Chastity's Chess Challenge

Chastity’s Chess Blog

  • Series Title: Will Chuck Find His Mate?

    Series Logline

    An autistic Chess player wants to teach Chess to people in his town, but his plans to generate interest in the game don’t work as expected. By hiring an actress, he succeeds at inspiring others to play Chess, but his social awkwardness and the prejudice of society may cause him to lose both his Chess business and the woman who fell in love with him.

    Overview

    This show follows Chuck as he tries to come out of his introverted shell in order to teach people Chess. He fears people, but he also wants to bring back his favorite game, even if it means going in public. This story turns into a Romantic Drama because Chuck gets the idea to hire a woman from a dating app to help him teach Chess. It starts as a business relationship but then turns into something else. Through this experience, Chuck overcomes some of his social inability but also shows he eventually succeeds in getting people excited about Chess.

    Concept

    This show stands out because to my knowledge, there isn’t anything like it because it is meant to teach people the rules of Chess but also show why it is enjoyable from a psychological point of view. The idea is that Chuck is a master of navigating pieces on a chessboard but that navigating the real world proves to be more challenging than any game of Chess. The show is meant to inspire introverted autistic people to share their passions while also showing neurotypicals an inside look at how an autistic person thinks. If the series fails to do that, the second hope is that it may inspire people to play Chess in a similar way that the Queen’s Gambit series on Netflix did. However, this is not based on that series because I have not watched it.

    Characters

    Chuck

    Chuck is a lonely single man who does not have much of a social life outside of playing Chess online and occasionally other multiplayer online role playing games. Because he seeks connection with real people, he tries to teach Chess to people. However, his social awkwardness and autistic brain cause most people to be suspicious of him, and they assume Chuck is dangerous. Chuck needs someone else to help him appear more normal in society.

    Chuck is afraid of people and, therefore, limits going out of his apartment in most cases. His world is entirely the internet. He is a computer programmer who has made several applications and games that provide him with a constant income. He works for himself because no company will hire him. Unfortunately, Chuck never even got his high school diploma because he was homeless in his teen years after being kicked out of his parent’s house.

    An unfortunate rumor spread by the boys at school resulted in his parents and teachers finding out he was gay. Therefore, he was expelled from school and disowned by his parents when he was 14 years old. He lived by himself in the woods until he was 18 and then managed to get a job as a janitor and live in a homeless shelter. Over the years, he used the internet to teach himself everything he wanted to know about computers, games, and religion.

    At the beginning of the story, he is 40 years old and has no friends or family. He thinks he will never have a family because Chuck has no relationship with his parents, and he doesn’t try to find a partner because he is too afraid of human contact because of the rejection of his parents and school. He is incredibly smart at Chess and Shogi and writes blog posts about strategies for winning these games. The comments he receives on his writing and videos help him to interact with people socially, but only from the safety of his computer in his studio apartment.

    Laura

    Laura is a hopeless romantic who has joined Tinder, hoping to find a future husband and live happily ever after. She has received many unwanted messages from men she is not interested in. However, Chuck’s message catches her attention because he is offering her a paid role as an actress to pretend to be interested in learning Chess. Thrilled at the idea of having the closest thing to a date so far and not being required to have sex with someone, she accepts.

    Laura is quite surprised that Chuck seems only interested in Chess and computer programming. Chuck is the first man she has met who does not make comments about the appearance of her body or request to have sex with her.

    Laura was raised in a “Christian” home until the age of 12 when her father raped her. She took this as a sign that her father was too hypocritical to be a follower of Jesus. Laura ran away from home and became rebellious and anti-religious. She survived by stealing food, lying, and later became a prostitute because she had no means to get a job or even finish high school. Laura used every means to obtain money regardless of morality. She had no identification documents, such as a birth certificate or social security card, because obtaining them would require parental consent. She refused to risk being raped by her father, so she never made any attempt to contact her family.

    When she turned 18, she contacted the police and Social Security Administration about obtaining her birth certificate and social security card. As a legal adult, she was able to get them without parental consent. She applied to various jobs but was always rejected because she was homeless and had no address. She lived on the streets and eventually got a job at a pizza shop. She was trained to make pizzas and take orders from customers. The owner understood her situation and let her work regardless of her homeless status. After some time of holding this job and having a stable income, she was able to rent a cheap studio apartment.

