Chess and My Small Mind

I've been playing chess since the 5th grade. I was taught to play in 1971 by a teacher at McKinley Elementary School in Appleton, WI. The teacher's name was Mr. Ron Luppein and he would stay after school teaching kids how to play this great game of the mind. At that time Bobby Fischer was single-handedly dismantling the Soviet chess machine and most kids had an interest in chess. I continued to play on and off for the next 20 years. I always thought I was a chess stud. I suppose being a chess stud is the next best thing to being a real stud. 15 years ago I was living in Green Bay, WI. One morning in the newspaper I read an article about the Green Bay Open Chess Tournament that would be played on that very day. The prize for 1st place was $500. I could see that money in my pocket! All I had to do was show up and claim it. I told my wife to get ready quick as I was going to win a chess tournament.

I walked into the host hotel with a studly strut that would have made Sylvester Stallone gawk in awe. I paid my entry fee and proceeded to get absolutely hammered during all 5 rounds of the tournament. I fact I went many years and never won a tournament game. I learned through chess how absolutely average I was.

I guess I would not classify myself as dumb. I am an Electrical and Computer Engineer with a Masters Degree. Being smart and being good at chess can be mutually exclusive however. A good tournament chess would absolutely destroy a noble prize physicist at chess if the noble prize winner did not have a chess mind. Chess takes hard work to become good at and smart people are not instantly good chess players just because they are smart. It takes many years to become a proficient tournament chess player.

Our 10 year old son loves chess. He has played in national tournaments for the last 2 years. He can crush me in chess as simply as I can crush a mosquito. My Electrical and Computer Engineering Masters Degree mind cannot compete against his 10 year old chess/lego mind. He actually gets bored playing against me. I get frustrated. He then goes back to his legos and sand box for mental stimulation.

Don't think I am a mental midget - he'd crush you to .......