Part 2
Then, if you go this
page and replace the word chess with pool or billiards, you can see the parallels.
It got me to thinking that he is right on with his opinions of how each one of us can promote pool.
He ends by saying this:
OK, now comes the part where I might seem to get a little ugly. I apologize in advance for any offense delivered, none's intended. But there's some important stuff that needs to be said.
The vast majority of chessplayers are pretty well-adjusted socially. Not everyone can be a bon vivant but most of us are at least adequate, if not necessarily proficient, at the social graces. I'm not talking about knowing which fork to use -- I'm talking about the really basic stuff like "Pleased to meet you" and "You play a good game".
The main rule of thumb all of us need to remember is to be nice to people. If you're sitting on a park bench, reading a chess book and studying a position, don't act annoyed when someone interrupts you to ask for a game or to talk with you about chess. Smile. Talk to them (and don't talk down, for crying out loud, no matter how stupid you think their questions or comments may be). Say "Hello" (and, by the way, "What's your rating?" is NOT now and has NEVER been an acceptable substitute for "Nice to meet you").
Don't refuse to play someone just because you think you're a better player. Back when I first got serious about chess, I was desperate for a game against a human being after months of playing solely against computers. The only time I ever got to see a human face across the board was when I played in rated tournaments. To my delight, I discovered a Chess Life tournament announcement for an event to be held just six blocks down the street from my house. I called the number given in the ad. The first thing the guy on the other end asked was "What's your rating?" When I told him, he discouraged me from coming to the tournament, saying that the half-dozen or so regular players each month were all too strong for me and that I'd only get creamed (and I'll bet he still wonders why he only got six players at his tournaments). I noticed from the address in the announcement that the guy lived just three blocks from my home. I asked him if we could get together for a few games sometime. He replied somewhat haughtily, "I'm rated much more highly than you -- playing you would only hurt my game and wouldn't do either of us any good". And that was that.
Wrong approach, pal. People like the poor 1100-rated schmuck who called you all those many years ago need to be encouraged, not discouraged. This is exactly the attitude that prevents some chess clubs from attracting new members. People want to play chess -- they really do! But they don't want to play if it means that their ability (or lack thereof) is going to be the object of someone's derision. Encourage people. Play with them -- even if it's a little kid who learned the moves just last week. Say encouraging things about their game -- tell them the things they did right in the post mortem instead of just hammering them with their mistakes. By all means, tell them what they did wrong (this is how people improve), but be gracious about it. Be helpful. Prod them to read some chess books -- and please don't start them off with a recommendation to read a Dvoretsky book that's light years over their head! That's a bit heavy for a beginner, you know? A person has to learn to crawl, etc. etc. and all that clichéd stuff. Chess for Dummies, a Pandolfini book, or one of Seirawan's Winning Chess books will do nicely as a start. And on the subject of being nice to folks, you don't have to be patronizing while being helpful (people can recognize that when you're doing it and they hate it), just be pleasant.
Don't refuse to play someone because of your personal prejudices. I'll be blunt -- I don't give a damn what color someone's skin is, what religion they are, what country they're from, what gender they are, what their sexual preferences are. I'll play anybody. We're talking about a short game of chess here, not some sort of lifelong commitment. If you have personal prejudices, I'm sorry. Please put them aside for a half-hour, OK? Play the game. Don't be insulting. Don't be condescending. Just be civil. Nobody's asking you to marry your daughter off to a purple bug-eyed Satan-worshipping heathen pod alien from the planet Pervo (or whatever other specific ethnic, racial, or religious group hacks you off) -- just play a little chess.
If you lose, don't get angry. Congratulate your opponent. He or she could be the next Fischer. And even if they're not, you'll have the chance to make a huge impression, particularly with young people. I once taught a one-day chess class at a local junior high school. I had around two dozen kids in the class; six or so had never played chess before. So I reviewed the moves (on a computer screen using Fritz -- I'm no fool, I know what kids like: computers, baby!) and taught them some elementary tactics and simple mates. I then split the kids up into pairs and let them play. One shy little 13 or 14-year-old girl was "odd man out", so I asked her if she'd like to play a game with me. She was one of the kids who'd never played before and was afraid of losing. I gave her Queen odds and the White pieces and we started a game. It took forever to play, as she was still a bit unfamiliar with the rules. So I patiently helped her out with the moves and allowed her a generous number of takebacks. After a couple of hours, I realized that I was completely busted. I tipped my King, held out my hand to her, smiled, and said, "Congratulations! You've just won your first game of chess!" The startled look on her face was absolutely priceless. Her friends were awestruck: "You beat the chess guy!" Sure, I gave her generous odds and a ton of takebacks, but that didn't matter a bit to me. It didn't wound my pride at all -- I was pleased that these kids saw her victory as a major accomplishment. I was really proud of the kid.
