OPINION: Changing the legacy of chess in Brooklyn
The game of chess exists completely in reality, calculation and strategy; chess players are rarely described as imaginative. Bobby Fischer, for example, learned the game of chess in a cheap apartment at the intersection of Union and Franklin streets in Brooklyn as a child of an immigrant Russian mother. Fischer is known as the best chess player of all time, and he has garnered the attention of the media in recent years as films and documentaries about his life gain popularity, such as “Pawn Sacrifice,” starring Tobey Maguire. After rising to the top of the chess world, Fischer faded into the depths of the unknown, as he made many controversial comments that caused the masses to label him as insane. Fischer spent his later years as a recluse in Reykjavik, Iceland until his death.
But why did Bobby Fischer go mad? On the outside, someone so talented in a strategy based game would seemingly be able to apply this to success in real life. G. K. Chesterton, however, wrote in his most famous piece, Orthodoxy, “Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do.” Did Fischer go mad because of chess? Or was he checkmated by society?
Everyone sees the beggar crouched on the street. Everyone has heard of the rumors of the “mole people” who supposedly inhabit the NYC subway system. But not everyone knows the plight of the chess-hustler. If you have ever stopped on the street to play one of the people set up with a chess board, you understand that they are extremely talented and nearly impossible to beat.
Many chess-hustlers ask for a simple donation, a small fee, or even food in exchange for playing a quick match. Yes, these chess-hustlers are extremely talented, but why have they been reduced to playing matches on the street for money? Every chess game must end with either a checkmate or stalemate, and as these chess prodigies and hustlers who can see so many moves ahead go further into their games of life, they see themselves losing a Pawn, then a Bishop, then a Knight, Rook, Queen, and lastly their King is cornered.