Recollections: Chess

I received my first chess board when I was 8 years old. My Dad and I would play almost every day, and these games weren't even close. I would lose every single time, sometimes quickly and sometimes painfully slowly. I learned how to play chess from a couple of sources: The World Book Encyclopedia 1992 edition and MPC Battlechess. When I say "learned how to play" I meant "Learned the rules" of chess. I knew nothing of good chess strategy at the time. I still know very little of it. I then continued to play against my cousins in India, who played by completely different rules than I did. I wasn't sure whose rules were right, and I was too young to start arguing rules of games (which would later become a full-time hobby of mine) but I remember my cousin coming up with this ingenious move called "Castling". Castling, to him, involved moving the pawn in front of his rook out of the way somehow, so that he would then go directly to his opponent's end of the board (in his games of chess, the rook could eliminate any number of an opponent's pieces on its way to its final destination). He would then go straight across the opponent's home row, obliterating all pieces that still remained in the home row (home rank?). This included the king, and yet the game was not over because in India with my cousins, a game did not end until all of the opponent's pieces were dead. I remember at least once managing to pull a stalemate with a pawn and a bishop remaining. Only a pawn and a bishop. It was either a stalemate or boredom/pity on the part of my cousin that ended that game.

Once I finally fully established the rules of the game, my defeats at chess did not end. I would be constantly defeated by any of my friends, a trend that would continue through high school and well into university, until my third year. I then met a friend who taught me that chess, like pretty much anything else in life, can be studied. Chess is a skill that can be honed like the blades of so many sharp steak knives. I became very enthusiastic about chess and played much more (Chessmaster 10 taught me chess strategy), and much better, until I got into medical school. At that point, every time I came close to playing chess I had to make a business decision. I could either play chess for an hour and a half and really try and potentially win, or not play chess, do something equally enjoyable for a third of the time or less, and have more time to study afterward. It was the first time when it became very real to me that nobody in this life has time for an indefinite number and type of hobbies. I picked fitness over chess, and now music as well. Chess died a quiet death, and though I understand why I had to leave it behind, it was a bit disappointing at the time. At some point, I quite liked it. I liked that I could be better at it, but life is not always about being better. Maybe I can play for fun some day. It's nice to move the pieces around on the board.