What Got You Into Chess

     After my last posting I thought I'd get back to the reason we're all here: Chess. This is a game that we really have to work at. It really requires a love of the game. I have been given an opportunity to write a large section on the game of chess in a book I am finishing due for publication June 2009. I am starting the section out with a simple question. What got you into chess and why do you stay with the game. This is going to be read by a wide audience and hopefully attract more people to the game. Give it you best and answer the question. Here's my answer:

     I was touring a lot as a young musician and needed something to do while on the tour bus and in between shows. It's a very transient lifestyle so other than reading a lot (which I did and still do) I needed something portable and challenging. Thus chess. Over the years I had to step away from the game for long periods of time, but I always came back. The fact that no two games were the same and the fact that there were so many books on the subject kept my interest alive. Chess also saw me through the occupational hazard of being a musician; drug addiction. I kicked a very serious drug problem playing chess. I also survived cancer's mental anguish by playing chess. I owe a lot to the game. I've also met some of the nicest people playing chess. Being a musician means that you meet a lot of flakey people who have their own interests in mind rather than yours. My chess friends (really my true friends) have never let me down. Even when we disagree, we share a common bond through our love of the game. That, in the short form, is how I got into chess and why I play. On a side note, it's the one place my overinflated ego manages to stay in check. The game humbles me and this "humble" state of beoing in extremely important in keeping your addiction in check.

     I don't mind speaking of my personal problems in life because I am not ashamed of what I've been through because its made me who I am today and they say you're only as sick as your secrets. Putting mine out on the table keeps me sane! Please add your commentary because I'm really interested in other people's opinion on the subject.

Miniature gaming led me to chess. I still love playing some minis, but I needed a strategy game which I felt challenged by and required minimal work and materials to setup. I also play Xiang Qi AKA Chinese/Elephant Chess when I need a break.

I just got into it one day because i just got the feeling to try it out. So my big bro said u want to learn chess here u go and i got a board as well. then i learned stuff and went out looking for victoms hahaha I found my bro inlaw beat me with this stupid opening so that set the stage for me to want to beat him down and show him who is boss. I did that and beat most everyone in my family so i felt like a big shot then. Then i got told about a local club and got smashed by a mid level 1300+ player and i got all competitive again hahaha and decided i was going to beat those old blokes and be the best. So i guess onces i started to read the books and find out what makes this game tick i got more and more interested in what u could do with this game and being competetive as i am i hated losing so i tried to get better. I love a good challange this game gives us that in spades mate....

my parents when I was 4, they knew I was smart and introduced me to the game.  (sorry no dramamtic story im a boring person!)

well my mom taught me how the pieces move when i was young and i used to play every once in a while with her (couldn't ever beat her though), but then last year I discovered a whole world of chess and how deep the game really is. I cant really stop playing now, I want to get to the top! I love the feeling of outplaying your opponent. The facts that this game doesn't rely on luck like other games do and that it relys on stratigy and tactics draw me to this game

The 1972 Fischer/Spassky match drew me into "serious" chess, though I learned the basic rules of the game about a decade earlier.

I feel I should add that I would like to say I owe my love of chess to my wife, but that would be a load. Many years ago we sat down to play. She had played as a kid with her siblings, but I hadn't. So she teaches me the rules and we play. Before long she's kicking my ace and I get crabby and tell her it's a stupid game.

Then there was the time when I was 8 or 10 and played Battlechess in DOS on a 386 PC. I had no idea what the rules were, but the game was kind enough to show me where I could move pieces. I only really cared about the battles that ensued.

It's these lessons which have taught me how to teach my 6 and 4 year-old daughters the game. They ask me on a daily basis to play with them. :-)

I was lured by all the women.

 LOL  !! 

Oh believe me, Babs, I'm gonna keep my eyes wide open. I'll drop 74 points if I lose. Yowsers! (BTW, Babs knows that I make these jokes all in good fun. )

And yes, chess could use more female players. I'm doing my part by trying to teach my daughter.

