MOORPARK CHESS WHIZ ONCE GOT THE BETTER OF YOUNG BOBBY FISCHER.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Al Seropian found Bobby Fischer 40 years ago, when he beat the 12-year-old chess genius while playing against him in the Manhattan Chess Club Championship.

"He was just another kid to me," said Seropian, who was in his early 20s at the time. "The first time we played, he creamed me. But the second time, he made a mistake."

Seropian, now 63, will always remember that mistake. Fischer left a rook for the taking, and Seropian punished him for it. Neither of them won the club championship that year, Seropian recalls.

Since the early 1950s, Seropian has made many memorable chess moves.

The leisure chess player, who has been ranked as a low expert, stumbled upon the game during his early years at Columbia University.

His two roommates at the time were avid chess players - one a Brooklyn High School scholastic champion, the other someone who later became an international master.

Day after day, in between classes, Seropian would watch his roommates outwit one another.

"It was fun," said Seropian, whose roommates taught him to play when he was 18. "I found I had a little bit of talent for it."

Over the years, Seropian has played in about 100 tournaments, including a Sacramento City Championship, some second-class tournaments and the National Amateur Team Championship in New Jersey.

Seropian has been a member of industrial-league teams for the past 20 years. In 1991, his league team won the U.S. amateur championship.

For a short time, the mechanical engineer taught his chess skills to seniors at the Moorpark Senior Center.

He said his love for chess lies in its strategy. He doesn't mind winning, either.

"It's an ego trip, to tell you the truth," said Seropian. "Winning from sheer thought, and the ability to dominate those you play, is something you thrive on."

While historians do not agree on how old chess is or who invented it, some believe it originated in India in the seventh century A.D. and spread to Persia. Knowledge of the game spread from Persia to nearby countries after the Arabs conquered Persia in the 640s, according to the World Book Encyclopedia.

Muslim invaders brought chess to Spain in the early 700s. By the year 1000, the game had probably spread through Europe as far north as Scandinavia.

The modern era of chess dates from the 1500s, when the moves of the game began to take their present form.

In 1972, Fischer became the first American to win the official world chess championship.

The Federation Internationale des Echecs, which governs chess internationally, took away Fischer's title in 1975 after he refused to play challenger Anatoly Karpov of the Soviet Union under federation rules.

Karpov then became the world champion by default.

Seropian believes that within the first three to five years of chess playing, players will be able to recognize how far they can take their skill.

"It takes only a few years for someone to reach close to the peak of what he's gonna do," Seropian explained. "It's like playing the piano. Someone might play for fun, but they will never be a concert pianist because they won't have the talent for it. There's a great deal of talent involved in chess playing."

Seropian doesn't believe he will ever earn the rank of a grand master. Still, after four decades of playing, he avidly studies the game in his spare time. On lunch breaks, he has been known to play his colleagues at work. At home, he studies chess from books written in Armenian, Russian and German.

"I don't read German," Seropian said. "I read chess."

Several years ago, Seropian gave computer chess a try. After only a few games, he quit playing the computer altogether.

"I hate the idea," Seropian said. "Taking the humanity out of chess isn't a good thing, no doubt about it."

He was disappointed to say that one day, a computer chess game will be created that can beat any player.

"There's a game now that can beat a grand master," he pointed out. "But computers take all the pizazz out of the game."

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Photo (1--color in SIMI edition only) Al Seropian, with chess sets at home, has competed in about 100 tournaments. (2) Al Seropian studies Armenian, Russian and German chess books. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News