This past weekend I was one of the "Gaming Monks" at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, along with my good friend Paul Anderson, author of the very entertaining Colorado Springs Chess Newsletter, http://cschess.webs.com/.

   This was my third year in a row as one of the monks at the festival. 

   I first wrote about the festival in a newsletter from July 2014 entitled "Bulletproof Monk", which you can read here: http://archive.aweber.com/tacticstime/DaWF9/h/Tactics_Time_Chess_Newsletter_.htm

   The format is pretty simple.  People can pay $1 to play the monk.  If they win, they get a prize.  This year it was either a rose from the florist, or a drink from the refreshment stand.

   Players can choose to be white or black.  There is no clock involved.  The monks play up to two games at a time.

   Every year is slightly different.  The first year was crazy, and we were both playing two boards practically the entire day, and we made a record breaking profit.  This year was a little more slow but steady.

   At the end of the day Paul and I went 57-0 without losing or drawing a single game. 

   Paul is much nicer than I am.  I would try to checkmate the people as quickly as possible using every cheap trick and tactic in the book - setting up scholar's mates, fools mate, smothered mates, etc.  Practically every opening was a gambit so I could get my pieces out as soon as possible.  I won most of the games in less than 10-15 moves. 

   Paul would take his time, castle, develop all his pieces, and play in a very sound manner, making sure the people got their money's worth. 

   Some people would play more than one game, but most just played once. 

   It is hard because some people don't know the rules that well.  One person thought that a player cannot castle if they have ever been in check.  For example after 1. e4 d5 2. Bb5+ black would lose the right to castle, even though they can easily get out of check with 2...c6.

   It was a really fun time, and I think it is a fun and clever way to promote the game of chess.

   Here is a picture of me and Paul at the festival.
 

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