Der Alter Goniff

My company just hired a contract programmer from North Carolina to do some work on our mobile device application, and he came up to New York to get started learning the code.

Turns out Ralph's a chessplayer, and I took him to the Marshall Chess Club last night. He watched some of the tournament games in progress, took some photos of the Great Hall, played a little blitz; had a fine time.

I wound up playing a couple of untimed casual games against a gentleman named John. He's a club member, but I don't recall meeting him before. I don't go to the club much except when I'm playing a tournament. Our last game was a battle royal, a seesaw affair that went down to the last Pawn. It was a Rook's Pawn, and so it was a draw--a fitting conclusion to a hard-fought game.

I forgot how much fun casual chess can be. Without the pressure of the clock, without ratings or money on the line, the game becomes part of a conversation. A little friendly banter over the moves, a pretty quick pace (I reconstructed the game scores at home later, and we played about 90 moves in perhaps an hour and a half) but you can take a few minutes over a move when you feel the need, a battle fought keenly but not grimly.

I forgot how much fun chess can be. Thank you, John, for helping to remind me.

// posted by ed g. @ 11:31 AM