121: Chess Partners

Yesterday, while at the park, I found Coqui inside the building playing chess with one of the boys. I asked him afterwards if they really played and he confirmed. Wow, I was a bit taken back because I had started teaching him how to play but we never got to play a real game together.

So today, the first thing he did after getting up was to pull out his chess game. It was a gift from last year's birthday (I think), and it is a great teaching tool to become a better chess player. It's called No Stress Chess, and teaches the rules by having the players draw cards randomly from a pile. So yes, you can not move freely as in a regular game, but it shows which move each piece can make by playing it. The more he played it this way, the more moves he learned and experienced a ton of different scenarios. He got pretty good.

So after playing with me two games, he decided to teach his sister. They also played two games before Peanut gave up. She is such a free spirit, she has a hard time following any rules in any game. But they still had fun, and she was exposed to something we all like to play.