Headline, September16, 2013

''' !!! THE BEST AND ONLY 

SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR : !!! CHESS !!! '''

The Good Lord   -or Somebody, even someone, ought to get these world leaders together and get them to play Chess, for a change!

We will have a Better World in no Time

Long after your Game boy, and Play Stations are long on some dustheap, the smart set amongst you, will still be challenged by a game that takes a lifetime to master : Chess.

It's 3 am at Quiet Storm, one of London's more fashionable nightclubs and downstairs the music is loud, the atmosphere sticky and the dancing wild. Upstairs, however, the moves are of a different kind. Here, where the sounds are softer and the mood more relaxed, are the intellectual gymnasts  -men (usually) making their mark not on the dance floor but over a chequered board. Men are playing chess.

It could have been The Globe, Notting Hill's private late night drinking club where beatniks swap pawns and polemics, or London's chess point, King's head pub in Bayswater or indeed any number of cafes, pubs and clubs up and down the country but all of a sudden it seems chess is back, chess is booming. The old image of bearded, pipe-smoking oddballs and spotty, bespectacled swots has made way for the studied insouciance and mental agility of young players. Chess is acceptable again because chess is for intellectuals, and to be intellectual right now, is to be cool.

Chess' appeals lies both in its sublime simplicity and complexity. Taking minutes to learn but a lifetime to never quiet master, chess is a game of finite resources,   -a board, 32 pieces, 64 squares   -but infinite possibility. It is boundless, endless and full of magical, dynamic forces; it knows no frontiers except those of the mind.

''Chess embodies everything   -science, sport, art,   -all human endeavour,'' says 23 years old grandmaster David  Norwood who was the world's highest ranked sixteen year old. ''It's also incredibly competitive  -you feel as if you are interlocking your personality with another person. It's a kind of primeval  struggle of the mind.''

Certainly, there is little doubt that chess demands great intellectual prowess. Yet, contrary to the public perception of the game as one of steely logic and dry calculation, a chess player, much like a composer, also requires ingenuity, instinct, vision, and sheer audacity to succeed. The open-minded and versatile chessman will invariably triumph over the dogmatic and overly mathematical one.

Although defining chess can be extremely difficult. It is also too serious for a game, too transient for an art, too useless for science, one thing it is most resolutely is a battle. Chess is a substitute for war. The favorite pastime of such military leaders as William the Conqueror and Napoleon Bonparte; chess fascinates because its confrontational, it's one-on-one.

Chess also provides the most wonderful test of, and insight into, personality. Although there an be a marked schizophrenia between a person on and off board, usually players play the way they are  -a symbolism that has not been lost on novelists and film directors   perhaps most electrifyingly in the film  The Thomas Crown Affair. 

Bellicose and unyielding, and demanding a killer instinct to win, chess can be the most brutal of games  Because unlike pastimes that rely on physical bravura and the role of chance, chess' internal order and silent argument create an overwhelming intensity that leaves other games standing. In chess, there are no dice.

''When you are under pressure, your heart's beating, the clock's ticking, you've got to find a move, but you're not sure of its consequences, chess can be frightening.'' says David Norwood. And if you're playing in a competition, with the crowd watching and pieces glaringly exposed   -above board-  for everyone to see, chess can almost make you feel (as in Ingmar Bergman's  The Seventh Seal   which features a match against death's cloaked figure) as if you are playing for your life.

Yet if chess can terrify, its joys can be equally profound. Chess has the potential to teach you self-control, patience, self-confidence, even generosity in defeat. It can also be very exhilarating. ''It may not show in your face, but chess forces are incredible adrenaline rush,'' says Bernard Cafferty, editor of British Chess Magazine, ''You feel as if you are in physical combat with your opponent. Chess is almost a contact sport.''

All encompassing and unfathomable, chess ultimately defines our humanity: they have yet to build a computer that can match human logic and creativity.

It's a game that is emotional, psychological, philosophical, and character-building,'' says David Norwood.  ''It also retains a purity   -it's just you against another person, and as such it teaches you strength and weaknesses, it makes you realise just how much you don't know. ''Chess,'' he pauses as if he is about to make a final move, ''is like Life.''

!! I Think and recommend that Chess playing should be a sure must at the United Nations. !!

With respectful dedication to all the !! Leaders of the World.!!

See ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless :

'' !!! The Alien !!! '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless