19 ms·

When the prison banned board games, we played chess in our minds

292 points by danso 6y ago

binarymax 6y ago
This is really going to help Wally's quest to GM. Playing blindfolded is one of the best training tools in the box. They'll get better at being able to see deeper and deeper without needing to touch the pieces on the board.
- jeremyjh 6y ago
  "Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens. Some people have attained GM later in life, 30s, 40s and even older - but all GMs have been child prodigies and most - if not all - attain International Master in their teens or early twenties.
  - bsder 6y ago
    > "Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens. Mostly, I think, because becoming a GM is a full-time job and you don't earn any money while doing it. You need to go to a lot of tournaments around the world, continuously study to get prepared for opponents, and have enough money to fund it all. So, you really have to want it as an adult and have nothing else that you would prefer to do.
  - SamBam 6y ago
    It's certainly rare, but it's not unheard of. Mikhail Chigorin apparently learned the rules of chess at 16, but only really started playing at 27. Gersz Salwe started playing around age 20, and apparently entered his first tournament at 36. And in terms of blooming late, Oscar Shapiro and Bernard Friend became GMs in their 70s. (Also, I don't see it stated anywhere that the prisoner was not an exceptionally-talented youth.)
    - fogof 6y ago
      Chigorin and Salwe were both born in the mid-1800s. With the prevalence of chess computers for training and studying, the amount of strength you need to play at a top level is much higher these days.
      - icelancer 6y ago
        On the other hand its never been easier to get that kind of information. It's probably easier than ever to reach Candidate Master (2000 Elo). GM, maybe harder, but definitely could see the argument otherwise.
        jeremyjh 6y ago
        The skill required for a particular ELO is relative to the strength of all the other players. More learning resources that are available to everyone can't provide a comparative advantage, which is what you need to move up. Part of the reason the Soviets dominated for so long is they had developed a training program that the rest of the world did not have access to.
      - jeremyjh 6y ago
        I don't think it is just the computers. The training environments and systems for learning advanced quite far without the engines. Kasparov didn't train with computers in his prime and he is still very strong by modern standards. More children were encouraged to pursue chess...in the 19th century many people (such as Paul Morphy) would consider a professional chess player in roughly the same social tier as a professional gambler. If you look at many of the games from that era it seems like only 20 people in the world even knew how to play chess.
        iambrj 6y ago
        Indeed, Morphy once said "The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life".
  - lambda_obrien 6y ago
    That's kinda true for most things in competitive arenas, right? Sports, chess, e gaming, etc. I hate it, but at mid life I'm way slower thinking than I was 20 years ago, there's no chance I could compete with young people on raw talent in many areas, I might win some online games because of superior strategy, but I'll never have the speed to beat young, experienced gamers.
    - AniseAbyss 6y ago
      I have always found gymnastics fascinating in this regard. Apparently you can only be good at it if you're a 15 year old girl!
      - WalterBright 6y ago
        You need a body with a low moment of inertia. I.e. short.
      - watwut 6y ago
        It used to be even sooner, but the kids health ended up compromised too much as result of training. They changed rules so that the peek happens later.
  - icelancer 6y ago
    It's plenty possible, but few have the desire to put in that much work as they get older. There are people who play at near-GM-level strength in tournaments reflected in their single tournament evaluations, but don't play enough to obtain 2500+ rating or score enough GM norms in major tournaments. There's a even a guy from Russia who is 2550ish rating and isn't even an IM because he hasn't scored enough norms, and is 3000+ bullet/blitz on Chesscom, which is incredibly elite. Someone picking up chess at age 25 could certainly become a GM. They just usually don't have the desire for it.
    - jeremyjh 6y ago
      If it were possible it would have happened in the last 100 years. What people lack at the age of 25 (or even 17) is the neuroplasticity required to turn their brain into an analytical chess engine.
  - j4yav 6y ago
    I don’t think it’s actually correct that all GMs were child prodigies.
    - jeremyjh 6y ago
      At least since the 20th century I haven't been able to find an exception. Even GMs who did not get their GM titles until late in life were very strong players as children. For example Ben Finegold did not get his last norm to become GM until he was 40, but he was a USCF master at age 14. All the other stories I've seen are similar. I've also yet been unable to find more than two or three people who started playing seriously after age 25 and ever broke 2000 FIDE.
spaetzleesser 6y ago
There is a book "Schachnovelle" by Stefan Zweig (don't know the English title) who starts to play against himself in while in prison. Good read.
- techer 6y ago
  The Royal Game apparently https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game
tyingq 6y ago
I'm hoping there's some broad reform coming for jails and prisons in the US. Currently, there's no uniformity in the way prisoners are treated. It's not unusual, in the US, for a prison to have no television, no books, little actually edible food, limited human interaction, etc. You can't even write a letter if you don't have someone on the outside funding your commissary account. That setup, of course, just ends up being a gladiator school and/or permanent psychosis camp.
- yellowapple 6y ago
