After my brother-in-law, Roger Drazen, taught me how to play chess when I was 16, I became fascinated with the game, playing anyone willing among friends and acquaintances, and players in local parks. I soon began studying chess books, and 6 months later, in 1965, began competing in tournaments. Neither my high school nor my college had chess clubs, so I learned everything I could on my own.

Over the years, I worked my way up from a class E rating to class A over-the-board, and an expert rating in postal chess. I ended all rated play in 1978, frustrated that I couldn't achieve further improvement, and over too many blunders after hours of good play (although I resumed playing against my iPod Touch in spare moments 31 years later, in 2009!) Also, my interests were shifting toward the food- and science-oriented subjects that became my life's work.

I credit my chess experience with winning my most important battle, that with the NYC Parks and Recreation Dept. Commissioner Henry Stern and his team, where the media served as the chessboard, after undercover park rangers arrested and handcuffed me for eating a dandelion in Central Park in 1986.

Here are a few of my most interesting games. The analysis, by Shredder chess software, reveals how much strong players continually miss, even during postal games, when you can move the pieces around, and I used to think I was seeing nearly all the salient possibilities