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Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

annekadet.substack.com

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Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#21

Post by toss1 »

pmoriarty wrote: post #2

I used to play a lot of chess, and it totally took over my life. So I never play it anymore, because for me it's too addictive. For some people (like some of these hustlers and others who can make a living from it) that's ok, but for me I wanted more from life than just playing chess all the time and thinking about nothing but chess.. but for certain types of people it has a way of sucking you in and can be a way of…

Yup

My grandfather said that "Too many great minds have been wasted playing chess.", and so always played checkers with me, always kind and teaching, but never rolling over. It took me years to win, but I still remember the three times I did before he passed away when I was 13. I've hardly ever played again. Played enough chess in HS to learn how, a few openings and just enough games to understand the intensity. I could definitely see what he meant, and it's probably a good thing my passion was already for alpine ski racing, which has similar intensity but is naturally a bit self-limiting (e.g., the lifts close and you have to go in).

I've since read the saying to the effect that "Being able to play chess is a sign of intelligence, being able to plat chess very well is a sign of a wasted life.". Seems to ring true, except for the true greats.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#22

Post by hutrdvnj »

btilly wrote: post #19

I used to live in NYC 20 years ago. I played a few of the hustlers. Some you will lose to, but most aren't actually that good. They are entertaining though. One moment that I will never forget was watching two hustlers play each other for fun. The position was something like white had a pawn at a4 and a king at c7. Black had a pawn at h5 and a king at f3. Black to move. Black offered a draw, white said OK, I let out…

Do you remember the complete PGN of the game?

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#23

Post by daveevad »

btilly wrote: post #19

I used to live in NYC 20 years ago. I played a few of the hustlers. Some you will lose to, but most aren't actually that good. They are entertaining though. One moment that I will never forget was watching two hustlers play each other for fun. The position was something like white had a pawn at a4 and a king at c7. Black had a pawn at h5 and a king at f3. Black to move. Black offered a draw, white said OK, I let out…

Isn't that essentially the same endgame at the ending of Searching for Bobby Fischer?

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#24

Post by smarmgoblin »

btilly wrote: post #19

I used to live in NYC 20 years ago. I played a few of the hustlers. Some you will lose to, but most aren't actually that good. They are entertaining though. One moment that I will never forget was watching two hustlers play each other for fun. The position was something like white had a pawn at a4 and a king at c7. Black had a pawn at h5 and a king at f3. Black to move. Black offered a draw, white said OK, I let out…

That’s wild! I’m not very good but if black offered me a draw in this position my thought would be “his pawn is faster, so why would he offer a draw? Unless he thinks he’s losing for some reason…” which would be the hint to look for the tactic.

I guess in many queen/king endgames you can have perpetual checks, but accepting the draw wouldn’t be my first instinct.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#25

Post by [deleted] »

swores wrote: post #9
ray__ wrote: post #6

I love this, just subscribed. My favorite piece of advice: “I’ll give you a lesson, a half hour for $20. I have some children that come just to see me once a week and I give them a lesson—$20 for a half hour. And there’s a lot of NYU students that come by, we give them a discount for being students. One hour for 40 bucks.”

I think (or maybe your choice of quote just accidentally gives the impression) you're interpreting that as making NYU students believe they're getting a deal despite paying the same price as "some children", but actually in the previous paragraph: > If you want a game, I say one game, five dollars, five minutes. So the children and NYU Students are both getting a discount (40/hr for both types of student vs 60/hr for…

[deleted]

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#26

Post by tartoran »

pmoriarty wrote: post #2

I used to play a lot of chess, and it totally took over my life. So I never play it anymore, because for me it's too addictive. For some people (like some of these hustlers and others who can make a living from it) that's ok, but for me I wanted more from life than just playing chess all the time and thinking about nothing but chess.. but for certain types of people it has a way of sucking you in and can be a way of…

I’ve had my chess learning period followed by obsessive play up to a point that after playing a few hours daily I’d see those patterns in my mind’s eye for a while afterwards. I realized it ‘s not something healthy and I stopped playing altogether.

Recently I started playing online from time to time and want to make sure it never becomes an obsession again. Learning how to lose gracefully is an important milestone in one’s quest for maturity.

Generally chess has some wisdom that can be carried out in other areas of life. One point worth mentioning is that no matter how complicated a situation has become there’s quite often a good way out of it if one keeps calm and looks out for solutions.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#28

Post by every »

I had a chess phase. I used to play a guy with some national ranking. He wiped the floor with me. He told me my game pretty much sucked but he enjoyed playing me because I was always seeing and doing things that would have never occurred to him. And that was the apex of my chess career...

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#29

Post by bluedino »

toss1 wrote: post #21
pmoriarty wrote: post #2

I used to play a lot of chess, and it totally took over my life. So I never play it anymore, because for me it's too addictive. For some people (like some of these hustlers and others who can make a living from it) that's ok, but for me I wanted more from life than just playing chess all the time and thinking about nothing but chess.. but for certain types of people it has a way of sucking you in and can be a way of…

Yup My grandfather said that "Too many great minds have been wasted playing chess.", and so always played checkers with me, always kind and teaching, but never rolling over. It took me years to win, but I still remember the three times I did before he passed away when I was 13. I've hardly ever played again. Played enough chess in HS to learn how, a few openings and just enough games to understand the intensity. I co…

First one is Einstein(?) and the second is Paul Morphy

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#30

Post by empthought »

rhexs wrote: post #20
wdb wrote: post #3

How's this tax free?

The tax code isn’t enforced at the cash / low income level. Thus you can vote for increased taxes to fund increased social spending and not actually take part in the taxation. In fact, you’ll likely even get additional money back filing taxes when there’s no record of your cash income. Convenient, eh?

“Gotcha!” - Lucky Ducky

https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2003/06/14

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