What Goes Around, Comes Around

FLICKING through an old copy of the US Chess Federation magazine Chess Life, dated September 2004, I came across a letter that is still relevant today.

Evans on Chess

Hopefully you can read the letter, from a reader in Canada, and the reply from grandmaster Larry Evans.

But if not. here is the gist:

Q. In his novel The Queen's Gambit, Walter Trevis wrote: "You don't get the girls in High School by being a chess or pool player ... many players are loners trying to escape from personal problems." Why do we play?

A. Because, as one fan said, "Chess is the most enjoyable waste of time you'll ever experience."

A few things sprung to my mind (as well as the obvious one that Trevis and Evans appear to assume "a chess or pool player" is male).

First, it never occurred to me that pool players are loners, and I do not believe many people would lump chess and pool players together in this way.

Second, I am far from sure chess players are loners.

True, there are many people in the world of chess with low social skills - that goes with the territory of an activity in which verbal communication is low on the list of requirements.

But the average chess player, even if never playing abroad, can meet in a handful of tournaments more people from different cultures and social backgrounds than the average person in the street meets in a lifetime.

So, yes, you can be a loner and enjoy the game, but the chances are that as a chess player you meet and mix with a relatively diverse section of the world's population.