by Eric Schiller
Television seems filled with strange tales these days. My real-life experience on September 30, 199) might qualify in that category.
I had been participating in the San Mateo International Futurity, an internationally ranked chess tournament featuring local masters and masters from Finland and Spain as well as the most promising young stars from Northern California.
With two tough games scheduled for Sunday, a night off at Shoreline Amphitheater listening to the brilliant and innovative group Phish seemed just the right thing to do to relax before the difficult confrontation against the runner-up in this years Denker Tournament of High School Champions. Adrian Keating-Clay, now at Stanford, is a rising star whose national ranking is almost identical to my own. Since the pressure was on him to earn his international ranking, which I already have, I wanted to relax. Chess was far from my mind as I entered the lawn to enjoy my first live Phish show.
What greeted me was a strange sight indeed. On the left side of the stage, there was a huge chessboard, with all the pieces in their proper places. I had no idea what was going on, but escaping from chess might prove impossible.
The show began with a rousing rendition of My Friend, followed by an instrumental piece which was new to me. Then the band explained what was going on. They are all big fans of the Royal Game and spend a lot of time on the road doing battle at the chessboard. They would be challenging the audience to a game of chess on this national tour, with one move played at each concert.
To get things going, they played a couple of moves. The game began with keyboardist and vocalist Page McConnell using the normal move 1.e4 (1.P-K4) and a fan by the name of Pooh (I am not sure about the spelling) responded sensibly with 1...e5 (1...P-K4). Then Page played his pet move 2.Bb5!? (2.B-N5) which is the unorthodox opening known as the Portuguese Opening. Poo took no chances, but slid the game into more orthodox paths with 2...Nc6 (2...N-QB3), and Page responded 3.Nf3 (3.N-KB3), with the game now in the familiar Ruy Lopez Opening (Spanish Game). These moves were made to the accompaniment of White Rabbit. The music continued with Reba, Uncle Penn a touch of Antelope, and then an acoustic rendition of Blue and Lonesome in memory of Jerry Garcia, who Phish had last heard here at Shoreline. The set closed with an exciting performance of Sample in a Jar.
During the set break, people were invited to gather at the Greenpeace booth and vote on the audience move. Of course I headed there, and introduced myself as a professional and current champion of Northern California. Many moves were suggested by the public (for the record: 3...a6, 3...Nf6, 3...Bc5, 3...f5, 3...f6, 3...Qf6, 3...Nge7 and, with some fervor, 3...d5.) I explained why I felt that the choice should be between 3...a6 (which has been seen in half the games of the Intel-sponsored PCA World Championship then underway in New York), and 3...Nf6. Eventually 3...a6 (3...P-QR3) was selected by vote.
Trey Anastasio makes his move
I was then asked to make the move on the stage, which sounded like fun, so I readily agreed. I was escorted backstage where I met Page, Mike Gordon, Trey Anastasio and Jon Fishman, who are the members of Phish. They are really into chess, and I was very happy to discover this, because chess does suffer from such a geeky image that to find brilliant and imaginative alternative music performers with a love for the game is really rewarding.
They practice against each other, and sometimes against the computer program Chessmaster 3000. Of course they weren't too confident, being a bit surprised to face professional opposition, but I encouraged them by explaining that so far the position was the one that reigning World Champion Garry Kasparov has been using as White against challenger
Viswanathan Anand in the match, and I was following Anand's moves (which also happen to be my personal preference). Just before the second set began, I walked on stage alone to make the chosen move before at least 15,000 screaming fans. That might be a record for people in attendance at a chess game! I made the move and exited, and the second set got underway with Runaway Jim and, appropriately, the Fog that Surrounds.
I'll leave the reviews to more qualified residents of rec.music.phish. I was very impressed and had a great time. Page and company had two days to choose their next move, which will be unveiled at their concert in Seattle. Unfortunately, the complete game was not recorded for posterity. I couldn't be at the other concerts, because I was moderating the World Championship coverage on the Internet Chess Club.
On Sunday, I played truly inspired chess to win my match, creating one of my most satisfying games. It involved a huge, long sacrifice that required 15 moves by each player to resolve itself, and I think it is fair to say that my experience at the show played a large part in putting me in the all-important frame of mind necessary to creative play. At the point in the game just before I delivered the decisive sacrifice, I had that same feeling that many of us get when absorbed in great music, whether it is Bach's Musical Offering, the Dead's Dark Star, or Phish's Stash (some of my favorites, your mileage will vary of course). There is the fantastic Zen-like feeling that everything makes sense, that all truth is suddenly revealed even if it cannot be articulated. For those of us who love chess, it is this, not the mere defeating of an opponent, that matters. This is why we play, why we devote countless hours to studying the mysteries of the game, which even after 1500 years or so have not been worked out by man or machine.
For those of you who play chess, the game with some light notes is available in the Annotated Games page of the Analysis section. More information on Page McConnell's unusual opening strategy can be found in The Big Book of Busts by John Watson and Eric Schiller, Hypermodern Press, 1995.
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