Aaron Copeland (not my childhood friend, the composer) once said that “If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong”. With this in mind I’d like to apologize for glossing over so much in my last post! There’s a lot of truths I didn’t get to, and this in itself is a type of falsehood. There's lots more to say about music another day. I’m going to discuss this other small hobby of mine now.
You probably don’t think chess is dope. Put simply, you’re wrong. It’s the royal game. If you don’t back it hard maybe you’re not regal enough. Maybe you’re a simpleton. For some reason it has a reputation as a nerdy game. I’m a really cool guy and I back it. If you still need more convincing the words ahead will do it.
It’s an old game. Whether it came from India or an African country is debatable. I don’t remember that far back and neither does anyone else. Lots of old peeps had a game with similar rules. Regardless of time and place the game appealed to everyone. Think about it: civilizations that hated each other and went to war and killed and raped each others babies went home after battle and moved pieces with their loved ones. We all have the game in common!
Chess was always regarded as a past time for nerds until Bobby Fischer talked mad noise about the Russians before going there and personally schooling them. Russians dominated chess more than Canadians killed hockey (I’m being honest, sorry). Fischer would later prove himself to be completely mental (9/11 Jewish conspiracies etc.), and the seeds of insanity were present in his match against Spassky (the top Russian). He lost the first game. There were video cameras taping the match and Fischer thought they were too loud (even when they were turned off), so they put thick blankets over to quiet the noise. This wasn’t enough, so they played in a small back room isolated from everyone! Once alone Fischer beat him 7-1 with a bunch of draws. Top grandmasters don’t get dominated that way!
The American public followed the match and chess became popular! YAY! This was during the cold war, the same year Paul Henderson scored for Canada to beat the Russians. The US had some beef with the communists too! Canada expected to beat the Russians in hockey. It’s our game. They gave us a real run for our money, but before the Spassky match no American capitalist had a place beating the top Russian in chess!
Personally, I am a logical hombre. I like debating things and understanding them in an abstract way so I can superimpose them in another context. That’s the appeal literature has for me, with metaphors and all that. But chess is at once abstract and finite. No rhetoric convinces the loser the battle is still going; when his King is cooked the game cannot legally proceed. One time in the parks of New York the police tried to arrest people for gambling on chess games, only the judge acquitted them since he determined it couldn't legally be considered gambling. Unlike poker, backgammon or hockey there is absolutely no luck involved in chess! True story. It's one persons brain against the other. No more, no less.
You know what else is cool? Historically, Jews have a habit of whooping ass at chess boards around the world. The greatest world champions have all been Jews: Steinitz, Lasker, Fischer, and Kasparov. I should mention that Fischer has publicly disassociated himself from his Jewish heritage..he’s a real hater. Still there’s no shortage of Jewish chess leaders: Kashdan, Fine, Reshevsky, Tartakower, Flohr, Najdorf, Bronstein, Botvinnik, Tal, and that ultra good looking Halperin! Even that kid Josh Waitzkin who the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer” was made about is Jewish. Josh actually connects to my next point, the final reason why chess is undisputedly dope.
The Wu-tang back it! They always rap about the pieces. In the Wu-Tang manual there’s a whole chapter on the significance chess plays in the Wu’s whole philosophy. Rza phrases it in a way I just can’t: “At parties chess was considered nerdy at one point. Now it’s considered cool…The other day when GZA was playing Melquan, when he took his queen he said ‘Hey, your bitch chose me’—that is some pimp shit. That’s just how we flip it”. That’s how I feel too.
This connects with Josh since that kid stopped playing serious chess and grew up to be a martial arts champion. He’s practically the RZA’s hero now! They hang out all the time, Josh discusses the links between chess and martial arts at the promotional work he does for http://www.wuchess.com/, an online hip hop chess community the RZA started. I am going to learn more about it because for some reason I have nothing to do with it. In my last two posts I discussed blues and chess and I bet none of you thought I’d bring up Hip Hop/Wu-Tang in both of em!
Anyway, I’m sure you have a lot more respect for the 64 squares now. I’m part Russian and all the way Jew so I can’t really help but love moving pieces. Really with the world wide explosion of chess in the 70s, and especially since the internet, people from all over the world are unreal at chess and games are analyzed the same day they’re played! It’s not just for Russian Jews anymore. That having been said, challenge me. I take on all comers. But beware: I’m into regicide buddy!
One last note: I thought I'd provide a link to what is arguably Bobby Fischer's most famous games from when he was a 13 year old: "The Game of the Century". Check out move 17 where he allows his Queen to be taken in order to unleash a WICKED combination!
Man, this is dirty stuff! Peace out ya'll.
For some reason it has a reputation as a nerdy game. I’m a really cool guy and I back it. If you still need more convincing the words ahead will do it.
ReplyDeleteThat is a quote from ur blog
to be honest, I resent your simplistic view of nerd and the prototypical stereotypes applied to different groups of ppl. I think taking the general view on chess as nerdy is incredibly weak and under thought.
sorry to be such a prick about it.