The Interrupted Game of Chess
Dr. Andy remembers games he used to play with his dad on his dad's birthday
My father loved to play games. He taught me how to play backgammon, how to play poker, how to play gin rummy, and, famously, how to play chess.
I say “famously” because, for whatever reason, I was a strong chess player at a young age, much stronger, relative to other players my age, than I am now. My father and I discovered my chess aptitude together when I first beat him at chess around the age of four. Or at least that’s how I remember it. My dad summoned my pregnant mom to see the result of the game, the captured marble pieces littering the side of the fancy chess board. She stared in disbelief while Dad and I just smiled.
I had at least three unfair advantages that he and I both recognized. First, he was functionally blind. Not as blind as he would become after he entered his 50s and had a serious eye operation when he was 56, but my dad still had trouble with the “vision” necessary to see the entire board at once, the way a chess player was supposed to do. Secondly, my mom would often bring my dad a Scotch (In St. Louis in 1987 a best family friend told me the story about my dad’s decision to stop drinking hard liquor) and bring me a Schweppes Bitter Lemon, which I guess was what fancy people drank instead of soda. The Schweppes drinks had no negative effect on my cognition.
Thirdly, we received many phone calls, and they were never for me.
Decades before email was popular (and while he surely had opportunities before he died in 2004, my father never wrote an email nor owned a cell phone), people used the phone to reach out to one another, even when just communicating a bit of information, such as asking a quick question or confirming an appointment. Even though my dad was notable in Washington, D.C., he name could be easily found in the phone book, so people who had requests or offers to share would try to catch him at home.
On a number of occasions, such as when a heated game of chess was interrupted for the third time by a ringing phone, my theatrical father would exclaim, “It just doesn’t stop!” I didn’t mind the interruptions, but he was right to complain if he wanted to beat me in chess. This HR website at UC Berkeley highlights UC Irvine research that reveals the impact of interruptions on deep work. For instance, the “Length of interruption required to cause subjects to commit twice the number of computer errors” is 2.8 seconds.
In his book The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams writes that “The only thing nicer than a phone that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all) was six phones that didn't ring all the time (or indeed at all).”
Perhaps I had those interruptions in mind when, about 20 years ago, I wrote and performed in a play (titled Ephemera) that quoted the Ted Hughes poem “Do not Pick up the Telephone.” The poem ends this way:
Do not pick up the detonator of the telephone
A flame from the last day will come lashing out of the telephone
A dead body will fall out of the telephone
Do not pick up the telephone
Anyway, back to the game of chess. Rather than 2.8 seconds, Dad’s phone calls almost always lasted more than 2.8 minutes, and during that time, his diminutive Beatle-haired son would study the board, computing the results of different combinations of moves. The best move was waiting for my distracted dad when he returned from the telephone.
Today, on what would have been my dad’s 92nd birthday, I again celebrate Davey Marlin-Jones. I have played more games of cards, of backgammon, and of chess with my dad than with any other person.
Davey Marlin-Jones was the child checkers champion of Winchester, Indiana; he was a magician who knew dozens of card tricks, some of which he did on the air when reviewing movies with index cards; and he was a dad who patiently taught me chess throughout the 1970s. As we played, we both knew that the growth in his fame meant a corresponding growth in incoming phone calls as we played chess at 2454 Tunlaw Road, both of us sipping fancy drinks. As I grew more confident, he encouraged my obsession, once sitting on the floor with me to build figures of American chess champion Bobby Fischer out of pipe cleaners.
I’m sure my dad winced a little every time I beat him at chess, but he also knew that he was fostering my curiosity, playfulness, and problem-solving skills, all of which would go on to serve me as an educator, as a poet, and, once a week, as a quizmaster.
Thanks, Dad, and happy birthday.
I run a weekly pub quiz and share the quizzes with my silver tier and better subscribers on Patreon. I would love to add your name or that of your team to the list of supporters. I appreciate your backing this pub quiz project of mine!
Best,
Dr. Andy
P.S. Here are three questions from last week’s Pub Quiz:
Mottos and Slogans. What Public Service and Youth Service organization uses the slogan "To make the best better”? Hint. The organization’s name is made up of a number, a hyphen, and a letter.
Internet Culture. Starting with the letter F, what is the name of the website where people can ask for or offer services or advice for a $5 fee?
Newspaper Headlines. The House Minority Leader (D., N.Y.) recently announced that he and other Democrats would protect the job of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. What is the name of the House Minority Leader?