chess

i took to it immediately i guess it was the year of Bobby Fischer; i was an unformed pre-adolescent & it gave me, for the first time, an area outside of school i could excel at.

i played passionately at the local chess club for a number of years, with a little bit of monetary success, & a lots of success for my ego. almost managed a master's rating, but not consistently (too many sensitivities, things that could throw me off my stride. my one out-of-town tournament was a total fiasco...)

i still play online a bit, after a long layoff in which i tried to concentrate at things i was good at that also mattered. well, i found out that talent can only get you so far, & the rest is politics. what's that, & how do i learn it?

so, i still regard chess as a kind of platonic ideal of human interaction. all the rules are there.