Dear Students Chess Players of Tulane:
Welcome to a new semester and a new year!
Whether you’re returning from afar or you never left the area during the break, I hope you are reinvigorated by the spirit of our community and the prospect of convening together again in classrooms, coffee shops, and laboratories The LBC, cozy houses, Cafe Envie, and the chess hustler stands of the French Quarter.
This semester,
there’s no telling what you and your fellow students will accomplish. Maybe you’ll work to commission a Giant Wooden Chess Board. Perhaps you’ll make your permanent mark on Tulane campus by installing Chess Tables. You might take the lead on one of our Collegiate Chess League Teams. Or you’ll travel with us to St. Louis to peruse the capital of Chess in the US.
Wherever the semester takes you,
you’ll be surrounded by a caring community that supports you through challenges and celebrates your successes. This is the “special sauce” that truly sets Tulane The Tulane Chess Club apart. Don’t be shy about setting lofty goals for this spring semester – whether that means GETTING A BIG ASS CHESS SET or PUTTING CHESS TABLES AROUND CAMPUS. With the support of your peers, your professors Fellow Chess players, and our dedicated staff Officer corps, I have no doubt that you can achieve them.
Ok, though my name is legally Michael, I can only masquerade as Mike Fitts if I “democratically” requisition some Chess Club funds to purchase
- a chubby suit
- some insane makeup
- an equally insane makeup artist
And, unless someone has all of those, I will simply go by President Mikey D. Sison of the Tulane Chess Club (really Fitts, is it necessary to add your middle initial!?).
Anyways, I am here today to share some of the exciting news and things we have going on this semester. As you have already read, we have some LOFTY aspirations. I hope you’re interested in leaving a mark on Tulane campus.
Our wonderful and benevolent social media manager will be sending another email later today detailing some of the more immediate upcoming events which I sincerely hope to see as many of you as possible. Whether you’ve never played chess or just a few games, we’re welcomingly committed to teaching chess and learning more about your lives.
With that, I leave you with a story, hoping to hear some of yours in the future.
Reijksmuseum square, Amsterdam, Netherlands: January 6th 5:16pm
“Hey, mind if I join in there next game?”
Three older men, all bundled up in increasingly curious mismatching combinations of sweaters, coats, gloves, hats, and scarves, look at the foreigner in a tan corduroy coat who asked the question. The man in a grey puffer jacket speaks first, “of course, young one! This game is about over anyways.” He nods provocatively at his opponent.
“AH, it not over yet!” The opponent responds in broken English and a Dutch accent, while sipping on a can of Grolsch.
So, I sit on a nearby bench, illuminated only by a single strand of string lights and the ever-fading sunlight. Taking a breath of freezing air and with it, my surroundings and the fact that days like these are what we live for. The simplicity of playing a game creating a universal language, strangers barely being able to speak to the other, yet able to communicate through moving pieces and a checkered board. Playing chess and sipping beer by the dying lights of another day.
“Ahhh hhhhhh! Ok, now it over…” says the older opponent with crossed arms to conserve heat holding a cigarette and a beer.
Glancing over to me, he says “You with me? Now? You?”
Coming back down to Earth, I pop forward, ready to challenge my recently vanquished foe. “All set,” I respond.
No phones, no engines, no brilliancies rating the game with !!’s. Just simple, complicated, chess with giant pieces against a stranger I will likely never see again. A man, I know nothing about and have no way to inquire besides the movement of 32 simple pieces of plastic. There is a beautiful simplicity to playing chess with humans that one simply doesn’t get online. The ability to laugh, talk, jointly analyze, and give grace to and with your opponent are all lost when you’re sitting in the back of class playing 1-min bullet games for hits of dopamine. With this stranger, we jointly laughed, recounted moves, bonded over our mutual love for a culturally and language independent game.
We play for hours, games going back and forth. Countless beers and good times. Ruthless forks and immortal retaliations. We danced around the board in the freezing cold, hands immobile, moving plastic pieces. Soon, the sun set, leaving a string of lights and a gas streetlamp to play our last few games by.
Eventually, the time came. I had won three games back-to-back and my opponent turns to me and says, “why I so bad at chess now!”
I look back to him, focusing in on the beer in his hand and point out, “You’re drunk!”
“Aahhh! Yes, that is right! One more?” He asks.
“I have to go, eat dinner and warm up!” I respond.
He nods, finishes his beer, and asks for a light.
I light his last cigarette and we look back over the board. I point out where he could have punished a foolhardy move. He shows his idea, had I fell for his trap. We shake hands one last time and part ways.
So, I say this to you.
Go out there. Go into the city, stop by cafe Envie. Challenge a random stranger. Graciously win or lose to a chess hustler in the Quarter. Go to Audubon and sit down with a chess board and challenge people who walk by. No one is truly that scary! Everyone wants to interact with one another, yet oftentimes don’t have a good conversation starter. Go meet new people. Introduce yourself. Win and lose. Love. Love the game and the joy of interaction it brings! There are so many of us who play chess on our phones, on chess.com. Sheltered and sequestered away from the people we’re playing. Simply icons and usernames. Yet, chess is so much more than that. So, this semester, I challenge you to come out to chess club, play, meet, lose and win against and with a stranger. Talk about yourself and open up to new people. Meet new friends, lovers, acquaintances. Expand your horizons. Do it for yourself. Explore. Live.
Your loving President of the Tulane Chess Club & Minister of Siege Warfare,
Mikey Sison
