The Important Life Lesson Chess Teaches Children
I learned to play the game of chess very very young. My father, who was deployed in the Navy while he was married to my mother, taught me one of the few weeks he was home from the Vietnam theater. There I sat on a kitchen floor which looked like a chess board of checkerboard linoleum. I eagerly listened to my Dad’s every word. I was very young perhaps only three though most likely four. In any case, with so few moments with my father as a child, this lesson stuck with me.
I remembered how all the pieces moved forever after. I never ever forgot the moves even though there was no one else in family who could play. After the divorce when I was seven, I would fall into a game or two a year with an adult at some event or family gathering. My Dad’s gift of the game was invaluable to me in this respect. I could sit with adults and engage in a game with them as an equal. It a powerful thing to a child to be on equal footing with adults, but it also helped me learn how to think for myself and trust my judgement. I planned on passing the skill on to my own children.
As is often the case, parental intentions can be derailed by the tastes and desires of their children. Much to my chagrin, my sons were not terribly interested in learning such a seemingly boring and static game. I was faced with the fact they were uninterested in learning. My own…
