The Queen's Gambit

We've just finished watching the TV series, The Queen's Gambit.  It's a great story; highly recommended.

It's also inspired Mulan and Miya to try out chess again.

Back when I was Miya's age, my Standard 3 (Year 5) teacher, Mr Pratt, taught us class how to play chess.  He had a class set of chess sets, and we'd all often play during school hours.  Mr Pratt joined in the games, too; he was hugely encouraging to us, and I remember some great games with him.

I quickly got into it, and my grandfather gave me my first chess set (bottom right in the picture above).  I'd take my set to school, to play in class (hence the slightly battered board!).  My grandfather also later gave me my big tabletop set (top left in the pic).

I played heaps that year, thanks to my school teacher, but drifted away after the school year ended.  I've only ever played occasionally since then, though a few years later I did buy myself the computer chess set (middle in the pic).  I'm very much an "intuitive" player, and know almost zero about historical games and strategies.

Anyway, Mulan and Miya are having lots of fun playing together, and I've played them both a few times, too.  I've now got to be at my best to beat either of them.

As if my poor brain wasn't tired enough, the girls decided that I needed to do what the main character did in The Queen's Gambit -- play multiple games simultaneously.

So, we set up the three boards, and I played Mulan, Miya and Mama at the same time.  It wasn't easy!  I made a couple of big, silly mistakes while trying to keep three games in my head -- Miya noticed the one against her, but Mama missed her opportunity to take my queen.

All good fun, thanks to a great TV show.

It was also fascinating watching the final game in the final episode, knowing that it was based on an actual game played by Professor Robert Wolff's son.  (I've been following Professor Wolff's blog for several years now, and have learnt a lot from him.)