04/04/2023
♟️ I finally taught .polden how to play chess! ♟️
We've played tonnes of board games together over the years, but she had never tried chess, so I vowed to teach her the rules (despite the fact that I've only played it a few times).
Luckily, whilst on a visit to see my family in the cold wilds of the north, I discovered that my nephew is now a chess fiend, and so I took the opportunity to show Hannah the ropes.
What began as a tutorial game swiftly turned into a competitive battle of wits, with Hannah thwarting my attempts to advance by using cunning placement of her queen.
Eventually I managed to chisel away at her defenses until her king was left alone and finally toppled, but it was a tough fight, and I had to use every tool in my arsenal to finally gain the upper hand!
Of all the "classic" games, from poker to Monopoly to checkers to Trivial Pursuit and beyond, chess is far and away my favourite. It's surprisingly simple (aside from a couple of edge cases that wouldn't make it into a modern rulebook 👀) but it has massive tactical depth.
Me and Hannah have played many chess-like duelling games over the years, but to my surprise I think that the original may be her favourite. Despite our sprawling collection, this does make me tempted to get our chess set out a lot more often!
Have you played much chess? How do you rate it against more modern duelling games?
