CHESS
Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe
Indian Proverb
I learned to play chess when I was 12 years old. I was at school, it was
lunchtime and the rain was driving down outside making football impossible. I
decided to check out (pun intended) the nerds in the chess club. It was going
to be boring but there was nothing else to do.
I opened the door...
And so it was that I opened a new door to the rest of my life.
John Lenton was the wonderful man who gave of his lunchtimes to run the chess
club.
I loved the game, eagerly reading whatever literature was available including my
first book CHESS, revised edition by R.F Green. I was captivated by the
introduction, some of which said ‘The game of chess has, of late years, become so popular among all the classes in
this country, that any statement of its attractions is almost superfluous. It
has been for centuries the favourite recreation of the greatest minds; it has
emancipated itself from every social restriction and surmounted every national
custom and prejudice. Who in view of these facts, making the slightest claim to
culture, can afford to neglect it?’
Wonderful prose, more stirring than much of the dreary stuff on the school
curriculum at the time.
‘At the end of the day the kings and pawns go back in the same box’.
Indian Proverb
