Chess

My oldest daughter will be five at the end of October and last night was the first time we played a game of chess with all the pieces.. yes, the knights were included.

She started learning to play chess about two weeks ago. Before starting the process I did some research to see how you get started. With all the different pieces I wondered how she would pick it all up. My research told me that I needed to start with just a couple of pieces on the board, and slowly build. So in the first game we played my daughter had the queen and I had the eight pawns. To win she had to take all my pawns before one of my pawns made it to the end of the board. The other important factor is that she had to win every game.

So we progressed from the queen takes pawns games to adding bishops and rooks to the board. Then she had to checkmate my king with the queen and two rooks. I showed her how pieces are protected and pinned.

Bit by bit she has picked it up, playing for 20-30 minutes a night, three or four nights a week.

So last night when we played with all the pieces it was quite a moment. I still talk through the moves with her and help her see different options, but she gets it, and I can see that she's thinking about her strategy.

And of course, last night she won again!

Sold!

On Saturday night we had some friends over for dinner, and it's amazing how some alcohol can change the complexion of a conversation! The inhibitions are removed, the guard drops. This friend of mine, whom I've known for about four years shared his true delight at my paintings and expressed interest in owning some.

I said "absolutely! I'd love to sell you some art."

After about half an hour of deliberations I had sold three paintings, and it felt good to see them go to a new home and be appreciated.

It struck me that often we don't express our thoughts to those that can make a difference. Although my friend had been interested in buying my paintings for a while, he had never asked, and I guess since I had never broached the topic, we never had the conversation.

Thanks to Baileys and coffee, we did.

In the coming weeks I will be posting pictures of my paintings for sale. Please feel free to email me at matthew@pagehanify.com if you are interested in purchasing any.