Father and Son

Checkmate! When The King Is Dethroned
I Jumped At The Chance To Teach My Son How To Play Chess–I Just Wasn’t Prepared For Him To Beat Me
By O’fallon Lives In Barnegat Light, N.J. NEWSWEEK

The first time my son John, then 15, beat me at chess, I cried out so vehemently that my wife, my oldest son and my golden retriever all came charging into the living room. I was in a state of disbelief while John sat back with his miles-wide Cheshire grin and informed the family, “I just whipped Dad’s butt!” Indeed, he had.

I hadn’t thought John had a chance of defeating me for years to come because, while I am certainly no chess whiz, I have hundreds of matches under my belt. While I was thrilled that John shared my passion for the game, I wasn’t prepared to lose to him; I had been his teacher moments before.

John’s interest in chess was sparked in his freshman year of high school, when I got out an old set and played a practice game with him. We started playing regularly, and he’d listen patiently while I explained how dangerous the knight can be with its forward, backward and side-to-side jumps, how a lowly pair of pawns can create havoc and why a revealed (hidden) check is so sweet. I always won, but he’d decline my offers to play with fewer pieces or to let him take back moves.

Then in his sophomore year he joined a chess club, watched “Searching for Bobby Fischer” four or five times and started playing opponents from all over the world on the Internet. My days were numbered.

Once he beat me, he became my equal, if not my superior. My ego was a little bruised from his being better than me with so much less experience. At first I came up with excuses for John’s victory. I chalked it up to the lessons he was getting from the teacher of his chess club (only to find out the teacher mostly supervised), or to the time clock, which we never used until he joined the club, that “forced” me to make ill-thought-out moves. But there were no excuses.

Now that the initial shock has worn off and my ego has turned to pride, I am enjoying an even better relationship with my son. Playing as equals has made us much closer. Being on that same level has allowed him to share more with me. As a parent, you’re lucky to get a hello or goodbye from your kids when they’re teenagers. But now I get an hour alone with him. It’s a gift.

Here is the full story.