  Yep. It boils down to rehabilitation v. retribution. Rehabilitation is effective at preventing recidivism. Retribution is politically expedient. And this goes beyond prisons, too. Kinda hard to not turn to crime again if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    "if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail" That's a great point that I haven't seen discussed in the media. When I was young, only "Fortune 500" type companies could afford background checks, so you had a fighting chance at getting a decent job. Now, anybody can buy a instant background check online, and you can get not just felony data, but misdemeanor data, and even "just arrests, not convictions". And it's dirt cheap to do so. So, job prospects are dim, and even simple stuff like renting an apartment is difficult as well.
    - monocasa 6y ago
      It'll also show offenses which have been expunged from your record.
    - BrandoElFollito 6y ago
      This concept of background check on the US is strange. In France, once you left prison, it means that you have served what you had to serve and start again. Nobody can check whether you did prison or not. Some specific jobs require a document stating your juridical past but you bring it, this is not some can do on their own. Then you have military and sensitive civil servants jobs where this is checked for you, but it is really specific. I would not be happy if anybody could check my past online...
Kharvok 6y ago
Interesting, but the author murdered his father over a minor disagreement and stole his car and a large sum of cash. It does't concern me that he does't have a chess set.
- daemoens 6y ago
  Not really the point. Also he wasn't the ban was on the entire prison with a hundreds or thousands of others.
- nickelcitymario 6y ago
  So being sent to prison isn't sufficient punishment? The severity of that punishment should be determined by the whims of the prison's management?
  - timsayshey 6y ago
    I don't know, ask his victim
    - kbenson 6y ago
      Even were the victim alive, we are not a society that encourages the victim to dictate the punishment, nor allow the victim to carry out the punishment, so what would the victim's thoughts matter? As much as it's presented otherwise, punishment western democracies is first and foremost a method of deterrence for the good of all, not for the satisfaction of those harmed.
    - tenebrisalietum 6y ago
      If you are not sentencing someone to life in jail or the death penalty, then you can't treat a prisoner bad enough to cause lasting damage because they will rejoin society at some point. This is irrespective of the victim's thoughts; if I get violently robbed and society + a judge has decided that's worth 10 years in jail, then that's what it is. If you think prisoners deserve absolutely nothing to the point of causing psychological or physical harm then you are saying the crime they committed is worth life in prison or the death penalty. This is assuming a functioning justice system.
faizshah 6y ago
We used to play connect 4 like this in high school, it’s frustratingly difficult to remember the game state but it’s easy to play (you just call out the column). You can easily forget the board position if you think too long about a move and as the game progresses it becomes more difficult to keep track of the game state. But it’s a lot of fun, I can imagine it becomes a lot easier over time especially when they are so experienced in chess.
- InitialLastName 6y ago
  I had a friend in high school who would play mental chess while weight training. He claimed it was good practice for his golf game; I think he was just showing off.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    I find it impossible to do any abstract thinking while lifting.
nxpnsv 6y ago
That’s inspiring, and also depressing, worth a read though. I feel keeping a whole game in your head is a good way to deal being locked up,
williesleg 6y ago
When are we going to put crooks in jail and get the innocents out?
tyingq 6y ago
>"“alligator” for A, “baseball” for B, “constellation” for C, “dinosaur” for D, “elephant” for E and “golf ball” for G. Shame there wasn't anyone to share "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, etc" with them. It works well in practice, has less syllables, and probably has many in prison that already know it.
- 83457 6y ago
  I'm sure the words they chose sounded suspicious if heard repeatedly but if heard just occasionally they were probably less so than words like Delta, Foxtrot, Tango, etc.
- air7 6y ago
  On the contrary. It's beautiful to see what people come up with when they're not tethered to the norm.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    Perhaps. "Constellation" is particularly odd to me though. There are lots of unique lesser used words with 2 syllables instead of 4. So I'm curious why they chose it.
    - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
      They were working with different constraints: Speed doesn't matter, it doesn't have to work internationally, and their alphabet is limited to A-H. Having words of different length makes it easier to distinguish them. Also, I have a suspicion why the article leaves out "F".
- slingnow 6y ago
  Yeah, it's a shame there was no one to share the most well-known way to relate words to the alphabet that likely many of the guards would already be familiar with. Had you considered they chose these words for good reason?
  - 6y ago
AcerbicZero 6y ago
I’ve had serious issues with the judicial system in this country for years now, but banning board games is just a new level of absurd. How a system so unjust can exist in a modern “democracy” is beyond me.
- djrogers 6y ago
  Did you read the article? It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one.
  - jMyles 6y ago
    > It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one. I'm not sure what that means - just that it is an administrative restriction rather than something adjudicated in a court of law? This doesn't make it less absurd, and might make it more.
  - olliej 6y ago
    That seems like the new "reason" -- at least it's more valid than the old reason of "stopping gambling". There was a documentary, Netflix maybe?, where guards would routinely do sweeps and find any game pieces that prisoners has made - paper folded to make dice, notes and score sheets for D&D, etc
