More On Pens

LAST week I posted about my collection of ballpoint pens gathered from chess tournaments.

What I did not mention is that an ordinary six-sided ballpoint pen is the only chess coach I have had.

It used to pick my openings for me in the following way.

I marked the pen's sides from 1 to 6 and, on sitting down at the board, would twirl the pen to see what I should play.

For example, if I had white the results were:

1 = c4

2 = d4

3 = e4

4 = Nf3

5 = g3

6 = free choice or roll again

Suppose 3 came up, meaning I should play 1.e4. I would play that and await my opponent's reply. The commonest black first move is 1...c5, at which I would twirl the pen again, with the following results:

1 or 2 = Nc3

3 or 4 = d4

5 or 6 = Nf3

Of course there would soon come a point where I had to choose my own continuation, but I trusted my coach to have got me into a decent position.

I reasoned that if I did not know what I was going to play when I sat down at the board, my opponent could not know either.

I went through a similar procedure with the black pieces.

For example, against 1.e4 the results were:

1 or 2 = ...e5

3 or 4 = ...e6

5 or 6 = ...c5

In theory, rather than having a six-sided pen, I could have used dice, but I feared some opponents might find me rolling a die at the board a distraction.

I rarely consult my coach these days, but I look back on those times with fondness.