chesspolitik | Skill and guts - a model for the young beginner

Before Anatoly had arrived at the Island, the mere thought of giving chess lessons had never crossed his mind. Before Bangkok, his only goal was to defeat Trumper soundly. During, that goal had changed to find a way out of the political and personal traps that had been set before him. And after... well. He hadn't been fit to think of anything other than what he had just done - giving up his reputation, his freedom, everything he'd loved for the woman he'd loved.

Then he had arrived here and everything changed. He'd found freedom, peace... even love and all of these things were in ways he'd never imagined. While he still loved chess and would happily play for hours until forcibly carried away, the lack of professional matches and the need to keep his wits sharp had encouraged him to consider other ways to express his joy in the game.

Teaching was one way and to his surprise, he found that he enjoyed this very much. There was a special joy in seeing understanding come to a student's eyes as he demonstrated a particular tactic. Best of all was watching their game improve session by session as their thought process moved from looking at individual pieces to seeing the patterns and reacting correspondingly. In prestige, it might not rank with having a title but the personal satisfaction was just as great.

This particular afternoon he was sitting in the rec room, purposely ignoring anyone by the name of Trumper. The chess board was in place, the pieces meticulously placed in their allotted square. He had his tea, all he needed was his student to arrive and then their lesson could begin.

Threaded | Flat

Sookie had never been the very intellectual type. Part of her was tempted to blame it on her disability, the fact that thoughts filtered in from almost everyone around her and got tangled like a mess of spaghetti in her mind, leaving her with very little energy or motivation to pick herself up and work through concepts like mitosis or Riemann sums. Deep down, however, she knew that the greater problem lay in the fact that she simply couldn't hold herself back from action, that what Sookie always needed was something to keep in her very hands. Books and vague notions were lovely, but never quite enough.

It was a beautiful way to explain off, at least, her typically rash actions and the almost blind hospitality that she was capable of extending to others. On the island, both of those things only seemed to help Sookie, she noted with a slightly self-satisfied smile, treading down the beaten tracks to the Compound with almost a skip in her step. The reemergence of the sun had done wonders for her mood, evident in the slightly darker tint of her skin against a sky blue sundress. She quickly entered the rec room, a large flower woven into her hair as she waved to Anatoly, carrying two glasses of juice and sliding one over as she sat down across from him.

"I hope I haven't kept you waitin' long? I got a little... distracted by the sun, earlier today," she laughed, expression slightly embarrassed.

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