  - hertzrat 6y ago
    Let the inmates decide for themselves. I’m sure they’ve had enough “we’re doing this for your own good” for a lifetime
    - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
      The problem is that they're not only deciding for themselves, they're also deciding for their cellmates, and anyone else they will be in close contact with (which, in a prison, is likely "everyone")
      - hertzrat 6y ago
EliRivers 6y ago
Genuinely thought they were both going to get put in solitary and have their sentences extended for engaging in gang activities, based on their coded messages to each other. Good God, but I have low expectations of this prison system.
cletus 6y ago
To me the state of US prisons reveals a really dark aspect to US culture and that is there's a real penchant for... cruelty. Like here's just a partial list of major problems just off the top of my head: - The essentially institutionalized use of rape as a means of controlling inmates; - Ridiculously long sentences for relatively minor offences as just another casualty of the disastrous war on drugs; - commissaries as a profit center with ridiculously marked up prices; - ridiculous costs for telephone calls as another profit center, making it more difficult for inmates to maintain social ties to family; - prisoners count as citizens but can't vote. Also prisons are jobs. This makes prisons the perfect tool for gerrymandering and pork barreling; - being charged (not convicted but _charged) with a felony while on parole violates your parole and can send you back to prison to serve the remainder of your sentence. I don't know how this passes the due process test; - Overcharging to force plea deals; - Paying prisoners <5c/hour; - Forcing prisoners to pay a co-pay to see a doctor. $2-5 might not sound like much but it is at 5c/hour; - Female prisoners may need to see a doctor to get adequate tampons or sanitary napkins. See above for why that's a problem; - 5c/hour incentivized individuals and private companies to use prison labour to undercut real competitors; - You don't really have a choice: working is typically mandatory; - Prison food. 'Nuff said. - The "are you a felon?" scarlet letter you'll carry for the rest of your life. This actually causes problems even for the ultra-rich. As one example, it has caused real problems for Mark Wahlberg, such that at one point he sought a pardon from the Massachussetts governor for what was a fairly vicious assault when he was young. That effort failed. I absolutely oppposed the Wahlberg pardon. He shouldn't get an exemption. Reform this stupid system instead; - Early release prisoners having to pay for their own drug tests where they have huge problems even finding a job as a felon in the first place; - Disenfranchising felons in fairly stupid ways that are clearly a form of voter suppression ie they can't vote for really no good reason; - Overcrowding; - Privatizing of prisons; - Having a delay between parole being granted and the prisoner being released. This is so dumb. This allows other prisoners to "tax" the parolee as any infraction during that period may violate their conditions of release. In comparison I saw a show about a prison in Mexico where a prisoner was called intot he warden's office, told he'd been freed and he was immediately free to go (probably for this "taxing" reason). I was honestly surprised at how humane Mexican prisons seemed in this show (compared to their US equivalents); I don't think it's an understatement to call the US prison system to be a humanitarian crisis and a blight on the soul of the country.
fastball 6y ago
RTFA everyone. Board games weren't banned out of an abundance of malice.
- jMyles 6y ago
  No policy is ever enacted in such a way that an abundance of malice is the express basis. This restriction has no basis in science or sense. A respiratory pathogen may provide another in a long line of childish excuses, but make no mistake: slavery itself is an abundance of malice.
  - fastball 6y ago
    Where did slavery come into this?
    - jMyles 6y ago
      "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" [0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...
ArneVogel 6y ago
If anybody wants to play chess in their minds, Lichess has a option to turn the pieces invisible [1]. It's not quite as hard as playing by voice as you have the move list you can refer to but it's a start. [1] https://lichess.org/account/preferences/game-display https://lichess.org/account/preferences/game-display bottom of the page
- Buttons840 6y ago
  There is also an option to have the computer read moves to you and you can make moves and query the state of the board by typing commands. Streamers use this to play blindfolded, while the stream shows the board position normally to viewers.
- asauce 6y ago
  I’m an active user of Lichess and never knew about this mode. Thanks for sharing!
- irishsultan 6y ago
  Another option is "Move list while playing", which you can set to never. I haven't tried it yet, but combining these two should get you there.
myth_drannon 6y ago
Reminds me Natan Sharansky story. Being jailed in Soviet prison, in solitary confinement he played chess in his mind. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25560162 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25560162
rabbits77 6y ago
The guy writing this article killed his dad. Not really into reading what this sort of monster has to say about chess or anything else, do you? https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/former-santa-fe-teen-could-face-death-in-dad-s-slaying/article_52fd7ee9-004a-593b-989c-74f12c7f72a1.html https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/former-san...
- the_only_law 6y ago
  Given the amount of upvotes and comments, clearly some people do. Amy why not, just because someone did something terrible even if you find that irredeemable, do you really believe that nothing can be learned from from or their thoughts?
  - rabbits77 6y ago
