PopPop introduced Grafton to chess many weeks ago, after giving him a children's book on how the game is played. Thanks (in part) to the adventurous illustrations of Kings and Knights (etc.) throughout the book, Grafton continued to be interested in it. And he was even motivated to continue learning to play the game! We ended up playing a number of games, while I continued to teach him the rules. I was surprised at how well he learned all the chess piece moves within a few games (although the Knight still gives him occasional trouble when he's tired).
As is usually the case with Grafton, once he gains interest in a topic, it becomes a requirement that we learn more about it on the Internet. Partly because he loves to see images on the things he's interested in, but he also loves for us to read to him historical accounts of nearly anything related to the topic. At one point I had mentioned the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer", and how it was about a boy chess prodigy. So Grafton was soon asking "Who is Bobby Fischer, Dad?" Wikipedia provided a truly in-depth account of this enigmatic man's life. We both found it interesting to read that as a young boy, Bobby didn't have many available opponents to play against and so continued to teach himself chess by playing against himself! We both found this quite interesting and talked about how difficult it must be to switch sides each move, and knowing how your opponent would think and plan his moves against "you".
As is usually the case with Grafton, once he gains interest in a topic, it becomes a requirement that we learn more about it on the Internet. Partly because he loves to see images on the things he's interested in, but he also loves for us to read to him historical accounts of nearly anything related to the topic. At one point I had mentioned the movie "Searching for Bobby Fischer", and how it was about a boy chess prodigy. So Grafton was soon asking "Who is Bobby Fischer, Dad?" Wikipedia provided a truly in-depth account of this enigmatic man's life. We both found it interesting to read that as a young boy, Bobby didn't have many available opponents to play against and so continued to teach himself chess by playing against himself! We both found this quite interesting and talked about how difficult it must be to switch sides each move, and knowing how your opponent would think and plan his moves against "you".
Well, one day while Dad was at work, he received this Google Hangout chat from Mom:
G's playing himself at chess!
That's fantastic.
Is he winning?!
Yes and losing.
Grafton says the white side has the most pieces left, but he can't predict who will win because the winner will be decided by who protects the king the best.
Check mate! White side won, black lost.
After the match, Mom told Dad that after the game was over, Grafton demonstrated a high-level of sportsmanship by shaking his own hand!
Truth be told, it was NaNa who suggested and purchased the chess set and accompanying book that told the tales of kings, queens and knights. She brought it out a number of weeks ago when Grafton was visiting and the rest is history.
ReplyDeleteI played the first few games with Grafton and was amazed at how quickly, though not all at once, he grasped the general rules and moves. There was such a difference between game one and three. This process was well on its way the last time I played him in Hadley.
I still don't understand how one can play against oneself. There is so much long-range planning, gambits (giving up something to get something else), and faking in chess. How does one mentally compartmentalize this between the white and black sides. But I think it's still good to practice moves and memorize them.
I guess I'll have to give up golf and start taking chess lessons …
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