The game fascinates me but winning at it is well outside my range of abilities. I play on the computer either at Chess.com or Lichess. Normally at Chess.com I play online where I face a human opponent but against the clock. I invariably lose because time has run out, even when I appear to have been in front which is never that often. On Lichess I play the computer at Fairy-Stockfish 14, Level 3 and never win a game. So I am well down the rankings. If it was Monopoly rather than chess I would almost certainly be in negative equity.
I encouraged my son to take up the sport and he managed a draw against me in only his second game. I first learned to play - maybe better to say I just learned how the pieces move - when I was about twelve. So progress has not been exponential, to somewhat understate the case.
One of the great things I find about chess is that for it to be enjoyed it has to be played without vanity. For me it is fair to call it a loser's game because I always lose. But it is a game of great strategic skill and tactical acumen. It is also very humbling. Consider it - there are only 32 pieces and 64 squares. The permutations and combinations seem infinite even if artificial intelligence eventually will account for every possible move and variation. In the vast world in which we live, with considerably more than 64 countries and infinitely more than 32 people, a chess board and its pieces very usefully demonstrates just how little we understand the range of possibilities and constraints in the world. For that reason alone, chess should be a great foil to intellectual arrogance and dogma.
I have always kept a chess set on display somewhere about the house. So, when I found myself no longer working and figuring out what best to do with the free time suddenly at my disposal, I opted to join Drogheda Chess Club.
I encouraged my son to take up the sport and he managed a draw against me in only his second game. I first learned to play - maybe better to say I just learned how the pieces move - when I was about twelve. So progress has not been exponential, to somewhat understate the case.
One of the great things I find about chess is that for it to be enjoyed it has to be played without vanity. For me it is fair to call it a loser's game because I always lose. But it is a game of great strategic skill and tactical acumen. It is also very humbling. Consider it - there are only 32 pieces and 64 squares. The permutations and combinations seem infinite even if artificial intelligence eventually will account for every possible move and variation. In the vast world in which we live, with considerably more than 64 countries and infinitely more than 32 people, a chess board and its pieces very usefully demonstrates just how little we understand the range of possibilities and constraints in the world. For that reason alone, chess should be a great foil to intellectual arrogance and dogma.
I have always kept a chess set on display somewhere about the house. So, when I found myself no longer working and figuring out what best to do with the free time suddenly at my disposal, I opted to join Drogheda Chess Club.
During the playing season the club hosts chess games once a week, which I invariably turn up to. There, I laugh when I lose the games, which is nearly all the time. When I win, my immediate suspicion is that my opponent opted to give me a break! Yet, I know they are much too professional for that. Once I was beaten by an eight year old boy. His dad and myself laughed so much it almost brought tears to our eyes. For me that's the approach that has to be brought to chess if it is to be genuinely pleasurable. Fine, we play to win and competition is at its heart but so too is cooperation.
I don't play at competition level. I'd have to bribe my way in. It leaves me in a position that because there is nothing hanging on the games, I can enjoy them and nobody is let down. The only time I feel irritable is if I blunder which is also a regular feature of my game. Other than that, may the best man, woman or trans win. Which is always my opponent.
Drogheda Chess Club has been on the go since the 1940s, I believe. Currently:
. . . we have three teams competing in the Leinster Chess League. The club hosts The Drogheda Chess Congress in June, as well as an internal club championship, friendly tournaments and blitz events throughout the year. We also host online competition on lichess.
A fortnight ago Drogheda Chess Club took part in a FIDE promoted global endeavour to set a Guinness World Record for the most games played in a 24 hours period. FIDE is the World Chess Federation to which Drogheda Chess Club is affiliated. The venue was Scotch Hall in Drogheda.
It was sandwiched in between two other events that I was involved in on the same day: the annual Pride march though Drogheda in the morning followed by an afternoon vigil for Gaza in West Street. I rushed from Pride over to Scotch Hall, leaving my wife to tidy up any loose ends and say goodbyes. Because I was pushed for time and fell between stools in the playing schedules, I never got a game. But that didn't matter as the organisers had asked for people to turn up and observe, to be part of the event even if not playing.
Chess is a game for all creeds and classes, the very composition and colour of the pieces conveys as much. Drogheda Chess Club is the most hospitable of venues, whatever the age, nationality, gender, religion or political beliefs of the players.
It would be a peaceful world if all wars were fought out on on the chess board.
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Have to one up you here, I am appalling at Chess (way worse than you I guarantee it) but wildly addicted to it. Worked out I play an average of between 15-20 games a day. Get my arse kicked by anyone above 1600 rating. I find it very oddly relaxing though. Good to tune everything out for a wee bit.
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