How did you get into Chess?

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IanSteiner

I didn't start playing till my mid 20's, Once  when I was on vacation from work, I stopped at the video game store to get a few games to play while I was off.  I noticed a cheap chess game for the PlayStation and decided to pick it up.  I had never played but was always intrigued by chess.  I had very little exposure to the game till I saw the movie "searching for Bobbi Fischer" and that sort of sparked my interest.  I actually was interested in learning the game when I was very young.   There was one time I remember I was at my Uncles house and he had a chess set sitting out.  I asked him if he would teach me how to play and he said it was too complicated for me.  I didn't bother with the game again for another decade and a half.   Who knows how good I could have been if I had started at such a young age. 


phishcake5

In the gulag I noticed some people playing and started to observe the games.  It looked like fun with all the trash-talking/banter, also the flair and speed with which they moved their pieces was kind of mesmerizing.   Can't remember if I asked to be taught or if someone asked me if I wanted to play and once I told them I didn't no how they decided to teach me. 


MissEda

I used to have a very primitive game system called Fireside Chess built into my iMac. When I was 14 or 15, I used it to teach myself the moves and some basic draws and wins. Several years later, I joined an adult chess club at my local library, and the more I played against them and studied the chess literature they shared with me, the better I got.

By the time our club disbanded, I had gotten good enough to beat three of the guys on a regular basis. Although I still miss our club every day, I enjoy meeting one other former member of the club for chess almost every Friday afternoon -- as well as playing online chess almost every day of the week. I almost always beat my live partner, but playing online chess is more hit-or-miss for me!


chessdadx3
I don't remember who taught me either. But I knowed I played a lot of chess while ditching class in HS. Didn't play for the last 25 years, then picked it up again while recovering from surgery. Now I can't get enough of this game or this site.
Flub
I was a fetch boy at a local horse track in the early fifties and the stablehands used to play blitz games between glue runs.  Ahhh...those were the days.
TheRealThreat

I learn from my father at the age of 6. He never let me win. In fact none of the game was even close. I learn how to lose gracefully at an early age :(

I can't remember ever seeing anybody win a game from my dad. He never talk trash but he can get under your skin easily with his annoying laugh.

 

Well in the summer after my freshmen year in H.S. I finally was able to beat me convincely. The opening I beat  him with was the Colle System stone wall variation.


Grayhound
My mother taught me at the age of 3.  I entered my first tournament at the age of 4, came third and the maager of the local chess club recommended that I get proffesional training.  The rest is history.
alexdespres

My father taught me, I got up to his level when I was around 10 or 12, and then it was the great Battle Chess computer programs for years, sating my need for intellectual exercise AND bloodlust in a single game.

 

Dang, I need to find a copy of BC 2000 now.


gordo

listening to the Howard Stern show. He alwasys talked about chess so I thought I would try it out again (hadnt played for many years). Now I am hooked.


lighthouse

My parents bought me a chess set for christmas when i was around five ; played simple games like how to move then at school ,

played on and of  over the years, but now at chess.com

a day don,t go by with out a game.

thank you all at chess .com it;s alife line . in these;s dark year;s ie the past eight year;s. 


Pistoleer

hmmm good suqesion and i donnae know the anssnwre! hmm  I know i played at primary shcool in chess club so i must have been at least 8 or so. Perhaps my dad taught me or i learnt from a book, hmm will have to askhim. PLayed in shcooll a bit and then in the BB (like the Scouts) and had my only OTB tournies through that organisation, ending up a couple of times in the UK finals with my good mate Col also a member here who normally kicked my arse, cept fer one time in a blitz chess game at the finals heh (ill take my wins when i can mate!)

(tyoping disaatsers blame on the wine)


phishcake5

MainStreet wrote:

I saw a chess set in a car,

went to a toy store which says it's a board game,

and just bought a set - without even knowing how it is played! :)) 

That was in 1964, when I was 8 years old.


 Ah, the allure of the chessmen.

Marshal_Dillon

When I was in 5th grade one of the other kids in my class learned the rules and thought he was a hotshot just because he knew how to play. he wasn't such a hotshot once I learned to play, though. 

maniac2008

haha...

my husband was playin all the time ... i thought it was boring but then he taught me and now i know why he was always on it ... :)