We competed as peers, exploring the game together. I found my way out in middle school, when a group of friends started to play chess in the cafeteria during indoor recess on rainy days. The teacher fails to inspire, and the student is left with a lingering sense of “I’d prefer if we didn’t do that.” It’s simply not fun it’s an unpleasant situation to be avoided or escaped. The activity varies-cooking, painting, video games, cleaning, bird watching, golf-but the outcome rarely deviates. You’ve probably experienced this mode of learning in your life, whether it’s with a parent, teacher, student, friend, or romantic partner. I guess there are far worse things out there, but still, it wasn’t the best-it was the hard way. I remained trapped in “chess learning for normal people” mode until I was twice my starting age. In hindsight, I could have skipped the chess entirely, reclaiming my precious youth instead by flinging things and smiling while gleefully shouting wingardium leviosa!ĭespite whatever tricks and treats my dad attempted to leverage for the sake of the well-intentioned chess interaction, it always felt mildly painful. This feeling was often accompanied by a fit of childish rage, an “I hate you, I hate chess” monologue, and perhaps some pieces flying across the room. Such hopes would die as soon as I was reminded of our status roles as father and son, chess authority versus chess learner.įinally, inevitably, I would leave the board feeling essentially humiliated. Maybe my feeble little brain could withstand the cold crushing complexity, the labyrinthine logic of chess. I’d entertain brief hopes that there might be an easy road to better results. If he let me win or inconspicuously guided me to capture a piece, I felt accomplished. On rare occasions, I would be momentarily fooled by my dad’s goofy playacting. “Ah, did you consider this move son? Or what happens if you try this instead?” Many a dad just can’t help himself in pointing out corrections a bit more frequently than others are comfortable with. I would be absolutely clobbered on the board and frequently told I was explicitly wrong or implicitly stupid for missing obvious things. I was probably too frustrated learning a million arbitrary piece movements to play a weird, annoyingly complicated board game with my father in the first sitting.Īnd of course, playing the game felt more like a chore than a reward. This may have taken place many months later. He laboriously enumerated the rules of turn-taking and capturing and checkmate. We went through each piece and how it moves. He did it in the same boring way that most dads teach anything. My dad taught me chess when I was five or six years old. You might think chess is boring, that it’s an activity you’re not well suited for. You might think chess is hard, or that you hopelessly suck, and it’s an impossibly tall task to consistently beat that one friend or relative who is the reigning champ. You might think chess players are smart people, or that learning to play chess well is correlated with intelligence. Unless you’re a competitive chess player, you probably hold a number of misconceptions about the game. Still no ChessBase Account? learn more > The ultimate chess experience every day, Pla圜 welcomes 20,000 chess players from all around the world – from beginner to grandmaster.Memorize it easily move by move by playing against the variation trainer. Still no ChessBase Account? learn more > Learn openings the right way! Build and maintain your repertoire.Still no ChessBase Account? learn more > Real Fun against a Chess Program! Play, analyze and train online against Fritz.Top authors like Daniel King, Lawrence Trent and Rustam Kasimdzhanov
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