I started playing a game of email chess with my pal Oscar a few days ago, and he’s already taking the trash talk public over at the Columnist Manifesto. To me, that’s a sure sign of his sense of impending defeat.
I started playing email chess a few years ago with my friend kmk. He and I just completed a game a couple weeks ago, and I’ve just started another one with him. We’ll see how I manage two games at once. [Both game boards are depicted near the bottom of the right-hand column on the very website.]
I’ll admit to having never been a very good chess player. It probably has to do with the fact that I’m not a very visual thinker and I’m impatient. In face-to-face chess, I am undone by stupid moves.
But with email chess, there’s ample time between moves, and I find that if I just pay attention, work out all possible scenarios, and focus not only on offense (which is my nature) but defense as well, I tend to do OK. In addition, I’ve picked up some strategies here and there, and played lots of computer chess.
Oscar subscribes to Chess Life magazine and bandies about terms like “Nimzo-Indian.”
He is so going down.