    if he raped a woman would you still say that? what if he raped a black woman while calling her the N word? of course you would change your mind, because you have no consistent philosophy.
- nkozyra 6y ago
  I don't think anyone condones or wants to promote murder, but treating humans (even criminals, even terrible, violent criminals) as subhuman is the kind of thing that puts us in a bad space as a society with regard to criminal justice. See: America. Maybe we think this guy is the most reprehensible person on earth. Maybe we think he's irredeemable. But is he so bad that we are unwilling to listen to his thoughts on prison conditions? Or do we not care because he's a "monster?" For what other crimes do we now get to completely ignore and dismiss the person who committed them?
  - thegrimmest 6y ago
    Is there no action a person can take before they qualify as subhuman? honest question.
    - 6y ago
qwerty456127 6y ago
A common advice is to avoid playing anything in prison. You will always be forced to pay something if you loose (and you probably will loose because people don't play fair there) even if you didn't intend to bet.
- hutzlibu 6y ago
  A more common advice is to avoid prison in the first place. And if you are there ... I believe prison culture has differences, just like on the outside world.
Lio 6y ago
This reminds me of this story of a man who played mental chess in a soviet gulag to stay sane. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162
GrantZvolsky 6y ago
My grandmother[1] was a political prisoner and her favourite pastime while in prison was poetry. Since the inmates weren't allowed to have any possessions, not even a strip of paper, she composed poems in her head. She later published them in a poetry collection and I know people who memorized the entire collection. She herself had a phenomenal memory for poetry. Her friends would often call and ask for her to tell them the lyrics of old songs and poems, and even in her late 70s she never failed to answer their request without consulting her library. My mum once challenged her and asked her to recite the 50 minute-long Máj[2]. If she weren't interrupted after 10 minutes, she probably would have recited the entire thing. She was able to memorize a poem after hearing it just once and it seemed that she retained poems indefinitely. I don't know whether this talent was the result of 6 years in an environment where memory is the only means to persist information, but it seems likely that it played a role. Another less impressive anecdatum is my own experience of about a year with a phone that couldn't remember phone numbers. In the beginning I memorized numbers out of necessity. By the end of the year I had a mental address book of about 30 numbers and new numbers could be added effortlessly. The bewildered looks of people giving me their number without me pulling out a phone to write it down were priceless. [1]: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BEena_Kuklov%C3%A1-J%C3%AD%C5%A1ov%C3%A1 https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BEena_Kuklov%C3%A1-J%C3%... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoX5y_JZ40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoX5y_JZ40
- briefcomment 6y ago
  When you memorized numbers that way, did you "see" the numbers in your mind's eye? And when you went to recall it, did you basically read it from that impression? I sometimes memorize numbers and other strings that way.
  - GrantZvolsky 6y ago
    It feels as though I simultaneously remember and recall an image of the number as well as its numeric value. What helps me remember the numeric value is identifying its interesting properties and patterns. This mental phone book improved my ability to memorize other types of random strings. On one occasion I memorized a 20-digit hexadecimal license key, though I had to read it about three times. The client who watched as I keyed it in was very impressed. On a second thought it isn't that impressive given it's 12 digits short of a UUID.
confidantlake 6y ago
In high school there was a kid who could play blindfolded. As someone who has no mind's eye this completely blew my mind.
Balgair 6y ago
Somewhat related: Playing the video game Mike Tyson's Punch Out while blindfolded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZT6JEOC3D8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZT6JEOC3D8
RickJWagner 6y ago
Interesting. I once had a language professor from cold-war era Czechoslavakia. He was in the military and had to stand around in formations for hours. He found a like-minded friend and played chess 'in their heads' as they stood. Extra: After he moved to the USA, he applied his mental skills to poker where he became a world-class lowball player.
adonovan 6y ago
When I was I high school I played some mental chess against the school’s star player. (He could beat me when he alone was blindfold.) I’m not a great chess player but I was surprised how far it was possible to play before making a mistake. Gives me hope in case I should end up behind bars.
hartator 6y ago
> And on top of everything, board games—including chess—have been completely banned to promote social distancing. Well that sucks.
YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago
>> At the heart of our mental chess game lies a profound lesson: It is easy to play the victim in life, to allow your circumstances to dictate your disposition. But the difference between being content or distraught is a matter of perspective. Good advice, but only as long as you don't let the bastards that screwed you up get away with it just because you got over it. Don't let yourself be fine with letting others treat you like dirt.
- danjaco 6y ago
  The vast majority of people are in prison on non-violent drug charges; it is horrific how society believes that they are all horrible people who deserve to be there and doesn't care about them at all. Even under normal circumstances, the institution cares little for their rehabilitation, and now they are under atrocious conditions such as these. Many psychologists consider solitary confinement to be a form of torture, but as we know, in covid times that no longer matters.

