Who Is The Great Carlini In Chess? (Explained)

If you have ever witnessed a chess tournament, you probably know how important silence is for the game.

Even in rooms filled with players, arbiters, and spectators, there is great regard for the conditions in which the matches should be played. However, things tend to change quite a bit once you step out of the official tournaments.

Chess can be an entirely different game once the official rules are left aside. And once that happens, there is no telling what rankings, tactics, strategies, or any other aspect of the known game are.

With chess being a worldwide game, pretty much every country in the world has a few squares where street players meet to play the occasional match. While they are miles away from becoming renowned masters, being the best chess hustler in the area seems to be quite the pursuit.

Who Is The Great Carlini In Chess?

When talking about chess, most people remember the best players of all time to be Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, Magnus Carlsen, or Capablanca, but what these guys do on a street board may surprise even the greatest ones.

Without seeking the admiration of chess academies and with a US chess blitz rating of 2124, Carl Hyne stands out among the street hustlers of chess.

The Great Carlini, as he not only is known but also introduces himself, is not a proud member of a chess school nor a winner of many championships around the country.

Through aggressive trash-talking, taunting, singing, and goading of his opponents, Carlini finds a way to bother his opponents with an unmatched mastery of his unique craft – even his incessant fiddling works in his favor and helps him win matches.

Specialist in blitz chess, a fast-paced playing style that sets a 5-minute time limit for matches, The Great Carlini proves beyond doubt that he is indeed skilled in the traditional ways of chess.

However, it’s through messing with his opponents’ minds that he gets most of his notorious wins. Very few players have had comebacks such as his.

Pretty much every piece ever written about Carlini mentions how strong his recovery game is and probably cites his fatalistic ‘Ok, I lost a piece, move on’ philosophy’. In one famous match against Brooklyn Dave, Carlini gives up his queen for a bishop and a knight to prevent a checkmate.

While that may have looked like a boost in confidence to Dave, it was a simple opening of Carlini’s checkmate strategy. With a few moves, he got where he wanted and won the match, but not without causing some ‘mental damage’ through singing and fiddling with the captured pieces.

On and on while some professional players may hold little regard for the playing style of street chess hustlers, there is no denying that quite a great deal of quality is often seen in their games.

How would the great Kasparov play having to deal with nasty trash-talk, or how would The Great Carlini face the silence and strictness of official chess tournaments?