Learning Chess

The first chess set I ever saw was my grandfather's. I was very young, but I still remember the board prominently displayed on a shelf near his easy chair in the living room. I admired the parquetry of black and white squares and the gleaming, porcelain chessmen. I especially loved the horse-like figures of the knights and the crenellated rooks. I remember picking up a piece once. It felt heavy in my hand. I turned it over and touched the piece of green felt on the bottom, then I carefully put it back in its place before anyone saw me. Chess was a mysterious, dignified, grown-up game, I thought, beyond my reach.

It stayed beyond my reach for most of my life; I never learned to play when I was growing up. Probably somewhere along the line I subconsciously started to think of chess as a male game, though my feminist leanings would reject that assumption as vestigial sexism. Battles and strategies, attack and defense: these concepts do not integrate readily into my thought processes. I don't think that is because I am female, however, but simply because my mind does not work that way. I am too much of a linear thinker. Besides, what's sexist about a game in which the most powerful figure is the queen?

I am learning chess now. Or trying to learn. I wanted Daniel to learn the game because I thought he might enjoy it. He seems to have a spatial, right brain sort of intelligence that I lack. Tab agreed to teach Daniel, but with his heavy workload right now, he has not yet had the chance. So I studied the Chess for Kids book that came with our game, and I downloaded Pocket Chess, a shareware chess game for my Palm organizer. I've been playing Pocket Chess frequently, one might even say obsessively. In fact, one--namely, Tab--did say it. "So that's your new obsession, huh?" he remarked when he caught me playing it one night in the bathroom while I waited for the water to get warm enough for my shower.

Like many members of my family, I find it hard to do anything by halves. If I'm interested in something, I tend to immerse myself in it, sometimes excessively so. My obsessions tend to be short-lived, fortunately.

Though I'm not particularly good at chess and may never advance beyond rank novice, I now understand the fascination. I especially enjoy what I see as the marvelous paradox of chess: each piece can move only in a set manner, yet the game can play out in a billion different ways.

Today after dinner, I set up the board and showed Daniel the basic moves. We played a game, my first on a real board and his first ever.

He beat me.

Time to fire up Pocket Chess again.

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