    Laura still wants to know what it would be like to have a family. She is still a member of Tinder from when she used to date men only for financial advantage, but she is looking for a future husband without much luck. That is why Laura was quite surprised when Chuck messaged her about Chess. Though she wasn’t sure where this would lead, this man was clearly different.

    Simon

    Simon is a young boy who does not fit in with other children. He usually talks about Minecraft, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, and other games to kids his age who would rather play in the dirt or play sports that he is not physically adept at performing. However, Simon likes to learn games requiring strategy and complex tactics using his mind rather than his body. For this reason, when he sees Chuck and Laura with a Chessboard, he wants to know what this game is about because he has never seen it.

    Simon is socially very awkward and has a habit of talking to strangers about video games, cartoons, his favorite stuffed animals, or whatever he is thinking about at the time. Children get annoyed by him, and adults tell his parents to get him checked for autism. He is only 9 years old, but he reads a lot of books and strategy guides for completing video games. His parents love him and tend to be very protective of him because he must be watched so he does not wander off with strangers and get kidnapped.

    His favorite place is the park because he likes to swing on the swing set and climb on the monkey bars. Most of the time, his mother or father stays at the park while reading a book and lets him play at the park for an hour or two after school. His life changes when he meets Chuck and Laura because they seem as trustworthy as his parents, and he wants to know what game they are playing. For some odd reason, Chuck explains the game to him in a way that he understands without trying to dumb it down and assume he can’t understand because he is a kid. This kind of respect is what Simon has wanted all his life.

    As much as Simon loves his parents, he does not always get along with them because the truth is that he is so intelligent at math and games that they never seem to know what he is talking about. His parents love him but don’t know what he is because it seems like he is from another world. What they don’t know is that Simon is an autistic savant who cannot perceive other people’s emotions. Simon can predict what his opponents will do in games because he has a photographic memory and can play movies in his head of anything he has seen before. He knows humans are quite predictable and expects them to behave the same way they have in the past.

    Locations

    Two main locations in this series are of interest. The first is Chuck’s studio apartment where he works on his computer programming projects and plays online Chess. Chuck has very few possessions, so he has a lot of space even though his apartment is small. The second location which we will see a lot is a local park where he goes to play Chess with Laura. The exact details of the park are mostly irrelevant but it must have a table where it is possible to place a chessboard. For shooting purposes, the audience would not even notice if the different episodes were shot at different parks as long as the design of the tables was similar.

    Episode Guide/Springboards

    1. Over the Board

    We see Chuck in his apartment with a chessboard and notebook. He has his chessboard set up nicely, but he has no one to play with. He walks around the table and plays each side as best as he can. He is notating the moves on paper so he can later replay them back. He becomes frustrated at the fact that he finds no challenge because he knows all of his moves and wants someone to play with. He packs up his chessboard and pieces into his backpack and sets on a quest to find someone in his town who knows how to play Chess.

    1. Nobody cares about Chess

    Chuck walks around town with only his large checkerboard-styled backpack, which also contains his real Chess set inside. He tries talking to people at the mall, grocery stores, the library, and even the local high schools and elementary schools. Much to his surprise, nobody knows how to play Chess. If they have heard of it at all, they say that they heard it was hard to learn. Chuck offers to teach everyone he meets, but people dismiss him because he just looks like a creepy 40-year-old man walking around with a backpack.

    1. Resignation and New Idea

    Chuck is frustrated trying to find someone to play Chess with and goes back home to play Chess online as he usually does every night. He wins all his games and yet finds that the experience is lacking. The most social interaction he gets is the occasional chat message saying, “Good Game”. He has a list of friends on chess.com and lichess.org, but they are usually far away, and he wants to play people over the real chessboard as he sees in the official tournament videos or friendly games between the famous YouTubers he watches. Finally, he gets the idea that if he wants to find someone local, he could try a dating app because they are designed for people to meet in the same area.

    1. Chuck joins Tinder

    Chuck had never used any dating apps before, so he downloaded Tinder because he had heard it was popular. He sets up a profile and scrolls through lots of people. Finally, he notices the profile of a woman named Laura, who says she loves walking in nature and reading books. He considers her as someone smart enough to be perhaps interested in Chess, so he messages her. Laura is surprised to receive a message from a stranger asking if she would like to play Chess at the park. At first, she declines because she has put her dating life on hold and prefers to be alone unless there is money involved. When Chuck replies and offers her 50 dollars if she can just meet him at the local park, she accepts because she needs the money.

    1. Why do you play Chess?

    Chuck and Laura are at the park. Chuck teaches Laura all the rules of Chess in less than 30 minutes. Surprised by how simple it is to learn, she asks Chuck why he has an interest in such a simple game. Chuck explains that Chess is the perfect board game because it is less complicated to learn but that the competition of two minds trying to outsmart each other is where all the challenge comes from. Chuck does not play games of chance and explains that he prefers to play a game where he wins not by getting lucky but by making the right moves. This information inspires philosophical discussions about video games, card games, and board games.

    1. The Beginning of Romance

    On multiple occasions, Chuck and Laura go to the park and sometimes shop at the mall. They talk for hours about books, games, movies, and music. Laura is continually surprised how no matter what the topic is, he somehow manages to turn it into a comparison to a Chess game he has played. She starts to see his point of view that life really is like a game of Chess because each move affects the next. During one of their Chess games at the park, some children come over to the table and ask about the game Chuck and Laura are playing. Chuck explains how the pieces move and what it means to checkmate the king. Laura sees that Chuck likes to teach children and wonders what he would be like as a father. She really likes Chuck now that she has known him for some time.

    1. The First Fight

    Laura asks Chuck if he has ever had children or any past relationships. He does not want to tell her the truth about his struggles in life and being a closeted gay person. Instead, he tells her that he is better off alone and that he was never looking for a romantic relationship but a way to springboard his business of teaching Chess. Laura does not take the news as well as he expected. She yells at him for leading her on all this time, and yet he is clueless because he had to pay her to even meet him the first time, and so he did not expect her to actually be interested in a relationship. Laura storms off and leaves Chuck alone with his autistic brain and Chess set wondering what he has done wrong to upset Laura.

    1. The Accusation

    Chuck still goes to the park with his chess set, cell phone, and book most days of the week. A boy named Simon, who is used to seeing Chuck with Laura, asks where Laura is. Chuck tells him that he and Laura fought, but he doesn’t know what he did wrong. Simon asks to play Chess with Chuck, and they have a lot of fun until Simon’s father, Dirk, comes along and tells Simon to get away from the stranger. Not knowing the context, Dirk reports to the police about a suspicious man at the park. The police also jump to false conclusions because of the high crime rate in the area. This results in the brief arrest of Chuck until someone comes along to prove that he is not a danger to children.

    Contact Information

    chastitywhiterose@gmail.com

    (816) 844-2077

    https://chastitychesschallenge.wordpress.com/

  • Chess should end in checkmate

    In this post, I will be sharing something that may be useful to players about the nature and reliability of Chess databases. This is a topic that I am studying deeply as a Chess coach. I will be using the open source program pgn-extract to assist me in sharing some stats about the most well known free database, Caissabase. I downloaded it through En Croissant. I have to say that both of these programs are free and open source. As a rule, I promote free and open source software because I believe that Chess should be free for all and I don’t believe someone needs to spend money on expensive Chess programs for analysis.

    Even in the largest Chess databases, very few games end in a checkmate. Because of this, it is necessary to extract only the ones that do end in checkmate because it is the proper way to win the game. The game ending because somebody ran out of time tells us nothing about the quality of the moves of that game.

    pgn-extract ../BigData/caissabase.pgn -ocheckmates_caissabase.pgn –checkmate

    For example, on my machine, the database called Caissabase is

    3.53 GB (3,791,607,570 bytes)

    After filtering to checkmates only with the previous command, the new size is

    190 MB (199,970,816 bytes)

    The final output of the pgn-extract command above was

    263966 games matched out of 5397923

    The reason I am sharing these stats is because it serves as evidence that most Chess databases suffer from several drawbacks.

    1. Players agree to draws to save time.
    2. Players lose when their clock runs out in time matches, even if they have a completely winning position.
    3. Players simply give up after they have lost their queen and have been known to resign even when there is a chance to win.

