Psychotic Chess

Chess: –noun, a game played by two persons, each with 16 pieces, on a chessboard.

Insanity: –noun, plural -ties. 1. the condition of being insane; a derangement of the mind.

Add them together, combine in a bowl, mix well, set aside. Later add intensity, some giddiness and an unusual lack of social skills for a chess player.

Now you know my experience in behavior health a few months ago. I neglected to write about it for some time because, well you know, it was really, really strange.

Their had been talk of this middle aged, scruffy looking man who played chess constantly on the unit since the moment I arrived. He apparently could and had beaten every staff member so far. Intriguing as it was to meet this guy, my options were limited to following around someone who's meds got screwed up. Which in turn caused him to have a magnificent episode involving the works, including the padded room. So I waited. And sometime half way into the evening another babysitting staff member saw my sultry gaze layed gently onto the crazy man and his checkered board. He volunteered some time and I took it. Graciously. So scruffy, potbellied, crazy man and I played a couple games. I couldn't tell you any specifics of the game. Only things like the gross stain on his white tshirt, the over medicated shaking hands, his body language unremorsefully spilling the turmoil in his head outward and what seemed to me to be a true desire to figure the best moves. We played four games in all over two days. After I won the first game he was challenged. It was clear in his eyes and the the way he hastily found me every few hours to thrust the pieces in my direction meekly. They were fun games. For someone who probably had almost no literacy level and spent months at a time in the nuthouse he played remarkably well. And during the final game I debated the situation. How many games would a psychotic man who is used to winning lose before losing it altogether. I let him win.