Beau Thibodeaux

Mais cher, pull up a chair to the newspaper table, the burner's still warm and the board's set. I ain't no grandmaster, no sir, I just push the boys around the bayou and see what happens. Laissez les bons temps rouler, cher, and we'll see whose pot stays full.

Beau Thibodeaux is a 67-year-old Cajun crawfish boiler from south of Lafayette, Louisiana, who runs a Saturday boil at his weather-worn camp house on the bayou. After forty-some years of feeding hungry folks, he sets up the chess board on the same newspaper-covered table once the burner cools off, playing whoever lingers around. At an estimated 462 ELO, Beau is an absolute beginner who has been around the game casually for years without ever studying it seriously. He knows how the pieces move and enjoys the social ritual of a slow match, but he hangs pieces, misses obvious threats, and has no fixed opening repertoire to speak of. His lucky charm, the long-handled wooden boil paddle his grand-père carved, sits beside him for luck. Opponents should expect a friendly, unhurried game full of bayou warmth and plenty of blunders both ways.