YES! Yes. If I have to memorize openings, I will memorize Glass Joe openings. I will memorize openings that make me play like the leather-jacketed tough guys making trouble at the convenience store in a Jackie Chan movie. I will memorize the openings that will be infuriating to my opponents until they learn something and soar above me on wings of joy and righteousness, leaving me behind to snarl and wave my fists in fingerless gloves like Laurence Fishburne from Searching For Bobby Fischer.
Bless you, Rob Beschizza. This is the best post BoingBoing has ever published.
Iām reminded that the comedian Brother Theodore (famous among nerds as the voice of Golem in the Rankin Bass version of The Hobbit), after escaping Nazi Germany with the help of his cousin Albert Einstein, wound up in the US after being thrown out of Switzerland for āchess hustlingā. Where else but Switzerland could chess hustling be a problem worth deportationāand what better way to end up in California.
I canāt chess my way out of a wet paper bag, but some of the terminology in the article seems directly lifted from pool/billiards. Playing pool league I have gained notoriety for my combination of unorthodox tactics and truly awful shooting. The combination allows me to often beat opponents of significantly greater skill, and leave them seething. Pool bonus: I havenāt had a table flipped yet!
I thought I was okay at chess, knew a few moves, could hold my own against some friends.
Then I joined the circus where my Ukrainian roommate would roundly beat the hell out of me and literally force me into making whatever moves he wanted after about round 8. And then he would routinely be handed his ass by the Filipino cook, who took zero prisoners.
People got a lot of time in the circus between shows.
