Just received this request from my almost-5-year-old, who is now asking me to promise him. I am refusing.
My dad taught me to play chess when I was about Nathan’s age. He then proceeded to slaughter me every time we played for the next five years. I remember it upsetting me to the point of tears one evening, and I ran upstairs, as kids do. I overheard my mother ask “why don’t you let him win once in a while?” And my dad said “if I let him win, he won’t learn anything, and more importantly, he’ll know I did it.”
I finally beat him one night when I was 10. I spent the next four or five hours on the ceiling.
I don’t know that I’ll take my father’s exact approach with Nathan. I may play a little more “ok, is there a better move you could make?” than my dad did. But I do know I’ll never throw one over the board, pretending it was straight up. My dad was definitely right about that.
You might also like:
- Sugar Bowl
Back when I played competitive chess once in a while, I’d occasionally draw a child (8, 9, 10 years … - Lamenting chess again
I once saw it posited that people who have dozens or even hundreds of unread books, yet continue to … - Lamenting chess
It would be difficult for me to overstate my affection for chess. I think it is the finest, most bea… - Bobby Fischer dead at 64
Bobby Fischer, the only American ever to hold the official FIDE World Chess Championship, died of ki… - Grace, humanity, and “mamas and papas”
I have a copy of Coach Bryant’s 1974 autobiography that belonged to my grandfather. It doesn’t have …