Skill and guts - a model for the young beginner

[chesspolitik]

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.

Comments

[justsookie]

"We've all got somethin' in our lives that we can pour a lot of time into and just end up forgettin' everything else that's around us," Sookie shrugged, grinning from cheek to cheek, so much that it nearly ached. "Sometimes, it's shopping. For you, I'm guessin' it's chess. As long as we're still willing to give other things a chance and know our limits, it should be fine."

Raising a brow, she added, "For instance, my being here to give chess a whirl."

[chesspolitik]

Giving things that weren't chess a chance wasn't precisely Anatoly's strong suit, but he'd been making strides and surely that had to count for something. After all, hadn't he held an entire conversation with Sookie without recalling the whole reason they had met had been for a chess lesson?

"Ah yes," Anatoly said, smiling sheepishly. "Shall we start our lesson now?"

[justsookie]

The way that he started slightly pleased Sookie; while she was completely willing to sit and talk about chess for a good period of time, she also wanted to pull Anatoly slightly away from the activity, one that seemed lonely. Rigid. He could stand to learn to let go a little more, and even if Sookie wasn't necessarily the best for that, it was worth trying to give him a tug now and again.

"Yes," she concluded, straightening up and looking down at the board. "Let's."