The Flames Of Chess
My, oh my, here we go …
The Flames of Chess
How long have we
Been playing chess?
Eternity.
Nevertheless ...
Some things have shifted
Between us
My mind has drifted
But, alas …
The pawns and kings
Don’t look the same
The knights and queens
Have lost their flame
The fire of chess
That I once knew
I must confess
I found in you
And it torments me
All night it dances.
Its arrow lances
Cupid at my heart.
As it advances
I lose my chances
As fire dances
My chess falls apart.
Your hazel eyes
A thousand skies
And a tornado
That’s what they’re made of.
…
Keep looking down
That’s what I do
So I could drown
In my next move
But deep inside
I won’t deny
I feel your flame
In each chess game
For if I look
Into your eyes
Might loose a rook
Or a knight, twice
But it’s not that
It is my soul
That I’m afraid
You came and stole
But I’m not yours
I’ll never be
It’s just a curse
That I will live
With.
And this is why I have never achieved any chess titles in the past! Ok, kidding. But for those who are wondering where the wind is blowing from – I’ve been deeply immersed in A. S. Pushkin’s Evgeniy Onegin lately. No poet out there is as inspirational to me as Pushkin. Shakespeare is pretty good, but Pushkin – oh!!
Chess Titles
Speaking of titles. I hit a chess club last night for the first time in 12 years. I destroyed every man I played there, except the “main” guy, who is way, WAY too strong for me. And yet, after having lost like a dozen games in a row to him, I managed to score 1.5 points against him (I credit my win to his eventual boredom with me). Driving home, and totally feeling like a dangerous woman(!), I thought to myself – I’m going to get myself a liiittle chess title - WFM! And I will do it in the next few years.
Originally, I wanted to wait till I’m old and grey and my kids are grown and no longer need me … but wait I will not! I gotta go after the title while I still got some fire burning within me; while I still got it and got it I got plenty!
Imagine how terrible it would be if I died without it? I can just picture a plaque above my tomb saying “Here lies late Olya K. She died without ever achieving a chess title.” The Hell would never be the same with me in it like that!
I thought how much happier chess makes me; how, somehow, I feel complete when I play it and I realized that it’s going to stay with me for life. I might fall in and out of it as the years go by, but it will always be my “little corner”. A place that I can go to and just chill. Where I can enjoy myself, where I can pick myself up if need to, where I will find some peace even if the whole world around me is shattering.
As such, I should probably stop writing love poems/stories and get to work! In fact, I already have … 
