Ouch!

When we gave our 15-year-old a new chess set for Christmas, he told me that I'd have to learn to play. Tonight we had our first lesson. I felt much less apprehensive once I decided that I didn't have to actually master the game in one night, just get a feel for it.

By the end, I decided my goal for the evening was merely learning how each piece moves; I spent the whole time looking at the instruction booklet which diagrammed it. My son was very patient; it took me forever. I told him the story of Barb cooking up tons of Christmas goodies because her mom took 15-20 minutes per turn at Scrabble, so he pulled out our awesome new hardback complete works of Lewis Carroll (leatherbound at BJ's now for $14.99!) and started reading Alice in Wonderland during my turns.

My boys have played chess for years, so he's quite the pro while I'm quite the amateur. [Remember, I told you mothers of young ones that one day your children will arise up and whip your rear at Monopoly? Well that goes for chess, too.] At one point he he just shook his head and said, "It's really hard to develop a strategy against someone who has no strategy."

Ouch.