2
THE OPENING ACT
JANUARY 26�FEBRUARY 2, 2022
STAFF
RAISING THE CURTAIN
ON THIS WEEK’S ISSUE
What we’re into
CHESS
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A
t the height of the “Queen’s
Gambit” craze on Netfl ix,
I was drawn into the world of
chess. I watched video after
video. I learned the names of
famous players such as Paul
Morphy, Alexander Alekhine and
Anatoly Karpov. I watched their
famous games played out on a
smartphone. It was near the end
of 2020, and a long, long pan-
demic year.
Chess, a game that you
could play online and not feel
as if you’re wasting your time,
or being unproductive, seemed
like a perfect suitor to the
hours spent at home due to
pandemic closures.
To be sure, I had very little
understanding of the game
when I first started. The last
time I played chess was in
high school, over a decade
ago, with my former science
teacher Steven Finacle — the
price for admission into that
match with him was your soul,
he would joke. I accepted. I lost
my soul.
I didn’t know what an open-
ing was, what a pin, x-ray or
fork meant. Stalemates when I
was out for blood were com-
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
These are pieces from a Soviet-era Grossmeister set. The USSR, being extremely secular, did not have kings with the
cross on their crown.
mon. Analysis of recent games
I had played showed a smatter-
ing of blunders, inaccuracies
or missed wins. Lichess, a free
chess app, was a great tool for
learning. In a few months, after
obsessively studying open-
ings, tactics and using the free
puzzles, I had climbed back
up to an ELO rating of 1500 on
Lichess.
I sent a rematch off er to my
former science teacher. He ac-
cepted, but we haven’t yet set a
date for the showdown.
— ALEX WITTWER,
MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST,
THE OBSERVER