Thursday, September 14, 2006

Chess in 10th grade

I do not use ‘foul’ language simply because I choose not. It no longer holds a fascination for me. I will use if needed but I realize that the less you use it the profound it is when you do.
I went through ‘foul-mouth’ hay day in tenth grade where every other word during a chess match was punctuated with the first curse word that came to mind.
I became very proficient in its use and it became almost second nature.

I must say that we were so bad that they almost banned chess playing because of us, But then you have to understand teachers dilemma… You pass a classroom and you all you hear is chairs moving and guys shouting the most foul of languages at the top of their lungs and you walking expecting to see either a fight, football game or some illegal magazine, only to find every one sounding 3 to four tables each with game of chess going on.
Mind you fights did break out over these chess games. Those guys were passionate about it. The best players were not always the most bookish; in fact one of them rarely attended classes had very poor grades and essentially was a ‘bad man’. Actually I suspect he was in a gang.
It was on of the things I loved about my time in 10grd. The great diversity in our backgrounds and our outlooks took second place to out love for the game. It was a melding of great minds.
I will not brag and say I was the best. I was amongst the best, after a while ppl became careful of whom they challenged. I remember on person in particular, I honestly thought he was the best player in the class, but he use to run from matches he thought he would loose
Playing against him was like playing against a brick wall unstoppable that fellow.. He could have beat every one but for whatever reason he doubted his own skill

He definitely beat me more times than I beat him.

Boy thinking about it I do miss that about tenth grade, the endless chess matches every lunchtime… sigh. I must say that I don’t think any of us joined the schools chess club or team for that matter
This was just a bunch of guys wanting flex their mental prowess and see who was better.

Who said testosterone was bad?

2 comments:

Miss Mel said...

(Sigh) So many memories coming back of 6th form reading room and lyming while watching a great match.

Thinkbass said...

6th form was a great time for everything. The memories you brought back. That chess memory was worthy of print though.