As for what got me into it... I learned how the pieces moved at age 7 or so, self-taught. I thought that was the same as "playing" until I was 27 and played someone who KNEW how to play. Then I was hooked for a while. Then I lost interest due to a lack of finding others to play with. Then I found C.c and life hasn't been the same. Finally. A place where I'm not looked upon strangely for loving the game of chess. I may be looked upon strangely for other reasons, but not for loving chess. LOL

I think a more accurate phrasing of the question is what got chess into me! I am so addicted to this game that even when I just want to cry and never play chess again cause my fragile little ego can't take one more beating, I read some chess books and play some more. I think the underlying trigger for me is that chess is a game that is made possible by me. What I mean is I have 100% control over the outcome. It hurts a little more to lose, but when I win, I can say that I did it. It wasn't chance, it wasn't a referee, it wasn't a miriad of other extraneous factors.... I won the game. For one breif shining moment of my stupid life, I can be in control of something!

I once saw the most beautiful of chess sets in a shop.  It really was a jaw dropping moment and I couldn't stop looking at all the pieces.  It made me think this game of chess must really be something for people to go to so much trouble to make the sets so beautiful and interesting. It made me want to understand what the pieces all meant and how you use them.  I joined here to teach myself chess in January 2008 and am now seriously addicted to the game!  I have to have very understanding family and friends!  For me chess is like meeting the love of your life... you just know you are going to stay together forever... no matter what! 

 I have collected quite a few chess sets in my life and I recall my wife scolding me one day about wanting to buy yet another one ! She said : " You already have several chess sets and can only play with one at the time! Why do you want/need another one?!" I asked in rasponse : " And how many pairs of shoes can you wear at once?" 

I was introduced by a friend of dads and played a lot when 10-14 years old

Have only just started back when I found chess.com..... its great

I'm an average player, but the truth is... I get a feeling of power and inflated importance, defeating a weaker opponent...

Its shallow and cowardly, but hey....

Watching my dad and sisters playing, got me into the game

My introduction to chess was when I was layed up after a knee operation at 24. The wife was getting sick of me being bored, so she got a chess set and taught me how to play, she also beat me! This got me to liking the game and I bought chess program for the old C-64, Colossus Chess (IIRC). After a while I thought I could play and went along to the local chess club, had my backside spanked in 11 moves! Went home thinking I had a lot more to learn about this game, so I bought a few books, I was lucky in that my first purchases were the Life,Games and Writings of CJS Purdy and, My Chess Career by Capablanca. These were both good and inspiring.

Now have over 300 books, the C-64 is in boxes, the wife hasn't played me since I beat her blindfold 8 years ago, and I have over 30 chess sets and 7 clocks (all for the little club we have in Blayney and associated activities).

My dad taught me how to play when I was about 9 or 10 years old.

I started play chess when i was young only to play with my father. At that time i didnt study any books and i only learned how to move pieces on the board. I started again playing chess about 6 or 7 month ago and now im tryng to learn more about them. Chess game is like our life. I think now i can't "divorce" any more about them because i love them all

Bobby Fischer in the 60's and 70's.  I probably would have never started

playing had it not been for the news coverage.  My father taught me the

basic moves when I was eight and realized setting traps was my speciality.

In 1970 I wandered into the Chicago Chess Club on Wacker Ave.  I was ten

at the time and had never seen so many boards set up just waiting for play.

I got into a game with a younger looking player and started running him

around the board.  I really had no idea what to do, but everybody started

watching.  When we neared the finish it was obvious I had no end game

(did not even know what end game was) but when I got mated everyone

was very excited because the gentlemen I played was rated in the 1800's.

His reaction was nothing but class, and I learned that most chess players

not only play, they teach.  Never underestimate whom you might effect

when you play, and never fail to teach.  I have four kids now, 11-8 and

they all know how to play, in the hopes it will improve them as individuals.

Will they play as much as I did, don't know.  Does it matter, no.  One thing

for sure, chess players read situations in the big picture, giving them an

advantage in any forum.