It was early morning on a Thursday, and I had just prepped the classroom for the day before I headed outside to wait for the children to line up after the bell. I was knitting a scarf when a little girl named Angeline walked up to me and started up a conversation about my knitting. After more small talk, she brought up the topic of chess. I asked her a question I have asked many times before to break the ice and it was, “If you were a chess piece, which one would you be? Also, which color?” She thought carefully for a bit and then said, “I think I would be a rook,” she thought carefully looking up, “the white one.” I looked at this little girl very spell struck and said, “Well, Miss Angeline ‘The White Rook’, it is very nice to meet you because I identify with two pieces on the chess board, and I, too, am a white rook.”

I normally do not reveal which chess pieces I have an affinity to on a chess board. However, as I do not see myself playing chess against anyone on the Drunk Duck community in the foreseeable future, I will talk about the two pieces that I relate best. For years I have identified as the Black Knight because its moves are the most unique and has a great range when it is in the center of the board. The black pieces are defense and not as aggressive. I have been playing a lot of chess with a little girl lately and one of the techniques that she has caught on was how I always prefer to play as black that she was under the impression the way to win at chess was to play on the black side. This has led to me playing chess games starting as offense as of late. The most noticeable differences in my chess game is that the attacks are much quicker, the game is a lot more aggressive, and I end up winning and claiming more pieces than usual.

Something I normally tell young chess players is not to feel bad if they lose at chess because the only way to improve is to keep playing.



P.S. Thank you everyone who joined in on the third virtual Drunk Duck meet up on Google Hangouts last Saturday/Sunday! It was fun to chat and talk to fellow Drunk Duckers.


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