As smart and clever as I may be, I have positively no aptitude for strategic thinking. I can come up with a thousand great words for Scrabble, but cannot properly exploit them by angling them towards high-value tiles or taking said tiles away from my opponent. At least I have some ability in half of that game. I'm hopelessly lost in the so-called game of kings, chess. They say a grandmaster can see a number of moves into the future, often forfeiting well before it comes to an inevitable checkmate. I can't see one move into the future. I just move pieces around, aimlessly striking out at targets of apparent opportunity with no long term plan.
A very hazy understanding comes at last when the game reaches the closing stage called 'end game'. Most of the pieces are by now removed from the board, with just a handful remaining on either side. Here finally do I start to to enjoy myself. There is room to move about the board, and few enough elements that I can follow what's going on. Once a friend of mine and I tried starting the game at this point. I think I came closer to winning than ever before.
Showing posts with label chess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chess. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Chess
I indicated after the purchase of a chess set that I would have more to say. Firstly, I'm not very good. I need to study more and develop my mind so that I can see more moves ahead. I'm going to play as much as I can, and check out some books.
Now, about my chess playing past: I have a faint recollection of playing with my father very early, but there's not much to that. What I remember well is the chess I played in charter school. I had an excellent teacher at that time- maybe the best teacher I've ever had. He was sort of a Professor X to a team of X-Men. I mean by that that he fostered the development of a group of exceptionally special kids. We all seemed to have amazing accomplishments in our futures. We were all child prodigies of a kind. He got us into movies, animation, physics, and among other things, chess.
We had something like 15 or so chess sets, and played regularly. We had rankings and scheduled matches by ranking. As I said, I'm not very good and was not any better then. I was not the worst, though. I remember a match against someone in particular. She had me on the brink of defeat, but because she didn't know how to put me away, I kept slipping off the hook. I started gloating after each move, which was inappropriate. The teacher got fed up, and put me in checkmate in one movie. It was memorable.
Subjects:
chess
Now, about my chess playing past: I have a faint recollection of playing with my father very early, but there's not much to that. What I remember well is the chess I played in charter school. I had an excellent teacher at that time- maybe the best teacher I've ever had. He was sort of a Professor X to a team of X-Men. I mean by that that he fostered the development of a group of exceptionally special kids. We all seemed to have amazing accomplishments in our futures. We were all child prodigies of a kind. He got us into movies, animation, physics, and among other things, chess.
We had something like 15 or so chess sets, and played regularly. We had rankings and scheduled matches by ranking. As I said, I'm not very good and was not any better then. I was not the worst, though. I remember a match against someone in particular. She had me on the brink of defeat, but because she didn't know how to put me away, I kept slipping off the hook. I started gloating after each move, which was inappropriate. The teacher got fed up, and put me in checkmate in one movie. It was memorable.