Humans of New York:The Chess Hustler

This article is from the Humans of New York which was started by Brandon (I don't know him, I'm just taking this from his "About" page):

My name is Brandon and I began Humans of New York in the summer of 2010. HONY resulted from an idea that I had to construct a photographic census of New York City. I thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants, so I set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map. 

One of the stories I really liked was "The Chess Hustler" which is a story about a man named Harry who plays chess to make money for drugs.

Growing up, my Dad and I would play chess and I actually played chess starting in elementary school and up until probably high school. I'm not very good at it - I never got the magic, really. I don't think I ever won many matches.

Harry sets up cheese in three stages:

“The beginning stage is philosophy. You haven’t made any moves yet. All experience is ahead of you. Everything is potential. So you choose a philosophy to guide you. The second stage is mathematics. . .the game is underway now. You've made choices that cannot be unmade. Potential becomes experience, and there are fewer and fewer paths that you can take. So precision and calculation become more important.. [And the third stage] Science. The endgame.”

In middle school, I figured out how to beat people based on who they were, not so much on checkmate. I knew, for example, all I had to do was capture the queen when I was playing my friend Russ. I knew I only had to draw out a game as long as possible to win over Adam. I knew I just had to make a couple clever moves and be unemotional when playing Bill. I people hacked, I never played chess.

Harry people hacks on a different level than I ever could. It is a new education for me, not one based on how the pieces move, but on how to read people:

Everything you need to know about a person you can tell by watching them play chess. The rooks represent security. Watch a woman play chess. Most women will trade a lot of pieces to protect their rooks. . .The knight represents how you travel. It’s the most mobile piece on the board. It’s the only piece that can jump over other pieces. Watch how a player protects his knights, and you’ll know how much he values mobility. . .Your pawns represent your material assets.Your bishop represents your heart. It’s your closest friend . . The queen is your power. [And your king]  The king is you.

Harry gave me a new understanding and appreication for the game. He also reminded me how - with enough motivation - you can turn anything into some type of profit or hustle. Good to bad, there is a real American feel to him - using whatever he had to get what he most wanted. If only it wasn't drugs, how far could he go?

Read the full article here - The Cheese Hustler.

The Adventure Continues
Do you have a suggestion or want to see me attempt something and write about it? Drop me an email at AdventuringAmanda@gmail.com with your suggestions