Master of Merrills - Chapter 2 - Learning the Game

I apologise for the delay in publishing this. It should have been done in June not July - but better late than never. I hope people enjoy reading this next instalment as much as the first. I've tried to make it a little longer than the first in order to make up for lost time. Feedback is welcome as always.

Chapter 2 - Learning the Game. The long road to success. 

Tell us about some of your early experiences playing the game:

It was around the summer time of 1977. Just over 40 years ago I dared to play for the first time at the public garden (playing park) of Bern's Bärenplatz against a woman who was considered to be strong.

 

She was called Epa-Marie, because she worked in a wholesale store called EPA - (this chain doesn't exist anymore). We played, but each time she blocked me out, or so I thought, because at that time I knew no more about the game and its theory than a cow knows about climbing. In any case, it was only later that I learned that it was I who was blocking myself by laying the pieces.

 

It was at that time I met a man called Franz Frutig. The story goes that I had an over acidification of the gastric juice, and prescription medicines to go with it. I asked him if he would firstly watch me playing and secondly tell me what I was doing wrong. The good man did but of course but I lost the next games again.

 

At noon the following day Franz urgently needed my stomach pills, which I no longer had to take - he shied away from doctor's visits like the devil rejects holy water. How was he going to get the pills? Without a doctor's visit and prescription? No prescription meant no stomach medication.  

 

So, what I did was to ask him to record for me that afternoon a system. A system on how I should lay the pieces differently, so that I didn’t lock myself in?.In return I would give him my medicine. I still have today a set of it. It belongs to my Mill play biography.

 

So à la Hollywood it continued. He hesitated, but he had such a stomach ache that he finally went through to it. In the evening he recorded a system on an A5 steno pad page and handed it over to me.

Did that help your game? Did you re-play EPA Marie?

 

Oh yes. She was there again, the Mill addicted Marie. She wanted to play all the time and didn't let anyone on the field. She clearly wanted to play against me again, and allowed me to play in public - probably of the assumption that she would show me up again and the art of the game.

 

We played from 20.00 - 22.30 o'clock only 3 games.  Of which I won the first, lost the second and the decider won the third. After that, this lady, who could not lose, became so enraged that, after I turned my back on her, she threw wooden pieces at me which definitely had the potential to hurt if they hit someone in the head!

 

I think if I would have been a US citizen and would have achieved my successes in the USA or for the National team my life would have been different. I imagine it might have been filmed at MGM studios long ago! MGM converts many reasonably successful life story or biography into a motion picture and they make good money that way.  But here in Switzerland, nothing works in this respect.

 

There are people who think that this is a fictional story but it's true - that's exactly how my start happened. There are plenty more like this!

Did you have any other teachers?

 

Yes. One year later my first proper Mill playing teacher came into the game, Martin Romang. He taught me the basics of the game, how to train and practice and everything else. Sadly he had to undergo a back operation in 1983 (motorcycle accident), which forced him to stay away from the open-air playing field. He was only allowed to lie or stand, but not to sit.

 

If Martin had not taught me everything he could teach up to that point, I would never have been so successful. He is shown on the Facebook Mills group - a photo of the MVB association foundation, back row, 6th from the left, in the middle, with glasses and black shirt.

 

Tell us more about your first teacher Martin Romang:

 

At that time, I just played very defensively, without much in the way of courage or offensive creativity. In may 1978 Martin Romang joined me at The Bellevue Garden and asked to play once against me.  It was an attacking a double mill system, I needed 7 whole months to find out how to defend and win.

 

Hans Schürmann was also very good help. He was a Swiss chess master from Lucerne who also played in the parks daily for 15 years. He would solve chess and Mill problems by studying 3 days and nights straight. For others it would take months, but not Hans. He told me, because I took me so long, all the big “cats” doubted that I would be able to understand and learn this game. "If one person will not be able to crack Mills is will be you" he once said!

 

Martin started to teach me and was my main teacher. As I played, almost every day for hours, he watched my playing. "It's terrible the kind of errors and mistakes you do. Let’s work on this” he’d say. “Twice a week, Monday and Wednesday I'm going to teach you so that I can see your playing."

 

During 1978 Martin Romang also had the idea of founding a Bernese Mills club. In 1976 the Bernese city had chess and Mills parks in many places. Bärenplatz was special. Around the large chess and Mills board were 65 garden chairs and around those often 3 trellises full of standing people were there. All the 65 chairs were full of sitting people. 1976 I hadn't yet the courage of 'performing' or playing in front of such an audience. I thought myself to be the most stupid player often losing each game.

 

None the less, most of the learning work I did from summer 1983 up to 1985. My workday was 8 a.m to 12.30 work in the bank, and 12.30 to 1 p.m. matches in the parks.  Back to work until 5.30 p.m followed by a short dinner, then playing in the parks. I was mostly at Bärenplatz untill the last bus at 23.40 p.m. I’d then go home analysing and writing down everything until 4.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m. getting up again.

 

After about 3 months of this in 1983 Schürmann told me to stop immediately, because it was affecting my health. I was as crazy as the Hungarian young players such as György Bandy and Ferenc Voleman today. If I'd done this for music I probably would have had a pretty Big Band to front. Sadly I hadn't the patience to rehearse or learn properly the Clarinet or Piano.