292 points by danso 6y ago

This is really going to help Wally's quest to GM. Playing blindfolded is one of the best training tools in the box. They'll get better at being able to see deeper and deeper without needing to touch the pieces on the board.

jeremyjh 6y ago
"Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens. Some people have attained GM later in life, 30s, 40s and even older - but all GMs have been child prodigies and most - if not all - attain International Master in their teens or early twenties.
- bsder 6y ago
  > "Becoming a GM" only seems possible for people who reached master strength by their early teens. Mostly, I think, because becoming a GM is a full-time job and you don't earn any money while doing it. You need to go to a lot of tournaments around the world, continuously study to get prepared for opponents, and have enough money to fund it all. So, you really have to want it as an adult and have nothing else that you would prefer to do.
- SamBam 6y ago
  It's certainly rare, but it's not unheard of. Mikhail Chigorin apparently learned the rules of chess at 16, but only really started playing at 27. Gersz Salwe started playing around age 20, and apparently entered his first tournament at 36. And in terms of blooming late, Oscar Shapiro and Bernard Friend became GMs in their 70s. (Also, I don't see it stated anywhere that the prisoner was not an exceptionally-talented youth.)
  - fogof 6y ago
    Chigorin and Salwe were both born in the mid-1800s. With the prevalence of chess computers for training and studying, the amount of strength you need to play at a top level is much higher these days.
    - icelancer 6y ago
      On the other hand its never been easier to get that kind of information. It's probably easier than ever to reach Candidate Master (2000 Elo). GM, maybe harder, but definitely could see the argument otherwise.
      - jeremyjh 6y ago
        The skill required for a particular ELO is relative to the strength of all the other players. More learning resources that are available to everyone can't provide a comparative advantage, which is what you need to move up. Part of the reason the Soviets dominated for so long is they had developed a training program that the rest of the world did not have access to.
    - jeremyjh 6y ago
      I don't think it is just the computers. The training environments and systems for learning advanced quite far without the engines. Kasparov didn't train with computers in his prime and he is still very strong by modern standards. More children were encouraged to pursue chess...in the 19th century many people (such as Paul Morphy) would consider a professional chess player in roughly the same social tier as a professional gambler. If you look at many of the games from that era it seems like only 20 people in the world even knew how to play chess.
      - iambrj 6y ago
        Indeed, Morphy once said "The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life".
- lambda_obrien 6y ago
  That's kinda true for most things in competitive arenas, right? Sports, chess, e gaming, etc. I hate it, but at mid life I'm way slower thinking than I was 20 years ago, there's no chance I could compete with young people on raw talent in many areas, I might win some online games because of superior strategy, but I'll never have the speed to beat young, experienced gamers.
  - AniseAbyss 6y ago
    I have always found gymnastics fascinating in this regard. Apparently you can only be good at it if you're a 15 year old girl!
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      You need a body with a low moment of inertia. I.e. short.
    - watwut 6y ago
      It used to be even sooner, but the kids health ended up compromised too much as result of training. They changed rules so that the peek happens later.
- icelancer 6y ago
  It's plenty possible, but few have the desire to put in that much work as they get older. There are people who play at near-GM-level strength in tournaments reflected in their single tournament evaluations, but don't play enough to obtain 2500+ rating or score enough GM norms in major tournaments. There's a even a guy from Russia who is 2550ish rating and isn't even an IM because he hasn't scored enough norms, and is 3000+ bullet/blitz on Chesscom, which is incredibly elite. Someone picking up chess at age 25 could certainly become a GM. They just usually don't have the desire for it.
  - jeremyjh 6y ago
    If it were possible it would have happened in the last 100 years. What people lack at the age of 25 (or even 17) is the neuroplasticity required to turn their brain into an analytical chess engine.
- j4yav 6y ago
  I don’t think it’s actually correct that all GMs were child prodigies.
  - jeremyjh 6y ago
    At least since the 20th century I haven't been able to find an exception. Even GMs who did not get their GM titles until late in life were very strong players as children. For example Ben Finegold did not get his last norm to become GM until he was 40, but he was a USCF master at age 14. All the other stories I've seen are similar. I've also yet been unable to find more than two or three people who started playing seriously after age 25 and ever broke 2000 FIDE.

spaetzleesser 6y ago

There is a book "Schachnovelle" by Stefan Zweig (don't know the English title) who starts to play against himself in while in prison. Good read.

techer 6y ago
The Royal Game apparently https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_Game

tyingq 6y ago

I'm hoping there's some broad reform coming for jails and prisons in the US. Currently, there's no uniformity in the way prisoners are treated. It's not unusual, in the US, for a prison to have no television, no books, little actually edible food, limited human interaction, etc. You can't even write a letter if you don't have someone on the outside funding your commissary account. That setup, of course, just ends up being a gladiator school and/or permanent psychosis camp.

