Under Cover of Darkness

I enjoyed the new club location because we played in a very large upstairs room with many tables. Players could scatter at will and play in relative privacy. The only time the tables were numbered - and this happened once, for one game - was an occasion where el fisho was actually ahead of me in the scoring and therefore played at a lower-numbered table. I was amazed that Denver's most famous fish would stoop to that sort of thing. Apparently the other players were too. One of my notes mentions that the players were well aware of the war going on between us. If the fish enjoyed that game it was a rare event. He played infrequently and when he did he usually lost. I wondered why he bothered with chess.

Although el fisho was not popular enough to be elected club president he did manage to secure the job of club treasurer (tap), most likely because he was wealthy and not likely to embezzle the funds. He was the defacto president, however, and controlled virtually every aspect of the club. He was also very influential in the CSCA (Colorado State Chess Association), and even (apparently) in the USCF (US Chess Federation). More on this later.

The fish used his power in an amusing way after I won the 'Class A Championship' in July of '92. He delayed paying me the $100 prize for a month, claiming that he had not been informed of the result. It was a lie, of course. He followed me to the club the night he paid me. He gave me the check in the parking lot, under cover of darkness. (The phone line was cut just after I wrote that. The other phone line has been dead since Friday.) Upstairs the next week, he showed me a letter from the (tap) tournament director dated the previous week, in which the TD takes full blame for not advising the fish that I had won. It, too, was a lie. I told el fisho that the letter proved nothing and that with me he had 'zero credibility.' He got really pissed. On another occasion after I had won the monthly club tournament he marked the check, 'reserve prize.' (Another disconnect.) The monthly tournament sometimes had two sections, the Open and the Reserve, the Reserve being limited to the lowest rated players. I had won the Open section. El fisho eventually got tired of writing me checks, and retired from the treasurer's position and from the club itself.

There was an incident about a week after the Class Championships which was not amusing. Somebody smashed the front window on Kootch's car while it was parked in the K-Mart parking lot where she worked. I had to drive my old VW to the chess games that night. I am almost certain that el fisho had one of his 'droogs' do it in retaliation for my win. Kootch has only one enemy.