recently i seem to have been contacted by all sorts of local chess players
asking about starting a club. one woman spoke to me about her daughter's
interest on returning from college, and another woman, conspicossuly
overhearing the conversation spoke about her own, and her daughter's
interest - for an hour!

then there are two dads who both have 7 year olds - i am circulating a dvd
maurice ashley sent me on a 4 GM blitz event, and the kids completely love
it!

my phone is ringing with questions such as, [dad2] i read on the back of the
chess bitch book about touch and move - is that a rule? what if you... etc

then there is the nimzo book ray keene sent me which is currently with a v
strong player in the area who actually plays the nimzo, and who also has a
chess playing daughter

dad1 wants me to see how well his child plays, and maybe do a tutorial
thing - but i mention his age, the /child's/ motivation in exploration being
maybe better than received knowledge and direction, which dad1 understood
[that's good! i am not dealing with some crazy 'pushing' parent]

i should really call my main sparring partner who i haven't played for 3
months and offer him some recent titles, including how to play the sicilian
[which he needs] and although i usually win, after 20 years he still thinks
i am just lucky - typical engineer, no? my system is tal-like mess with his
force

i also just lost an on-line sort of cc game to a 1500 rated player by
dropping a piece unforced in 1 move by playing too fast. at the same time i
slaughtered a 2550 player at blitz

chess is so stimulating this way! [ROFL]

there are untold numbers of people who want to engage in it, and
increasingly women, who check you out first as a male! since the sociology
of their chess experience has not been edifying nor rewarding to them

but chess is booming in the bushes - and what it will take to have it all
come together is more media coverage, which i work on, plus some scholastic
exposure, though this is a highly complicated subject in the us - much to do
with money and big time politics

i hope and suspect that interest in chess is the same where you are - though
how best to support it is less certain. i resent paying money or
recommending the national organisation who don't really offer anything more
than i could myself - and don't like the new corporateness, as if the
non-profit organisation were a business-propre, and making money the prime
measure

its is interesting to be a foreigner here in usa, where chess started well
with world stomping morphy, then as a team event won a decade of golds from
olympiads int he '30s, then the resounding thunder and lightning of outlaw
fischer

as a cultural phenomenological factor, chess seems hardly yet born to the
general public, but all signs indicate a remarkable resurgence of interest
based on its implicate values

those of us wishing to work at a world level which reflects these same
values and appreciations as freely expressed by ordinary folks should take
in this momentum which is largely unfed by much knowledge, contant with any
chess scene - people mostly like the game, at least as they express it to
me, by what they find in themselves in playing it

phil innes

U¿ytkownik "Chess One" napisa³ w wiadomo¶ci
news:szjng.1884$TC1.530@trndny08...

but chess is booming in the bushes - and what it will take to have it all
come together is more media coverage, which i work on, plus some
scholastic exposure, though this is a highly complicated subject in the
us - much to do with money and big time politics


I`m afraid that (big) politicians are so obssessed with their selves (egos)
that they do not have time for the chess bushes.