The civilized veneer of chess is deservedly rrrrrripped away in this fine video, which I found via Improbable.com. I shed some of my bitterest bad-sportsmanship tears over a chess game, and although I was less than ten years old when I shed them, I remember that near-defeat agony clearly today. It was only a near-defeat because my Aunt Harriet unaccountably failed to capture my undefended queen, and instead moved her own queen into a spot where I could take it.
If chess savagery featured on BoingBoing, somebody would be crying out for a unicorn chaser. Would the savage unicorn in this video suffice? It certainly seems to be chasing the other chess pieces.
4 responses so far ↓
1 TA // Dec 30, 2008 at 3:18 pm
That reminds me of something. Was it you or your aunt that gave Lucas the idea for that scene?
2 Betsy Devine // Dec 30, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Probably my Aunt Harriet, who was secretary of the Manhattan Chess Club during the 1950s.
I used to get postcard announcements of their meetings after I tactfully told her that, since she was the secretary and I could always beat her, I thought they should really make me a member too.
Club announcements stopped coming, I’m sad to say, after she died at the age of 92. She was a lovely person and probably a better chess player than I knew. I wonder if she ever played Bobby Fischer, and if she let him take her queen too.
3 Betsy Devine // Dec 30, 2008 at 11:23 pm
If this isn’t scary enough, here I am playing chess against Aunt Harriet way, way back when.
4 Clay chess at Sore Eyes // May 28, 2009 at 6:07 pm
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