Strange Chess News by Bradley ZangChess Mind Links Reported
Ever since the East German Sports Federation was exposed for giving the steroid oral-turinabol,
a physical performance enhancer to its athletes, chess players have asked, "Could cognitive enhancers be developed for the
sport of chess? " Can drugs make your brain grow smarter?
More-over
has research geared towards finding cures for neurological disorders developed chemicals that make healthy people smarter?
One thing you can be sure of is, if (or when) these drugs exist, some people will abuse
them.
With this background, let Jose Mantanches tell you his
story. "First, thank you for hearing my story. No other Chess News Letter would.
I was born in the small town of Orange Walk, Belize, near the mysterious Maya ruens of Cuello. The ancient Maya were
an amazing culture at least 4500 years old. Their knowledge of the earth's orbit, revolutions of Venus and lunar periods were
within minutes of today's values. They used the numeric term zero and the duration term alautun approximately 63 million years.
Yet their superior mental fulfillment is ignored by the europhilic culture we live
in.
Why my interest? My father, a Spaniard, was a brilliant
archeologist who traveled throughout South America. He came here to researched why so many ancient Maya cities were abandoned
in the forest. (Around 800 AD) He wanted to explore land that my mother an aristocrat owned.
She took a liking to him, and they soon married had me, then divorced.
When papa visited, we would play chess and speculate over the Terminal Classical Maya. He called them the Forsaken
City Mayas.
I had a rather lonely childhood and so I passed
the time playing cerebral games.
Since the age of eight, I
would go every week, to the towns cafe to watch a man play chess. He was called El Rey del Blitz ( the king of Blitz ). His
round flat face revealed the Indian blood that ran in his veins. On my 21st birthday, as a lark, I asked the then octogenarian
El Rey del Blitz to play a game. He beat me in 15 moves. I wanted to play again only to hear, "Go home your not in my class."
Class I thought, "How dare you say that to a true Hispanic of an upper class family of pure Spanish descent."
Enraged, I vowed oneday to defeat him in a chess duel. I gave up work, studied chess problems
16 hours a day, for three years. When I felt I was ready, I went back to the cafe.
I heard "You again? Go away novice." I put 1000 US dollars on the table. It was my whole life savings and said.
"I'll play you for this. " El Rey de Blitz politely took one of his rooks off the board. I thought, " Rook odds against me;
what an effrontery".
Then to my disgrace, he beat me in 25
moves. I stood up and went outside to the veranda. Angered by the shame I brought to my family, my bloodline. I shouted into
the torrential rain, " I would give anything to beat El Rey de Blitz."
Just that minute, a colossal lightning bolt lit the sky accenting the blond hair of a senorita with an amazing physique,
sitting at a nearby table. She smiled and asked if I would join her and her uncle, Dr Fousle, for a drink.
Her uncle a dwarfy looking man, said he understood the dishonor that I felt. Dr Fousle explained
that he had worked in Alzheimer research in east Germany. He had moved here to see if an indigenous rain forest plant might
be a good natural source of a neurotropin he discovered.
He
claimed he was from the old school which preferred to avoid all the red tape of documented human trials.
He offered me a drug that might make me smarter. In my hand, he put a vial of more
than 100 pills. The label read Fousle-ampakine take one a day. I went home that night despairing over the loss of my money
and my disgrace. I swallowed the whole vial of pills, hoping never to wake up. Well two days later, I did. Driven by a compulsion,
I went back to the cafe to confront El Rey de Blitz . I demanded he play me another blitz game and swore I would never return
if he beat me.
I can not tell you the delight I had when I
won the game. I won the next four games. El Rey del Blitz then offered to return my money if I played him an old fashioned
12 hour game of chess and won.
I agreed and after hours of
agonizing over what he was thinking, I not only realized that I could guess what he was thinking but I could hear his thoughts.
In the 10 th minute of the 10 th hour of the game, he turned over his king and sighed, "Finally,
someone to take over." I was ectatic got my money and took the blond Fraulein Fousle who was watching the game home that night.
I awoke in the morning to the sound of an alarm clock. But I thought I don't have an alarm clock. Then I heard, "Time to get
up. Must drink my prune juice.". It was the thought's of El Rey de Blitz. I even heard other voices.
One voice told me of birds that came from across the Atlantic that brought a disease
spread by flying insects that ate their decaying remains. The disease spread so fast they knew it would be the end of the
Forsaken City Mayas of Cuello or as they prefered to be called the Ahitzamna.
See the Ahitzamna's egotism led to so much inbreeding, they had no immunity. To find a cure was not possible. There
was only one way to keep their civilization alive and that was through linking with the minds of a lower caste of Indians,
they kept as servants.
They had an immunity to the disease.
Indian shamans where given a mind enhancing plant extract as a gift before playing competitive thought games with the Mayas.
When enhanced minds try with all their might to see what the other is thinking, they can
form a link.
The link never dies even if one of the people
dies.
The increased brain capacity even allows many minds-eyes
to leave imprints on the linkers brain.
Or, as they put it
parallel reverbratory nerve circuits on the thalamic region of the brain.
El Rey del Blitz a Shaman died a few years later.
I'm glad
their civilization survived but I sometime hear hundreds of voices and its a bit of a problem. I ended up marrying the blond
woman who turned out to be a east German competitive swimmer.
I
do hope she was born a woman.
Men from the Govt. wearing black
suites took her uncle Fousle away before he could find a cure for my problem.
One voice told me that Paul Morphy was a Shaman and the first to be linked through the game of chess.
Is it true?
How did
he solve his problem?" Oh, one more thing the voices keeps saying "Soon we will see the world."
What could it mean?
Our editor Brad Zang refused
to allow the JCN investigation committee to be formed.
He said,
" Men in Black is a totally ridiculous idea based on a movie. It is our policy not to investigate any events involving Men
in Black. Anyway it's unnecessary since drug testing for chess tournaments are coming. Even our USCF FIDE Vice President has
presented a resolution calling on FIDE not to oppose drug testing."