yellowapple 6y ago
Yep. It boils down to rehabilitation v. retribution. Rehabilitation is effective at preventing recidivism. Retribution is politically expedient. And this goes beyond prisons, too. Kinda hard to not turn to crime again if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail.
- tyingq 6y ago
  "if your chances at a career are gated behind criminal background checks that you're destined to fail" That's a great point that I haven't seen discussed in the media. When I was young, only "Fortune 500" type companies could afford background checks, so you had a fighting chance at getting a decent job. Now, anybody can buy a instant background check online, and you can get not just felony data, but misdemeanor data, and even "just arrests, not convictions". And it's dirt cheap to do so. So, job prospects are dim, and even simple stuff like renting an apartment is difficult as well.
  - monocasa 6y ago
    It'll also show offenses which have been expunged from your record.
  - BrandoElFollito 6y ago
    This concept of background check on the US is strange. In France, once you left prison, it means that you have served what you had to serve and start again. Nobody can check whether you did prison or not. Some specific jobs require a document stating your juridical past but you bring it, this is not some can do on their own. Then you have military and sensitive civil servants jobs where this is checked for you, but it is really specific. I would not be happy if anybody could check my past online...

Kharvok 6y ago

Interesting, but the author murdered his father over a minor disagreement and stole his car and a large sum of cash. It does't concern me that he does't have a chess set.

daemoens 6y ago
Not really the point. Also he wasn't the ban was on the entire prison with a hundreds or thousands of others.
nickelcitymario 6y ago
So being sent to prison isn't sufficient punishment? The severity of that punishment should be determined by the whims of the prison's management?
- timsayshey 6y ago
  I don't know, ask his victim
  - kbenson 6y ago
    Even were the victim alive, we are not a society that encourages the victim to dictate the punishment, nor allow the victim to carry out the punishment, so what would the victim's thoughts matter? As much as it's presented otherwise, punishment western democracies is first and foremost a method of deterrence for the good of all, not for the satisfaction of those harmed.
  - tenebrisalietum 6y ago
    If you are not sentencing someone to life in jail or the death penalty, then you can't treat a prisoner bad enough to cause lasting damage because they will rejoin society at some point. This is irrespective of the victim's thoughts; if I get violently robbed and society + a judge has decided that's worth 10 years in jail, then that's what it is. If you think prisoners deserve absolutely nothing to the point of causing psychological or physical harm then you are saying the crime they committed is worth life in prison or the death penalty. This is assuming a functioning justice system.

faizshah 6y ago

We used to play connect 4 like this in high school, it’s frustratingly difficult to remember the game state but it’s easy to play (you just call out the column). You can easily forget the board position if you think too long about a move and as the game progresses it becomes more difficult to keep track of the game state. But it’s a lot of fun, I can imagine it becomes a lot easier over time especially when they are so experienced in chess.

InitialLastName 6y ago
I had a friend in high school who would play mental chess while weight training. He claimed it was good practice for his golf game; I think he was just showing off.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  I find it impossible to do any abstract thinking while lifting.

nxpnsv 6y ago

That’s inspiring, and also depressing, worth a read though. I feel keeping a whole game in your head is a good way to deal being locked up,

williesleg 6y ago

When are we going to put crooks in jail and get the innocents out?

tyingq 6y ago

>"“alligator” for A, “baseball” for B, “constellation” for C, “dinosaur” for D, “elephant” for E and “golf ball” for G. Shame there wasn't anyone to share "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, etc" with them. It works well in practice, has less syllables, and probably has many in prison that already know it.

83457 6y ago
I'm sure the words they chose sounded suspicious if heard repeatedly but if heard just occasionally they were probably less so than words like Delta, Foxtrot, Tango, etc.
air7 6y ago
On the contrary. It's beautiful to see what people come up with when they're not tethered to the norm.
- tyingq 6y ago
  Perhaps. "Constellation" is particularly odd to me though. There are lots of unique lesser used words with 2 syllables instead of 4. So I'm curious why they chose it.
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
    They were working with different constraints: Speed doesn't matter, it doesn't have to work internationally, and their alphabet is limited to A-H. Having words of different length makes it easier to distinguish them. Also, I have a suspicion why the article leaves out "F".
slingnow 6y ago
Yeah, it's a shame there was no one to share the most well-known way to relate words to the alphabet that likely many of the guards would already be familiar with. Had you considered they chose these words for good reason?
- 6y ago

AcerbicZero 6y ago

I’ve had serious issues with the judicial system in this country for years now, but banning board games is just a new level of absurd. How a system so unjust can exist in a modern “democracy” is beyond me.

