Christiansen's Sensational South Station Success!

I'm a firm believer that some things take time to take root and grow. Sometimes you have to give things time, and when you do their success can become amazing.

Last Tuesday our own Grandmaster Larry Christiansen held a Simul in South Station. Ho hum. He's been doing that for nearly six months. Larry won every game as well. That's not news either.

What is news - what is very exciting news - is how the Simuls in South Station have developed in the last half year!

I've been privileged to be involved with the South Station Simuls since the beginning, helping to set up, monitoring and playing in the Simuls, and picking up at the end. We set up 25 boards for each Simul. When we began this about six months or so ago perhaps 11 boards were filled at the beginning and 8 of those boards were filled with Boylston Chess Club members. It was wonderful that the club supported the Simuls as they first started out! We would begin at 5:00PM and go until 7:00PM. People could come and sit down to any open board. We accepted people until 6:30 at which point we'd start to put sets away when people finished so that Larry could end by 7:00.

Larry Plays to a Packed House in South Station!

Over the last two months that model has no longer worked. Over the last two months we've somehow cross a Rubicon. I've been amazed as we've started out with 23 out of 25 boards filled. The games have gotten more serious. Longer. This last Tuesday we had perhaps two Boylston Chess Club members playing. This wasn't because BCC wasn't supporting the Simuls anymore, it was because we officially had more people than we could handle. We actually had a "line" of sorts to play games with Larry this last Tuesday! We cut new games off a half hour earlier than normal, and still Larry was playing until 7:30.

Obviously Larry is no stranger to doing simuls. He's been doing them his whole career. However, the Simuls in South Station, even for Larry, seemed to have turned a corner. Last Tuesday he seemed...comfortable. More than in previous months he seemed to be having fun. He talked to folks as he walked around the tables. Simuls are not easy. We figure Larry may walk over 5km during one of these things. Those folks who don't think chess is a physical activty have really never seriously played!

It seems that both South Station and Larry have accepted each other, even embraced each other, to a certain degree. As I said, I had the impression that Larry has become more relaxed, and people have started recognizing him to the point of answering questions from folks in the audience that we would have answered six months ago. "Who is that guy?" was now answered by folks in the audience watching the game last Tuesday. And they were answered with a certain amount of pride in their tone

One of the goals of the Boylston Chess Club is to promote and popularize chess. Here, working with Larry and South Station, we've done that in spades! Everyone in the club can be very proud.

And as far as Larry in concerned, well, he may be adding another title to his collection - Boston's Own Grandmaster - as he walks the tables winning both the games and the hearts of Bostonians who watch and play him at South Station.