    Because of these 3 reasons. I recommend always filtering your reference databases to games ending in checkmates. In fact, aside from the fact that your analysis of games will be more reliable, this method can save a lot of disk space. For this reason, I have replaced Caissabase with the newer copy on my PC because I am sadly running out of space on this laptop. I expect this information will help people save disk space and also to get better data from the databases they use for analyzing games played both by themselves and also the famous Chess masters.

  • ChasteBase: Slav Defense

    This is part of my series of notes on the most common positions I find myself in when playing the Queen’s Gambit. This is my favorite opening when playing the white pieces and I have been studying it for some time. The act of writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and memorize what I have learned.

    The format of these notes is as follows:

    • Name of Opening/Variation
    • Move list in Chess notation
    • One or more paragraphs of notes
    • Evaluation of good or bad moves from this position

    Slav Defense

    1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6

    I must admit that I have not studied the Slav Defense as much as I have the Queen’s Gambit Declined or Queen’s Gambit Accepted. However, I do have two recommendations for white moves here.

    • Nf3 is a solid move because the knight will certainly be involve in the game at some point and is not under immediate threat.
    • Bf4 is a good idea here because we can target the knight on b8 now that the c pawn is not in the way. We have a lot of options for where the bishop can go from here. It is a safe move at this point with no real downsides. Don’t hesitate to kill the knight with the bishop unless you are player who prefers to keep your bishops alive. There is some matter of preference when it comes to the value of knights vs bishops.

    As I play more games in the Slav defense, I may have more to say here. The Slav Defense has its own merits even though it is not as popular as other responses to the Queen’s Gambit.

  • ChasteBase: Queen’s Gambit Accepted

    This is part of my series of notes on the most common positions I find myself in when playing the Queen’s Gambit. This is my favorite opening when playing the white pieces and I have been studying it for some time. The act of writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and memorize what I have learned.

    The format of these notes is as follows:

    • Name of Opening/Variation
    • Move list in Chess notation
    • One or more paragraphs of notes
    • Evaluation of good or bad moves from this position

    Queen’s Gambit Accepted

    1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4

    The majority of my wins while playing white come because black has accepted the Queen’s Gambit. White has 4 really good moves in this position, 3 of which involve plans to capture back the pawn on c4.

    ! Good moves for White

    • e4 is the most obvious good move here. Moving the king’s pawn here allows both of white’s bishops to get out. White will most likely take back the pawn on c4 if black doesn’t come up with a defense for it quick.
    • Nf3 is a way to delay deciding what to do with the c4 pawn after it is accepted. This remains a popular option because white may want to later combine the knight and bishop for an attack on f7 but has not decided what they will do with their e pawn yet.
    • e3 Moving the e pawn only one square
    • Qa4+ The white queen puts the black king in check and also guarantees that it can take the c4 pawn regardless of what black does to get out of check. The only danger is the fact that the queen could be under attack later if it comes out this soon.

    ? Bad moves for White

    There are really no obviously bad moves in this position unless someone was trying to lose the game on purpose.

  • ChasteBase: Queen’s Gambit Declined

    This is part of my series of notes on the most common positions I find myself in when playing the Queen’s Gambit. This is my favorite opening when playing the white pieces and I have been studying it for some time. The act of writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and memorize what I have learned.

    The format of these notes is as follows:

    • Name of Opening/Variation
    • Move list in Chess notation
    • One or more paragraphs of notes
    • Evaluation of good or bad moves from this position

    Queen’s Gambit Declined

    1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6

    If black declines the Queen’s Gambit with e6, there are some things white must look out for. First, by moving the e pawn, black allows their dark squared bishop to get out next turn. This can possibly put the king in check and/or pin the knight if it has moved to c3. Therefore, all evaluation of moves should consider this threat.

    ! Good moves for White

    • c5 By advancing the c4 pawn to c5, black is prevented from getting their dark squared bishop out entirely. I recommend this as the best move because now both of black’s bishops are prevented from getting out. They already blocked their light squared bishop on e6 and now our c5 pawn prevents them from moving the dark squared bishop there unless they are prepared to get killed by the d4 pawn in response.
    • a3 is not the most agressive move but it is a nice defensive measure to prevent the dark squared bishop from coming to b4. This move should be done if white wants to safely move their knight to c3.
    • Nf3 Moving the knight to f3 is particularly good in the Queen’s Gambit Declined position because it is safe here and can possibly move to e5 next turn. It also means we have not committed to whether we will move the e pawn one or two squares.