Evidently, she was too. Several months later, as I was walking out of a local department store, I passed this same girl and her family as they were on the way in. The girl spotted me and didn't say a word, but her face instantly lit up with a beaming million-dollar smile. She remembered, you see. And she was still proud of herself. Does she still play chess? I don't know. I don't remember her name and I doubt that I would recognize her today. It doesn't matter. A young girl thought she was a champion and the only cost to me was an afternoon spent at the local junior high. The smile I got outside of K-Mart was the best repayment in the world.
Friends, we're the best publicity chess has. Kasparov can play all the exhibition simuls we wants to against sports figures and musicians, and that's great. But Garry (unlike Santa Claus) can't be everywhere at once. We can. We're the ambassadors for chess. Get out there and spread the word, especially in areas that don't have a chess club. Do you know how chess clubs get started? Two guys meet at each other's homes to play chess once a week or so. One guy mentions it in passing at his job and a fellow employee says, "Hey, can I come over and play sometime?" After a while, these three guys decide that they're sick of playing each other exclusively, so they "go public" with it. They take the games down to the local library, city park, or the corner pub. Soon other people are playing and, the next thing you know, they have a chess club. It's that simple. If you don't have a second player, just go out by yourself with a chess set to a public place. Get a bench or table at the park, a spot at the library, a corner table at the pub, and study your copy of Lasker's Manual, Chess Life, or MCO there. You may not get a game the very first time out, but you will get one soon -- trust me. And who knows where it can lead? The small chess club at the car dealership I mentioned got started when other employees saw me and a technician named Butch playing speed games at lunchtime.
Be friendly when you get a game. At least be polite. It comes naturally for some folks; for others of us it takes a little work (especially for me; I'm actually a bit shy around strangers, believe it or not). But don't undermine your own goals. It makes no sense to go out and try to get a game with a stranger if you're going to be rude. Nobody wants to play a butthead, and acting like one just reinforces that media stereotype we've come to know and loathe.
This grass roots thing can work. We don't need to find ways to get people interested in chess -- they're already interested. What they need is a chance to actually play. Not everyone knows about the local chess club, about the USCF, about Internet chess sites. We need to tell them, to show them. And a simple way to do it is by starting small: one on one, mano à mano. Give them a chance to play and you give them an incentive to continue playing. And when they get more comfortable with their game, take them down to the local chess club. Steer them away from the buttheads there (every chess club, even the ones with a great atmosphere, has at least one) and point them toward the friendly, helpful players. Give them advice. Tell them where to buy chess books and equipment. Talk about the game, tell them stories about the current top players and great players of the past, hit 'em with some funny anectdotes from club and tournament experiences you've had. Eventually they'll ask about rated chess and the USCF. And that's when you've hooked 'em.
As I said last week and earlier in this rant -err, editorial -we're now standing at a major crossroad. The explosion in the number of Internet chessplayers shows that there is a renewed interest in chess, despite the fact that organized chess seems to be falling apart at the seams. We're in the best possible position to be "chess ambassadors" now that there seems to be a void at the top. Just like soccer in the U.S. in the early 1980's, it's time for a grass roots movement to take up the torch and move chess into the next century. I'm not looking to overthrow the USCF -- I want to help it grow. They're not in a position to spend big bucks right now to promote chess. Promoting chess is our job and it won't cost a penny. It just takes a little time and individual effort from as many of us as possible.
We have it in our power to get this game noticed. Forget the media, forget corporate America, forget the big plans. It won't happen, so it's time to quit anticipating that "someone else" will do the work, the way we anticipated it back in the early-70's and the mid-90's. Congress isn't going to pass a law making [insert the date of your choice] "National Chess Day" and thus send people flocking to sign up for USCF memberships. The US Postal Service isn't going to release a stamp with Paul Morphy's picture on it (besides, to most people he'd be just another proverbial "dead guy on a stamp" anyway). Forget the newspapers -- they'll just stick your chess story back on page 87 right below the lost dog announcements (if they bother to print it at all). We (the average Joes and Janes with our 1100 to 1900 ratings) are absolutely the best hope for getting this game noticed and attracting new players to it. We'll do it by getting out there where people can see us, talk to us, and play with us, by bringing chess to them instead of waiting for them to come to us.
So I guess, my point is two-fold. Promote pool ourselves on the grass roots level to bring in more players and I was wondering if anyone knows of any efforts being made by anyone or organization to promote pool to corporate America?
