I Finally Beat Luke at Chess

January 18 -- With all of these holidays and snow days,  we are definitely getting cabin fever around here.  One of the things we have been doing to break up the monotony is to play chess.  Let it be said that as a child growing up I learned my lesson very, very well -- girls do not play chess.  Whenever my father or older brothers huddled around a chess game, they barely tolerated my existence near the board.  I had no idea what the pieces did and, the more I observed my dad and brothers with their fierce competitive glares and their intense efforts to annihilate each other, I wasn't too sure I wanted to find out.
  
When my older boys were little, my dad taught them how to play.  He truly was an amazing player whom my brothers, in all those years of playing, rarely were able to defeat in a game.  As the oldest, Luke received the benefit of lessons from my father the longest before Alzheimer's invaded the chess board and slowly captured his ability to move the pieces properly.  But by then, Luke and Connor were fairly adept at the game and even Riley had learned to play.  I tried to learn but was quickly beaten.  Again, I retreated.

Until this past week.  With the arrival of chess sets and clocks for the Community Chess Tourney Luke is organizing, the formidable game has been set up on our kitchen table 24/7.   With non-stop winter storms keeping the kids home from school like, constantly, it became quite easy to take a break from work and sit for a game.  Or play after dinner.  Slowly, slowly I got better.  But I still always lost.  It was demoralizing.  I actually woke up one morning and realized I had been playing chess in my dream.  And had lost.

But finally, my lucky break happened.  As it was, I beat Brian. He truly had no idea how much better I had gotten at the game and I caught him completely off guard. Amazing!  I knew it was luck but I kept practicing with the boys.  Then I beat Riley, and then Connor.  And tonight, omigod, I beat Luke, chess master of the house!!  While I realize it will be a long, long time before I beat him again, I do know that I have gone up a notch or two in his competitive eyes.

I have to say, that makes me feel rather proud.  After all those years of believing that girls can't play chess -- that it's only a game for the smarty pants boys in the house, I am realizing that I have officially debunked a myth!  I guess this ol' goose still has a couple of marbles left to play with after all.  Woo hoo.