Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

annekadet.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 94 posts

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#71

Post by nabaraz »

syspec wrote: post #69
pclmulqdq wrote: post #68

They can also teach you how to cheat without getting caught. They will teach you how to double down on the lie when you get caught. I have played against chess hustlers 5 times in Washington Square Park, caught 4 of them cheating on the spot, and figured out the last one at the end of the game. I'm not an amazing chess player (~1500), but fairly comfortable playing blitz (a bad hobby from when I used to play chess in…

How were they cheating? Moving pieces when you were not looking? Adding more time to their clock?

I have played twice with them and they made illegal moves on one and the time ran out on another. I cannot confirm if my opponent was using hacked clock (I strongly believe he was) but I am pretty sure his diagonal move was illegal. He argued his piece was somewhere else and I got fed up and left.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#73

Post by pdevr »

pclmulqdq wrote: post #68

They can also teach you how to cheat without getting caught. They will teach you how to double down on the lie when you get caught. I have played against chess hustlers 5 times in Washington Square Park, caught 4 of them cheating on the spot, and figured out the last one at the end of the game. I'm not an amazing chess player (~1500), but fairly comfortable playing blitz (a bad hobby from when I used to play chess in…

I agree with this, since I have seen this in action. They cheat a lot, and argue with you when they lose. However:

>But stealing, robbing, lying—if you eliminate that from your program, you’ll be 99% better as a person.

Biblical references apart, this is the key point. The choice they made is a much better choice for most of them, and for the society around them. Playing chess helps many of them to focus on something that is not destructive and enjoyable. It gives them constant excitement and fast-paced action without getting into trouble in other ways.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#74

Post by pdevr »

dmurray wrote: post #60
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…

But this is a draw. Black plays Kg2 on any of the first three moves. I can't tell who's hustling whom in this story because as described, none of the three participants can be far above beginners. Maybe the Black king was on e4 and the story would work?

The problem is, then white queen follows up with checks which eventually also attack the black pawn. Since the black pawn is at a3, there is no immediate threat of queening. If black moves the king away from the pawn, white grabs it. If black keeps the king near the pawn, white forces black king under the pawn, and then moves his king, and black is forced to give up the pawn.

Every continuation is losing for black.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#75

Post by AmericanChopper »

pmoriarty wrote: post #54
AmericanChopper wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." - Paul Morphy There’s absolutely no limit to the amount of time your could spend getting better at chess. I personally lost interest due to the excessive levels of memorisation involved, which was also one of Fischer’s main complaints about the game.

"I personally lost interest due to the excessive levels of memorisation involved" You could play Fischer Random Chess (aka Chess360), which relieves players of the need to memorize openings, as there are way too many opening positions to make memorization practical.

Fischer Random is a much more rewarding game to play imo. There’s a lot less people playing it though.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#76

Post by 999900000999 »

everly wrote: post #8
Nav_Panel wrote: post #4

This is great, thanks for sharing. I've always walked by these guys but never expected that the roots ran so deep. I also love this little bit near the end: "To me, the Bible is Basic Information Before Leaving Earth—B.I.B.L.E."

Not sure if this is the genesis of that acronym but that is a song on GZA's classic album Liquid Swords [0]. Interestingly, the album cover [1] and lyrics include chess references throughout. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Swords#Track_listing [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e2/GZALiquidSwor...

Thank you for reminding me to play this song.

I've been lucky enough to see most of Wu Tang live, ODB died too young, so I never saw him.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#77

Post by simulate-me »

dehrmann wrote: post #64
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.”

From what I've gathered (worked with a few good players, but I'm not good), the way to get good is grinding, but specifically known openings and endgames (some version of this is how you get good at anything). The midgame is where the play isn't so robotic. Hopefully anyone paying for lessons is practicing openings on their own (for free).

Yea the middle game is the easy part /s

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#78

Post by pclmulqdq »

syspec wrote: post #69
pclmulqdq wrote: post #68

They can also teach you how to cheat without getting caught. They will teach you how to double down on the lie when you get caught. I have played against chess hustlers 5 times in Washington Square Park, caught 4 of them cheating on the spot, and figured out the last one at the end of the game. I'm not an amazing chess player (~1500), but fairly comfortable playing blitz (a bad hobby from when I used to play chess in…

How were they cheating? Moving pieces when you were not looking? Adding more time to their clock?

What I have seen are:

- Illegal moves, particularly with knights.

- Adjusting pieces onto squares they are not on: edging a rook towards another square slowly, then "adjusting" it onto that square to essentially get a free move.

- Dropping pieces and putting them on new squares.

- Double capturing: picking up your piece as though they are going to take it with theirs, then moving one of their pieces to take a different piece.

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#79

Post by saucymew »

georgeoliver wrote: post #53
saucymew wrote: post #48

I’ve played in the NY parks, Marcel is the best player of the bunch interviewed here. Sadly, after COVID most of the Bryant/Union Sq games seem to have disappeared. It’s mostly Washington Sq now. But there’s this one guy who comes and goes. Always wears these dapper, beautiful robes, and plays up to $100/game. I’ve yet to work myself up to step up to play him… Can’t wait to visit the park games next time.

There were a half dozen or so tables in Union Square a week ago. Bryant unfortunately wasn't happening, though I noticed the chairs on that side of the park were chained up, so maybe they haven't opened it yet.

Thanks for the update. The last time I was in Union Sq was Aug 2020 and it was empty, glad to hear it’s still thriving!

Re: Life advice from NYC chess hustlers

#80

Post by dmurray »

pdevr wrote: post #74
dmurray wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is a draw. Black plays Kg2 on any of the first three moves. I can't tell who's hustling whom in this story because as described, none of the three participants can be far above beginners. Maybe the Black king was on e4 and the story would work?

The problem is, then white queen follows up with checks which eventually also attack the black pawn. Since the black pawn is at a3, there is no immediate threat of queening. If black moves the king away from the pawn, white grabs it. If black keeps the king near the pawn, white forces black king under the pawn, and then moves his king, and black is forced to give up the pawn. Every continuation is losing for black.

The black pawn is on the h-file and never goes to a3. It's on h2 at the point where White queens with check. Black plays Kg1 and reaches a well known drawing position [0].

This is one of the first chess endgames most people learn after how to mate with queen or rook. Like I said, anyone playing at more than a beginner level normally knows this. Kf2 (instead of Kg2) draws in the same way.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_and_pawn_versus_queen_en...

Post reply on HN