"The place of chess in the society is closely related to the attitude of young people towards our game."
--Boris Spassky
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- An avid reader of my blogs and other news websites from Manila in the Philippines once asked this writer, "Where is that mansion? What kind of mansion?" She was referring to the "mansion" mentioned in a series of chess articles I wrote early this year about a place on Britton Street in the Queens' Elmhurst neighborhood here.
In the mind of any reader, the word mansion conjures a large dwelling house derived from the Latin word manio "dwelling" through Old French, an abstract noun derived from the verb manere "to dwell".
The English word "manse" originally defined a property large enough for the parish priest to maintain himself, but a mansion is no longer self-sustaining in this way.
The mansion in our subject matter here is neither a large dwelling nor a Roman medieval villa, or a haunted house frequented by ghosts and dead spirits like in Hollywood movies.
APARTMENT
It is a modest three-storey apartment, its basement the mecca where dreams are--and still--being made; where talent is abundantly brimming; where brilliancy is executed with head-turning incredulity; and where comradeship is forged and strengthened over bowls and plates of native pulutan (appetizers like shark and tuna meats, spaghetti, adobo, Chinese pancit taken with beer or fruit juice) amid card games and friendly chess matches.
Mansion's main conclave is the 30-square meter wide wi fi-powered basement frequented by a coterie of Filipino chess kibitzers and serious players, considered as the strongest in New York and the East Coast, if not the best in the entire United States.
Its amenities include a kitchen, dining table and chairs, study/playing area with a large TV set, freezer, toilet room, and four collapsible beds.