djrogers 6y ago
Did you read the article? It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one.
- jMyles 6y ago
  > It's a COVID related restriction - not a judicial system one. I'm not sure what that means - just that it is an administrative restriction rather than something adjudicated in a court of law? This doesn't make it less absurd, and might make it more.
- olliej 6y ago
  That seems like the new "reason" -- at least it's more valid than the old reason of "stopping gambling". There was a documentary, Netflix maybe?, where guards would routinely do sweeps and find any game pieces that prisoners has made - paper folded to make dice, notes and score sheets for D&D, etc
- hertzrat 6y ago
  Let the inmates decide for themselves. I’m sure they’ve had enough “we’re doing this for your own good” for a lifetime
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
    The problem is that they're not only deciding for themselves, they're also deciding for their cellmates, and anyone else they will be in close contact with (which, in a prison, is likely "everyone")
    - hertzrat 6y ago

EliRivers 6y ago

Genuinely thought they were both going to get put in solitary and have their sentences extended for engaging in gang activities, based on their coded messages to each other. Good God, but I have low expectations of this prison system.

cletus 6y ago

To me the state of US prisons reveals a really dark aspect to US culture and that is there's a real penchant for... cruelty. Like here's just a partial list of major problems just off the top of my head: - The essentially institutionalized use of rape as a means of controlling inmates; - Ridiculously long sentences for relatively minor offences as just another casualty of the disastrous war on drugs; - commissaries as a profit center with ridiculously marked up prices; - ridiculous costs for telephone calls as another profit center, making it more difficult for inmates to maintain social ties to family; - prisoners count as citizens but can't vote. Also prisons are jobs. This makes prisons the perfect tool for gerrymandering and pork barreling; - being charged (not convicted but _charged) with a felony while on parole violates your parole and can send you back to prison to serve the remainder of your sentence. I don't know how this passes the due process test; - Overcharging to force plea deals; - Paying prisoners <5c/hour; - Forcing prisoners to pay a co-pay to see a doctor. $2-5 might not sound like much but it is at 5c/hour; - Female prisoners may need to see a doctor to get adequate tampons or sanitary napkins. See above for why that's a problem; - 5c/hour incentivized individuals and private companies to use prison labour to undercut real competitors; - You don't really have a choice: working is typically mandatory; - Prison food. 'Nuff said. - The "are you a felon?" scarlet letter you'll carry for the rest of your life. This actually causes problems even for the ultra-rich. As one example, it has caused real problems for Mark Wahlberg, such that at one point he sought a pardon from the Massachussetts governor for what was a fairly vicious assault when he was young. That effort failed. I absolutely oppposed the Wahlberg pardon. He shouldn't get an exemption. Reform this stupid system instead; - Early release prisoners having to pay for their own drug tests where they have huge problems even finding a job as a felon in the first place; - Disenfranchising felons in fairly stupid ways that are clearly a form of voter suppression ie they can't vote for really no good reason; - Overcrowding; - Privatizing of prisons; - Having a delay between parole being granted and the prisoner being released. This is so dumb. This allows other prisoners to "tax" the parolee as any infraction during that period may violate their conditions of release. In comparison I saw a show about a prison in Mexico where a prisoner was called intot he warden's office, told he'd been freed and he was immediately free to go (probably for this "taxing" reason). I was honestly surprised at how humane Mexican prisons seemed in this show (compared to their US equivalents); I don't think it's an understatement to call the US prison system to be a humanitarian crisis and a blight on the soul of the country.

fastball 6y ago

RTFA everyone. Board games weren't banned out of an abundance of malice.

jMyles 6y ago
No policy is ever enacted in such a way that an abundance of malice is the express basis. This restriction has no basis in science or sense. A respiratory pathogen may provide another in a long line of childish excuses, but make no mistake: slavery itself is an abundance of malice.
- fastball 6y ago
  Where did slavery come into this?
  - jMyles 6y ago
    "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted" [0] 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_Un...

ArneVogel 6y ago

If anybody wants to play chess in their minds, Lichess has a option to turn the pieces invisible [1]. It's not quite as hard as playing by voice as you have the move list you can refer to but it's a start. [1] https://lichess.org/account/preferences/game-display https://lichess.org/account/preferences/game-display bottom of the page

Buttons840 6y ago
There is also an option to have the computer read moves to you and you can make moves and query the state of the board by typing commands. Streamers use this to play blindfolded, while the stream shows the board position normally to viewers.
asauce 6y ago
I’m an active user of Lichess and never knew about this mode. Thanks for sharing!
irishsultan 6y ago
Another option is "Move list while playing", which you can set to never. I haven't tried it yet, but combining these two should get you there.

myth_drannon 6y ago

Reminds me Natan Sharansky story. Being jailed in Soviet prison, in solitary confinement he played chess in his mind. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25560162 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25560162

rabbits77 6y ago

The guy writing this article killed his dad. Not really into reading what this sort of monster has to say about chess or anything else, do you? https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/former-santa-fe-teen-could-face-death-in-dad-s-slaying/article_52fd7ee9-004a-593b-989c-74f12c7f72a1.html https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/former-san...

