Local Chess Club

[Freestone]

Originally Posted by chessman

Ever make it past the 10th move without dropping a piece? A rating of 2631 is staggering. Wow!

No, he was an aggressive player. I often opened with the kings pawn and he would respond with some variant of the Sicilian defense.

Oh wait - do you mean without being DOWN a piece? I doubt I was ever unintentionally down in pieces after 10 moves. I generally would follow book for probably that long. It was in the mid game where he had always obtained some positional advantage over me that later (and very quickly) became determinative, often resulting in material differences. It was never (rarely?) an obvious mistake. (Or we would have stopped to explain why I was about to make an error ). Worst thing is I could never figure it out - without him later talking me through it - where I made the initial "wrong" move.

But I never stood a chance either.

2631 - thats all he does! He's a professional chess player. Gets paid by a club to represent them and gives lessons as well. Typical week day would probably be 4 hours of lessons.

[Freestone]

Originally Posted by chessman

Ever make it past the 10th move without dropping a piece? A rating of 2631 is staggering. Wow!

Incidentally, I had also hired a former European backgammon champion to instruct me (and actually won a few low point matches (3 pt) against him, but there luck is involved but over longer point matches he always won. Indeed, it is the attraction of that luck that makes people bet in those matches against better players. )

I mention this as the backgammon pro charged far more per hour than the chess grandmaster. Far more. I think the chess grandmaster was only like 20 euros/hr. The reason? Their opportunity cost was much higher as they can play high stakes backgammon for cash and many went into ultimate poker. Indeed when we first conversed on the phone he wanted a percentage of my earnings to instruct me, assuming I must be an aspiring pro. I told him I didn't really play for money which I think made him more willing to instruct (no future competition - not that I would have been). He was a flake though and always canceling so it wasn't a great experience.

[KingRT]

I also hired a Grandmaster to play once a week. I never won or even got very close. It did make my game much stronger.
He had a 20 something year old truck that leaked every fluid and a small house with limited income, plus his wife ran the show. I retired young and have all the material stuff, felt Superior, yet he beat me up on the chess board like a bully and loved it. I was stunned as I consider myself a strong player. I held our city title, when I was young. (a $3 trophy.)

[MyPal]

Why don't you guys start up a few remote chess game threads & invite fellow AA members to play you? Just like the Blade Runner movie...

Queen to bishop six, check. Knight takes queen. Bishop to king seven, checkmate. That sequence must have set bells ringing for an awful lot of chessers.

Is the position in Blade Runner exactly the same as another famous chess master encounter?

Such a thread could prove stimulating for experienced AA players & novices alike.

[Jack in Wilmington]

Some excellent chess tonight at our weekly meeting. We had seven matches going at the start and ranked players paired off with each other, so everybody was fairly well matched. One guy left around 7:00 so we had one player looking for an opponent. Well about 7:15 this guy walks in and one of the other good players recognizes him. He introduces him as Dave to us and then we go over and quietly ask is he a good player. They say he's the reigning state champ. Well Dave sees Bill (the 3rd ranked player in the state ) and of course they know each other so they sit down and have one hell of a match. We just stopped playing and watched. Dave put down on the sign in sheet that has a ranking in the 2200's and Bill is in the 1800's.