About two months ago, we added “Chess” to Rosebud’s school list.
Every day, she would play against the computer on dad’s phone.
She wasn’t very good when she started out… about as good as any eight-year-old girl would be. But she improved quickly. After she was winning more than half the time on one level, she would begin playing the next level.
Recently, she began playing level five. I have never beaten level five before. I’ve beaten level four many times, but so has she.
One afternoon, Rosebud came running into the room to inform us that she had drawn with level five…. the game had ended with just a king on each side. So I challenged Rosebud to a chess game.
I enjoy playing chess, but I’ve never tried to “study” or make a science of it.
The first two times we played, I won without much difficulty. She wasn’t used to playing against something that would consider the distraction and deceit factor.
But the third time we played, she won. I was not going easy on her. Especially near the end of the game, when it became clear that it would be a close match, I was taking a good deal more time to think about my moves than she was.
Neither of us made any major mistakes.
In a desperate and bloody battle that resulted in the loss of both our queens and castles, Rosebud prevented my pawn from reaching the back of the board. I was left with only my king, meaning that I couldn’t catch up to her only remaining pawn before it moved all the way to my end of the board and turned into a queen.
I forfeited the game at this point (I’m black, she’s white):
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