    ? Bad moves for White

    • Nc3 Whatever you do, don’t try moving the knight to c3 on this turn unless you are prepared to lose it! You can move it here later if you wish but not until you have dealt with the threat of black’s dark squared bishop first. There will be some people who disagree with me on this because they think losing a knight to take down a bishop is a fair trade. However, I protect my knights because they are my “Queen Killers” and are often involved in forks later in the end game that my opponents don’t see. If you move the knight to c3 here, the bishop can move to b4 and the knight can’t move because that would put the king in check.

  • ChasteBase: The Queen’s Gambit

    This is part of my series of notes on the most common positions I find myself in when playing the Queen’s Gambit. This is my favorite opening when playing the white pieces and I have been studying it for some time. The act of writing things down helps me organize my thoughts and memorize what I have learned.

    The format of these notes is as follows:

    • Name of Opening/Variation
    • Move list in Chess notation
    • One or more paragraphs of notes
    • Evaluation of good or bad moves from this position

    The Queen’s Gambit

    1. d4 d5 2. c4

    The Queen’s Gambit is one of the most popular openings in the world of Chess. It is what Chastity plays almost all the time. The idea is very simple. White sacrifices a pawn on c4 to buy time to get the bishop and knight out. This small sacrifice can lead to an advantage for white if black falls for the trap. If black takes the c4 pawn, white will then have several options for killing the black pawn and/or ignoring it to develop other pieces. But right now, it is black’s turn and they must decided whether to accept or decline the Queen’s Gambit.

    ! Good moves for Black

    • e6 Defend the d5 pawn by moving the king’s pawn to e6. If white decides to capture the d5 pawn black will capture back and then white will still not be able to move their bishop to c4. Playing e6 is called the “Queen’s Gambit Declined”
    • c6 Although it is less common, c6, known as the “Slav Defense” is another way to decline the gambit. By playing this move, black is hinting at a possible check against the white king by moving the black queen to a5. In any case, this move has the same idea that black will capture back on d5 if white’s c4 pawn takes it.

    ? Bad moves for Black

    • dxc4 If black takes this pawn, they can fall into one of many possible traps. It is nearly impossible to prevent white from taking back this pawn with the bishop after moving the e pawn. Also, white now has the option to safely move the e pawn to e4 without it being captured because black no longer has the pawn on d5. If black has played dxc4 here, then they are now in a “Queen’s Gambit Accepted” position. White has the advantage of controlling the center with both their king and queen pawns. Black can still win of course but it will be much harder from here.

  • Chastity’s Review of Markdown

    In my own words, I would like to describe a bit about Markdown and how it changed my life as a Creative Writer. Markdown is a simple replacement for HTML when you need basic elements like headings, links, bold, and italics. There are many simple guides on it. I learned all about it by reading the Markdown Guide.

    On that site, there are many tools which I have found helpful. I want to list my top two favorite markdown writing applications

    SimpleNote is the tool I have used the most to quickly write my school assignment. It has two features that really help me. First, I have it installed on Windows, my iPhone, and an Android phone I use at work. It syncs anything I write on one device with all the others because I am logged into my account. It is super convenient because I spend so much time away from home that I can start writing something on my PC at home and then finish it on my lunch break at Walmart from my phone. Another thing that Simplenote does is tell me the word count of any note. This is important when an assignment in my Creative Writing course requires a minimum or maximum word count that I need to meet. For these reasons, a lot of the time I write my documents in Simplenote and then just copy them into Microsoft word after I have formatted them in Markdown through Simplenote.

    Another app that is similar is called Joplin. This app is slightly different in that it does not automatically sync to the internet like Simplenote does by default. It has options for syncing through third party services, but I have no need of that because that’s what I use Simplenote for. Rather, the purpose of Joplin is that it is capable of working without an internet connection. I have only started using it recently but it has the ability to create multiple notebooks which work a little bit like folders in a file system of a computer. This means it is capable of being used for even greater organization than is currently capable by using Simplenote alone. It has features for importing and exporting notes so that they can be backed up regularly if you don’t feel like syncing them automatically.

