A Hit Man Comes to Denver

Chess was not the only reason I played, of course. My other motive was to scope out 'el fisho' in an attempt to understand more clearly what was going on and what might be his 'problem' with me. I soon learned that he was quite sensitive about his low chess rating. I suspected him of bringing in beginners or low-rated players for the sole purpose of defeating them in tournament games. I also suspected him of 'bribing' and/or 'threatening' (subtly of course) other players to lose or draw. He definitely tried to distract me in obvious ways several times during my own tournament games. At the time, my working theory for his behavior was 'Jewish Penis Envy' - I still had no clue about obsessional people or stalkers - so I was not surprised by his obvious 'ratings envy;' in fact I was gratified by it.

I've been reviewing my games from that period and (boom) three of them stand out. Those games puzzled me at the time but they now make sense. They were all played in round one; they were all rated tournament games; I had the white pieces in all three games; I had the same opponent in all three games; the opponent was officially a fish, in fact, even more of a fish than el fisho himself. The scoresheet for the first game shows my rating at 2003 and him unrated. The game ended in an 81 move draw. I chalked the result up to 'underestimation' and vowed to 'crush him next time' (this according to my notes on back of the scoresheet). He went on to lose the rest of his games for that month (we played one tournament game per week).

Next month we were paired again in round one. The scoresheet shows my rating at 2030, his still unrated. He won that game, then went on to lose (or draw) the rest of his games as usual. 

We were paired in round one yet again in the next rournament and he won that game also. My scoresheet for the game shows my rating at 2000 and his at 1450. I wrote on the back of the scoresheet, 'Saiki plays like a fish except against me. I decided to withdraw from chess for a while. The DCC gives me the willies.' That was 8-5-87. I continued to do the unrated blitz games on Saturday nights until the club disbanded. More on this tomorrow.

Nowadays I understand that Saiki was a chessic 'hit man' brought into the club by el fisho for the sole purpose of taking large chunks out of my chess rating. In real life he was a master or expert, probably from out of state. They may have flown him in once a week, or they may have simply paid his expenses for three or four months. I don't recall whether he was 'oriental-looking' but his name sounded Japanese-ish to me, so I asked kootch this morning whether she had ever heard the name, sah-ee-kee. She replied in the negative, but said the name sounded like 'Psyche.' Bingo! The guy's first name was Mark: Mark Psyche! And he did just that. I wonder how much they paid him...