Did you get mistreated by any of the prison employees?
My very first job as a programmer was at a company which just started an internal chess championship. I entered the competition mainly to get to know the colleagues and have some fun, expecting them to be very strong players.
At the beginning of every match I asked them the question "IIRC the knight moves in an L shape, right?". That question was enough to make my opponents brutally underestimate my game. By the time they realised the error they made, they were in deep trouble: 5-6 pawns down, very difficult to come back. I've got my first 3 or 4 games easily won this way and the next player said something like "haha, yeah, cut the bullshit". I won that game too, but much harder. That first easy victories made win the championship in the end and got me the reputation of a smart guy.
As a junior software developer (among 12 other juniors who joined the company the same day as me), it was a nice way to make myself noticed.
GM Ben Finegold at the "Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis" he's always entertaining and his videos are packed full of content that would appeal to an average player.
I haven't been to prison but I get paid for my corporate job, I get to go home, and I can quit.
There's a spectrum.
So I have an escape charge in Florida (escape, not absconding) for not returning to a county work release center in Orlando many years ago. This was a really dumb thing to do because now, whenever I'm jailed I often get thrown in with the "high-security" inmates whom are also known as the murderers and anyone looking at over 20-years if convicted.
My last time through the system in Florida, I must have spent 4-5 hours a day playing chess with an alleged murderer whom was infatuated with the game and trying very hard to get better. I was in for some possession charges...bullshit really but because the old escape charge there I was.
This man had deep respect in the jail as his brother was at FSP/Raiford actually on death row for an execution-style murder committed about a decade earlier. The alleged murder this man committed was related to that very incident.
Anyway, I had played his brother for several months back "in the day" and was the only person in the jail who could beat him, and to be honest, I became somewhat a legend in C-block for my game. Remember, these people in this block often sit in county jail for 3-5 years waiting for trial and such, so the "institutional memory" actually lasts a long time in such a dismal place.
Long story somewhat short: By spending so many hours teaching this man to play much much better, he put the word out that no one was to fuck with me, and I was not only really safe, but was fed and taken care of by the group.
Very odd experience, but every word true.
http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/11/13806293-...
If folks are sufficiently hard up for entertainment that they're willing to pay a dollar (more than you'd think, in prison) for a game of chess, they're gonna value that game and its provider.
My best "customers" were actually people who had a good deal of "income" (remember...there are many millionaires in prisons all over the world) who really didn't mind losing $1 a game 1. to get better and 2. for a safe social interaction with someone like myself who has a sparkling wit and overall interesting things to say (so I've heard :)
Prison isn't really that much different then life, but the sociopaths you meet there are far more likely to be violent then the ones running your company.
Pretty sure that in prison it's more about who's ass you can kick than who you can outwit on a chess board when it comes to safety.
>handy to have around if you have anyone with a budding escape plan.
That sounds more like Prison Break than reality.
A 1740 on lichess would be around 1600 in standard ELO (which itself is not a bad rating)
In prison I guess that counts for nothing. Except you made it count for something and created the same situation for yourself 'from the bootstraps'.
I am not going to pretend I know anything about what prison is like though.
In prison, you have people totally isolated from society, many for a long damn time, and some are actually interested in doing things that improve their lives and of course pass the time.
Becoming the best chess player, or the best basketballer, or whatever, on the "yard" is something to aspire to, and if you have something of value to offer these convicts that helps them achieve these goals, they will respect that and pretty much leave you alone since you are helping them.
This is how my chess playing helps me...it makes them better. The only way to get better in chess is to either study hard via puzzles and books (boring) or play someone better then you (fun).
But the same thing happens in the law libraries or even the computer labs...in the music rooms and on the football fields. Talent is always recognized and smarts are in short supply in general.
Not much different from the tech world huh?
That's interesting, I wasn't aware there was a difference at all. Care to enlighten me?
Prison is where the person spends their sentence or waits a full sentence - usually in months or years.
In 2002 when I went to prison in Florida for 22 months, playing chess for $1/game was my "hustle", and it allowed me to eat really well at a panhandle camp that was well known for its terrible chow.
Also, a rather odd but very beneficial side effect of my play came into focus...my chess ability seemed to convey a certain status to me by old timers on the yard, and assigned to me a certain "respect" level that basically kept me rather safe during my entire stay.
I'll admit...I wasn't always totally virtuous while hustling. I often lost to players in the beginning as to set the hook for future games and profitability.
The most interesting part is that, in reality, I kinda suck at chess in the real world by my own demanding standards.