I wanted to do the same, even though I know I will never be as good.

Someone said kings played this game

Being a socially awkward nerd in high school, the chess club was just a place where I could hang out and engage other people and only had to prove myself at the board. It kind of stuck as a habit. Maybe a bad habit.

A jewish neighbour taught me. I went to a club when i was 10 a beat a doctor of 50 years old and i was very proud. I played until university and restarted 25 years later. Just 30 minutes per day. No more.

My Uncle taught me the game when I was ten.

Life-long addiction soon followed.

Boarding school being hot on it, and if you play well you get to be in the team and play lots of teams of lads, only a fringe benefit you understand lol

PJ

i played my first chess game, then a mosquito came.

 I was taught by an atheist, then I started winning against christians.

My friend next door had a set when we were about 14, and he showed me how the pieces moved and then beat me. But I had always thought he was a bit dull, and if he could beat me at chess, then I must be MORE dull than he.

So I got a magnetic set and a Fred Reinfeld book and started to study. I really stunk--but I started beating him at least. The Fischer boom really accelerated my interest, and all of a sudden there were more people to play with. Then when the first chess computers came out in the 70s, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

The Internet, though, has been the saving grace of all us rural guys who have to travel 30+ miles for a club and then spend the whole day on Saturday to play in the club tournament.

Now I can sit here at midnight in my pajamas and play people from around the world. Fantastic!

I really didn't have a special experience.  I remember as a young child watching my sister and brother play, and years later found those chess pieces in our game drawer along with the playing cards and dice.  Nobody I knew knew how to play, so it was kind of like a mystery to me.  When I was about 10 I found a book at school aimed at children teaching the game, so I read it and learned how the pieces move.  Of course, still not knowing anyone who played, it wasn't until a few years ago that I actually really started learning how to play, after being beaten on the computer so many times.