Cheese, Chess & Checkmate

Ajib and Liya were starting to play chess when Liya persuaded me to join in. Ajib volunteered to ‘teach’ Mama which I thought was rather amusing. So, I did come to the board game which I had dreaded to learn when I was in primary school. The teachers thought I could be a good player and perhaps bag any titles the least at district level.

Ajib prepared the pawn, castling, queen and the rest with minor mistake of King and Queen positions. I ensured I was holding the manual or instruction on how to play. Ajib lost interest after Liya took 2 of his horses. I had to come in and finish the game.

It was okay for a first timer..

The Jumping Queen of Chess

Liya has been asleep. The bored little Ajib became restless until he found Liya’s chess. Ajib voluntereed to furnish the chess board before calling Daddy to join him.

The pawn, castle, horse, Queen and King moved places and opponent’s pieces collected. I wasn’t sure the rules for the night’s board game. Minutes into the game, Ajib took his Queen. We saw Ajib’s Queen made a huge leaped to ‘kill’ Daddy’s chess piece. I didn’t pay attention but seeing Ajib so eager to learn and play a new game was exciting. He didn’t care whether he would win. He played for fun. He wanted to learn anew. In the end, I concluded that parenting could be in various forms. The more fun a child experiences, the more adaptable she or he  gets to the people, surrounding and skills.  Thus, living each day with novel experiences and perspectives empowers both a parent and a child.

Make Time For Chess

Liya was about to learn a new skill. Being all squemish about it, Liya did start another journey in her life. Started from zero and she began to reach for the stars. Liya got the names and arranged the pawn, castle, Queen etc.

Since Mama was never hooked to chess, Liya is currently being mentored by her aunt and Daddy. I’d promised myself to get a chess instructor, if there’s any. By deciding what she wants and how she wants it, I hope Liya will have fun learning all about chess. The underlying values would be problem solving, logical thinking, and self-confidence boosting. I may be at a distance but I’ll let Liya discover her talent and develop her skills.

Chess

A friend of my husband’s, Mr Ali is going to start a small chess group. I’m supposed to find young students because Mr Ali wants to teach the students from the very beginning. I’ve asked Liya whether she wanted to participate and I got myself a potential candidate.

The other day in my ordinary tutoring session, I saw how N was so passionate telling me about chess. Began as self-taught, N had developed skills over the years. I could relate how a person’s personality is reflected in a simply chess game. To me, chess requires strategic thinking, forecasts and predictions, defence or attack mode. I was more into people’s game – field hockey and netball. I wasn’t  giving chess a try in my childhood.