Checkmate

Where in the stages of lame does attempting to play online chess fall? My sense is that it’s pretty high on the scale. And yes, I did attempt to play chess online recently. The most depressing part? I couldn’t even gain any acceptance among the subset of the population hanging out in Yahoo! chess rooms this evening. My first would-be competitor booted me off of his virtual table. I had tried to join an intermediate level game, but I guess the guy thought me too lowly for competition, what with my 0-0 chess record on the site. I suppose he is unaware of my brief stint on the chess team in seventh grade, or he would have accorded me more respect.

Fresh off that humbling episode, I entered the beginner room area. I joined one game and waited five minutes for the other person who had entered to play to press Start. No luck, so I exited and joined another game. There I waited, and waited some more. Finally, he messaged an apology. It was something to the effect of “Sorry, I have people over and got distracted.” Then he exited the game before it even began. When you get rejected twice on Yahoo! chess, once for lack of an adequate chess resume, and once because the other guy has social activities going on that don’t allow him time to placate your game request, it’s a bit humiliating. Perhaps the backgammon room is more inclusive.