Chess

Nikon D70s, f1.8, 1/250 sec, ISO 200, 75mm equivalent

Ever since he unearthed and dusted off an old book of mine called “The beginner’s guide to Chess” a couple of weeks ago, our 4½ year old has been on and on at me to teach him how to play. I tried to distract him at first by saying that I would teach him Draughts and this worked for a day or two but then the pestering continued. Eventually I went upstairs, dug around a bit and found our old chess set. It’s a rather curious mass-produced set made out of marble, the kind of thing that you might see in a gift shop window while on holiday in Greece and think what a nice thing it would be to have on display back home (hang on, now that I remember, that’s exactly how and why we got it). It’s not easy, especially when his younger brother keeps taking pieces off the board and putting them in his mouth to see how they taste, but we are slowly getting the hang of it. What fascinates him the most is the Knight and how it can jump over the other pieces. He keeps asking why there is no rider on the back of the horse and who lives in the Castles in the corner of the board? This morning we learnt about the Queen and how she is the most powerful piece in the game (better get used to it son, women are in charge even if they might let you occasionally think otherwise ;-)

There are so many things I am looking forward to teaching our sons. We’ve been learning rugby and cricket now for some time and at last the rugby ball is being caught and the cricket ball (a soft one) is being hit. There’s so much more to come and I am excited about every bit of it because I know that the time will pass by all too quickly …