My Chess History and Love of Chess

I first started playing chess when I was just a lad. My Dad taught me the moves and I quickly caught up to him. I’ve continued to play over the years and I think this is one of the passions that helped me make it through the pandemic over the last couple of years.  I wanted to share some of my thoughts about chess and why it’s such a fantastic game and some of my history with it. 

After playing chess as a child, I ended up playing many games with a mentor I had in my early teen years. Lee and I would play games while listening to the latest records he collected – Bruce Springsteen, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones, and lots of our folk heroes of the day. These included David Bromberg, John Hartford, and Steve Goodman – three artists which were also touring a lot in the area during those times. This combination of sitting with a friend and playing chess and listening to great music continues in my life to this day.

I eventually moved to New York City and studied from 1980-1984 at NYU in Greenwich Village. The main park in the Village is Washington Square Park. This park is known for many things – it was a place for music and good times in the 60s and when I got there that vibe continued. Washington Square Park also hosts a wonderful corner with many built-in chess boards and seating for dozens of games. The area also boasted a number of chess stores where one could buy a board and pieces but also rent time at a table and easily find opponents (almost always men) to challenge to a game. This was especially useful during winter months and at night, though I also remember playing chess in the park at night in warmer weather times. Between the park and these shops (one was open 24 hours if I remember correctly), I spent a fair amount of my free time during my college days playing chess. I noticed I didn’t see too many other students on these boards.

The scene in Washington Square Park around the chess boards has always been fun. There’s a lot of kibitzing that goes on and some people play for money, though it’s usually just a dollar or two. I probably got my tuchas handed to me more than I won in those days, but it was a free and fun way to pass the time and keep my mind sharp. I love seeing how many of the videos of people playing trash-talking chess sharks in parks take place in New York City. It’s a great way for me to relive the scenes of my youth and every once in a while I think I see someone I’ve played with. But those guys were mostly older than me and are probably not the ones featured in the videos.

I’m also a musician, so I’m used to challenging my mind with that different language, too. Chess adds one more layer to my active mind. I wish I were better at other languages – I’ve tried learning many and I hardly know enough to order a cup of coffee in most. OK, that’s not completely true – I can do more with German, but in Spanish, my speaking is pretty limited unless I’m in a Spanish-speaking country for a while. Then it picks back up.

Back to chess and current times. About a year before the pandemic hit us I had been playing chess against a friend who beat me most of the time. He started telling me about how he was learning from better players online via videos they would do – playing while annotating their games. I got pretty into this and found myself watching more than I was playing. But I think it was important that I spent this time researching the game and learning some information about opening moves (also known as openings). At this point, I’m still watching these games, but luckily I’ve gone to playing more than watching.

During the pandemic, I signed up with chess.com and have been playing there almost exclusively since. I still play over-the-board games, too, but I have about 11 games going at one time on chess.com – feel free to reach out to me if you’d like to connect with me and play. I’m there under my own name so I’m not hard to find and challenge! Some of my favorite games right now online are with my 2 nephews who are on the East Coast. This has become a way I keep in touch with them and it’s also been interesting to see them develop as players.

When the Queen’s Gambit came out I rushed to watch it and I figured that would lead to a lot more chess playing in the world. That may have happened. It’s a strange universe, the chess world. I enjoy playing the most, but watching people who are advanced in the game is certainly interesting, too.

I encourage you to learn how to play chess. It’s fairly easy to learn and it will help you stay sharp as you age. And who knows, maybe one day we can hang out and play together!

Have a great one, Albert