    Most importantly, both Simplenote and Joplin support Markdown. However, even aside from that, they are valuable note taking tools. If you ever need to write something down quickly, these apps can help you out. I find them helpful particularly because I can make a new note and then type something down without having to choose what to name a text file like I would if I was creating one in notepad.

  • Hopeless Romantic

    I have a secret that is gigantic
    That I am a hopeless romantic

    I believe in true romantic love
    But know it is hard to get hold of

    There are billions of people I see
    Yet only one that is right for me

    I am very jealous of couples who dance
    Because I have never had the same chance

    I would like a partner but I haven’t tried
    On every Valentine’s Day I have cried

    I know most people would not understand
    That being alone is not what I planned

    I am transgender, asexual, and complex
    I want the love but do not want the sex

    I want someone who also wants me
    Who does not care if I am a he or a she

    The odds are against me and alone I will die
    But these feelings I have I cannot deny

    True love accepts someone even in their mess
    And doesn’t resign the love game of Chess

    In 37 years, I have never even had a date
    But I hope to someday find my check mate

  • Chess Romance Story Premise

    Chuck, a lonely autistic man in a small town, loves to play Chess online but wants to play Chess over the board like he has seen in only online videos. However, no one else in his town knows how to play Chess. He decides that he will have to teach people this game. He disappointingly finds out that no one is interested in learning Chess. He decides to hire a random woman, Laura, on a dating app to pretend to be his Chess student and play with him at the park so that people can witness.

    At first, the woman is in it only for the money and doesn’t care about Chess. After a few days of playing, she sees why he loves the game. However, the children at the park have noticed the board game they are playing and ask to be taught. Chuck goes to the park with Laura once a week and teaches the rules of Chess to anyone who shows up.

    Laura sees how the children love Chuck as he teaches them the game. She thinks about how he would be a good father because of how he is with children. Over time, Laura begins to develop romantic feelings for Chuck, but he is only interested in Chess. When she says she wants to date him romantically, he declines and tells her that it was entirely a business relationship and that her services are no longer needed.

    Chuck continues going to the park by himself and teaches the children Chess. However, when a concerned parent reports to the police about a suspicious man who spends time with the children at the park, he is arrested. He is registered as a sex offender and branded as a pedophile by most people in the town even though he never did anything wrong, and there is no evidence to convict him. He loses his home, job, and everything that matters to him.

    When Laura finds out what has happened to Chuck, she goes to the police and tells them that they have made a mistake and arrested an innocent man for nothing. When she is questioned about how she knows him, she explains that Chuck is her Chess Coach and that he never caused harm to her or any children.

    Chuck is released from jail and thanks Laura for her honesty and for saving his reputation. When she asks him why he would not date her, Chuck explains that he is gay and doesn’t date women but that he fears homophobia if he spends time with a man in public. Laura explains that this experience shows that people will accuse people of doing something wrong, no matter what they do. She encourages Chuck not to let other people keep him from living the life he wants.

    Chuck and Laura get to know each other and eventually get married, despite only caring for each other emotionally and playing Chess together. They open a Chess school together and everyone understands both that Chess is a great game, and that Chuck is a good guy. People realize they were wrong to make false accusations against him.

  • How difficult is it to teach yourself to play chess?

    It is extremely easy at this time. With the number of free websites and tutorials, you can learn the basic rules of the game in less than 30 minutes. Additionally, you can listen to GothamChess on YouTube and Twitch. He is a good teacher and also published a book called “How to Win at Chess”.

    But learning Chess is not hard. If you have played Pokemon, Minecraft, or Monopoly, you will find Chess to be easier by comparison. There are only 6 pieces, and they have their own movement rules that are very simple.

    To start with, I recommend the tutorials here:

    https://lichess.org/learn

    This is probably the quickest way to get started playing Chess immediately. The best part is that Lichess is free and open source. You don’t have to spend even a cent to learn Chess today! Books and Chess courses are for people who already know how to play but want to learn advanced strategies and tips for making fewer mistakes.