>But stealing, robbing, lying—if you eliminate that from your program, you’ll be 99% better as a person.
Biblical references apart, this is the key point. The choice they made is a much better choice for most of them, and for the society around them. Playing chess helps many of them to focus on something that is not destructive and enjoyable. It gives them constant excitement and fast-paced action without getting into trouble in other ways.
Tax evasion (which one of these guys admitted to in the article) is the icing on the cake.
- Illegal moves, particularly with knights.
- Adjusting pieces onto squares they are not on: edging a rook towards another square slowly, then "adjusting" it onto that square to essentially get a free move.
- Dropping pieces and putting them on new squares.
- Double capturing: picking up your piece as though they are going to take it with theirs, then moving one of their pieces to take a different piece.
(1) He moves a piece, accidentally another piece tumbles down on the board, he adjusts it, and meanwhile, one of the opponent's crucial pawns magically disappear.
(2) Same as above, with opponent's pawn (or his pawn) magically moving to a better location for him.
I have played against chess hustlers 5 times in Washington Square Park, caught 4 of them cheating on the spot, and figured out the last one at the end of the game. I'm not an amazing chess player (~1500), but fairly comfortable playing blitz (a bad hobby from when I used to play chess in school). I walked away in disgust each time, and one of them had the guts to threaten me and insist that I was the cheater.
Chess hustlers are phenomenal at cheating, but only okay at chess. These are not admirable people dedicated to a skill. These are grifters.