Chess Club

So today I finally went to a chess club meeting in Hamburg, and it was really cool.

When I first got there -- it was at a community center kinda place -- I felt a little awkward, because one of the club members told me that the people I saw sitting at the chessboards were “league” chess players, which means, I think, that they were rated. I had thought that the whole thing was going to be just very casual. Still, I felt a little better after this club member told me that non-league players can also play on Thursdays, and they usually do in the kitchen, which was off to the side of the room.

Well, after a few minutes of watching the “league” players play, which was kinda boring because they play pretty slow, I went into the kitchen. There, a boy, about 10, and an older man were playing. They greeted me nicely and I just watched them play for a while.

Things began to get fun, at least for me, when a man around 50 years old walked into the kitchen and set up a chessboard in front of me. He asked me if I wanted to play and I said yes.

After introducing myself -- I feel as though this is very important before playing a game of chess with a stranger -- we began.

He had the white pieces and played the Queen’s Gambit. For those of you who don’t know much about chess, a person who plays the Queen’s Gambit opening seeks to attain space in the center of the board and to bring several of his pieces into attacking position.

I played something called the Queen’s Gambit Declined. When Black plays the Queen’s Gambit Declined, he is effectively saying to White, “OK, I respect that you are playing something aggressive against me. I’m not going to try to match your aggressiveness, but you are going to have to work for your win." This being because the Queen's Gambit Declined is quite sound.

Anyway, let me speed this up: I won the game. But I was really proud of how I won. I basically let my opponent hang himself. What happened was, he kept on making these aggressive moves that really didn’t have too much of a point, and if you do that in the Queen’s Gambit, eventually Black’s pieces will have a better set up and will be in a better position to attack.

Anyway, after making several of these nonsensical moves, my opponent blundered and I was up two pawns. But what was cool was that by this point there was no way he could really win because (a) the position was pretty much equal, (b) he had no prospects and (c) I was simply two pawns ahead. The noose just kept getting tighter.

Yet, he kept on attacking. But really, by this point, I simply viewed the game as a war of attrition. And he must have known all was lost, too, because after I forced him to trade his queen, he resigned.

After the game was over I realized I really had not made one offensive move. Basically, every single move I had made was a defensive one -- but I still won.

I thought that that was damn cool.