the_only_law 6y ago
Given the amount of upvotes and comments, clearly some people do. Amy why not, just because someone did something terrible even if you find that irredeemable, do you really believe that nothing can be learned from from or their thoughts?
- rabbits77 6y ago
  if he raped a woman would you still say that? what if he raped a black woman while calling her the N word? of course you would change your mind, because you have no consistent philosophy.
nkozyra 6y ago
I don't think anyone condones or wants to promote murder, but treating humans (even criminals, even terrible, violent criminals) as subhuman is the kind of thing that puts us in a bad space as a society with regard to criminal justice. See: America. Maybe we think this guy is the most reprehensible person on earth. Maybe we think he's irredeemable. But is he so bad that we are unwilling to listen to his thoughts on prison conditions? Or do we not care because he's a "monster?" For what other crimes do we now get to completely ignore and dismiss the person who committed them?
- thegrimmest 6y ago
  Is there no action a person can take before they qualify as subhuman? honest question.
  - 6y ago

qwerty456127 6y ago

A common advice is to avoid playing anything in prison. You will always be forced to pay something if you loose (and you probably will loose because people don't play fair there) even if you didn't intend to bet.

hutzlibu 6y ago
A more common advice is to avoid prison in the first place. And if you are there ... I believe prison culture has differences, just like on the outside world.

Lio 6y ago

This reminds me of this story of a man who played mental chess in a soviet gulag to stay sane. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25560162

GrantZvolsky 6y ago

My grandmother[1] was a political prisoner and her favourite pastime while in prison was poetry. Since the inmates weren't allowed to have any possessions, not even a strip of paper, she composed poems in her head. She later published them in a poetry collection and I know people who memorized the entire collection. She herself had a phenomenal memory for poetry. Her friends would often call and ask for her to tell them the lyrics of old songs and poems, and even in her late 70s she never failed to answer their request without consulting her library. My mum once challenged her and asked her to recite the 50 minute-long Máj[2]. If she weren't interrupted after 10 minutes, she probably would have recited the entire thing. She was able to memorize a poem after hearing it just once and it seemed that she retained poems indefinitely. I don't know whether this talent was the result of 6 years in an environment where memory is the only means to persist information, but it seems likely that it played a role. Another less impressive anecdatum is my own experience of about a year with a phone that couldn't remember phone numbers. In the beginning I memorized numbers out of necessity. By the end of the year I had a mental address book of about 30 numbers and new numbers could be added effortlessly. The bewildered looks of people giving me their number without me pulling out a phone to write it down were priceless. [1]: https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BEena_Kuklov%C3%A1-J%C3%AD%C5%A1ov%C3%A1 https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C5%BEena_Kuklov%C3%A1-J%C3%... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoX5y_JZ40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjoX5y_JZ40

briefcomment 6y ago
When you memorized numbers that way, did you "see" the numbers in your mind's eye? And when you went to recall it, did you basically read it from that impression? I sometimes memorize numbers and other strings that way.
- GrantZvolsky 6y ago
  It feels as though I simultaneously remember and recall an image of the number as well as its numeric value. What helps me remember the numeric value is identifying its interesting properties and patterns. This mental phone book improved my ability to memorize other types of random strings. On one occasion I memorized a 20-digit hexadecimal license key, though I had to read it about three times. The client who watched as I keyed it in was very impressed. On a second thought it isn't that impressive given it's 12 digits short of a UUID.

confidantlake 6y ago

In high school there was a kid who could play blindfolded. As someone who has no mind's eye this completely blew my mind.

Balgair 6y ago

Somewhat related: Playing the video game Mike Tyson's Punch Out while blindfolded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZT6JEOC3D8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZT6JEOC3D8

RickJWagner 6y ago

Interesting. I once had a language professor from cold-war era Czechoslavakia. He was in the military and had to stand around in formations for hours. He found a like-minded friend and played chess 'in their heads' as they stood. Extra: After he moved to the USA, he applied his mental skills to poker where he became a world-class lowball player.

adonovan 6y ago

When I was I high school I played some mental chess against the school’s star player. (He could beat me when he alone was blindfold.) I’m not a great chess player but I was surprised how far it was possible to play before making a mistake. Gives me hope in case I should end up behind bars.

hartator 6y ago

> And on top of everything, board games—including chess—have been completely banned to promote social distancing. Well that sucks.

YeGoblynQueenne 6y ago

>> At the heart of our mental chess game lies a profound lesson: It is easy to play the victim in life, to allow your circumstances to dictate your disposition. But the difference between being content or distraught is a matter of perspective. Good advice, but only as long as you don't let the bastards that screwed you up get away with it just because you got over it. Don't let yourself be fine with letting others treat you like dirt.

danjaco 6y ago
The vast majority of people are in prison on non-violent drug charges; it is horrific how society believes that they are all horrible people who deserve to be there and doesn't care about them at all. Even under normal circumstances, the institution cares little for their rehabilitation, and now they are under atrocious conditions such as these. Many psychologists consider solitary confinement to be a form of torture, but as we know, in covid times that no longer matters.