Chess

Calfgrit7 and I played a few games of chess, and this time I was a bit more aggressive. I wanted to see how he would take an aggressive game, and if loosing quickly would bother him. I remember a five-move-win strategy I was taught way back (I’m actually pretty surprised I remember it), and I tried it on him.

The five-move-win is easy to defeat if you know it or see it coming, but against novices or someone who doesn’t look more than one move ahead, it tends to work. And it worked this time, although it took me seven moves to pull it off because he unknowingly through a couple pawns in my way.

Calfgrit7 didn’t seem to notice or care about the quick loss, and we played a second game. I went for the quick win again, but this time he kept throwing blockers in my way, so I couldn’t get the super-quick win. The way he played and acted and talked, I don’t think he knew or intended to block my fast attack. He just seemed to accidentally move the “wrong” pieces (from my attacking perspective). He never stopped my strategy, he just delayed by one turn, two turns, three turns, four turns, a dozen turns. I eventually won, again, but it wasn’t really quick.

And all during these games and the next, Calfgrit7 was in constant motion. The chess board was on the floor, and I was laying on my side. He was sitting up, laying down, turning, shifting, rolling away, sliding aside, talking to his mother, his brother, me, and just generally a bundle of action. He was moving so much he had a hard time placing his chess pieces accurately on the board. Occasionally his foot or arm bumped the board or knocked over a piece. It really started to drive me crazy after so many minutes.

I decided to hold back in our third, and last, game. I figured I’d let him have a win to go to bed with. But he was so unaggressive. He never once went after my king, after so many turns, and so many minutes, it was past his bedtime, so I had to bring the game to an end. I turned aggressive and went after his king with everything I had. But he was slippery as a greased pig.

I think he’s learned some good basic strategy, but we don’t play often enough to really train him. I think most of his good moves are random, or are the result of my being distracted in most games. (Calfgrit3 wants to help me play.) I ended up winning the third game, too, but he made me work for it. And his constant movement almost brought me to screaming (but I never said anything to him about it except when he got distracted away from the game).

Even if he hasn’t turned into a chess champion, he has at least shown he’s a good sport, even when loosing. He offered to shake my hand after every game, and I accepted with pride.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com