Chess in San Quentin
Try the following psychological test. It is a story about a girl. While at
the funeral of her own mother, she met a guy whom she did not know. She thought
this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy she believed him to be, that she
fell in love with him there and then...
A few days later, the girl killed her own sister.
Question: What is her motive in killing her sister?
That's it. Can you think of a reason why she should have killed her sister?
Does it instantly spring to mind?
If it doesn't that's good news. It simply means that you are not predispositioned
to be a homicidal maniac. A more detailled explanation follows below, embedded
in the text. You may want to think for a while before you read on. Maybe you
do have what it takes to become a Manson-type serial killer...
Which brings us to the current chess topic. Turns out that the Reverend
was playing chess against Charles Manson, one of America's most notorious serial
killers. Earl Smith has a genuine passion for sports and a deep compassion for
people. Through sports and games, even something as quiet and deliberate as
chess, Smith can communicate.
Smith plays chess with any prisoners who is allowed to participate outside
of Death Row. Chess and checkers became popular games for inmates, especially
ones in maximum security who were locked up the majority of the time. They can
play each other by shouting their moves to their opponent or a third party in
another cell.
It was a rewarding and enlightening experience for Smith and not because he
was a master at chess. "Blacks. Whites. Mexicans. I learned early on that
was the only time they could get along," Smith said. "They would all
root against me."
You can read all about the chess and other sports activities in San Quentin
State Prison in this long but readable article in the Marin
Independent Journal.
And now back to our psychological test. Could you think of a reason
for the girl killing her sister. Apparently normal everyday people have absolutely
no idea, whereas one small segment of society answers immediately, after milliseconds
of thought: "She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again."
Finding the correct (or let us say the above) answer to this test indicates
that you think like a psychopath. The test was devised by a famous American
psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer. Many arrested
serial killers took part in this test and answered it correctly. If you didn't
answer correctly – good for you. If your friends hit the jackpot, you probably
need to keep your distance.
We tried the test on numerous top players in the world of chess. We are glad
to report that only two of the world's strongest GMs show a penchant for serial
killings (no, it would be unfair for us to tell you which two did – why
take the fun and excitement out of top level chess?).
Post scriptum: Before one spreads such stories (as we have done) it
is advisable to pay a short visit to the excellent Urban Legend site snopes.com.
There we learn that the psychological test is a silly canard that began its
Internet life in May 2002. "There is no simple question where all the psychopaths
would go one way and everybody else would go another," Snopes writes. "As
a quick 'n' easy way to separate the sheep from the murderous goats, the test
simply wouldn't work. The appeal of this one-question pop psych quiz lies in
its implicit promise that by using it on your friends, you can locate the psychopaths
lurking in your circle of acquaintance and thereby protect yourself from them,
or perhaps in the process of your answering it you'll uncover some deep, dark
secret you've been keeping from yourself. We like our world simplified whenever
possible, and therefore anything that appears to be an easy-to-use tool will
be quickly seized upon, even if it's flawed."
What a shame! But on the other hand we can resume association with the two
top players, who are perfectly affable people – except for the possible
psychopatic quirk, which of course we no longer have grounds to suspect.
Breaking news: It seems there are psychological tests that help
spot psychopatic killers. This has been reported by Reuters
and carried by many news outlets (CBC
News, ABC News,
etc.). We will be keeping an eye on those two 2600 GMs after all...