In the Frontier, It's Still Mano a Mano.

FRONTIER RESTAURANT--It's 7:00 Wednesday evening and the Coronado Chess Club has just started the first of it's two half-hour games in the last room of the Frontier. There are about twenty players sitting at tables across from each other. The games are just beginning. Several people stand watching them. The players don't seem to take much notice. At a nearby table, a writing seminar is wrapping up a discussion about who of the group has actually had a piece published. Nobody hears them.
MaryAnn and I go from game to game watching as the pieces are developed. She is an excellent player in casual situations. She also has the courage to play in tournaments, having done so more than once. But neither of us are ready to partake of this sort of mental conflict tonight. Four female UNM students walk in asking if they could rent a set. They do for a buck.
Someone once told me that Lenin insisted that all of his generals play chess. Whether or not this is true I do not know. I do know that chess has a lot of lessons to teach...especially about conflict. GWBush is a poker player, not a chess player. Poker has a different way of finding winners. Luck (or divine intervention), not personal decisions, determine the ultimate outcome.
Our foreign policy reflects a poker-player's mentality. It is full of the bluff, of upping the ante, of going "all in." It is a winner-take-all way of looking at the world.
Dues for members are $10/year. Food and drink are available at the counter.