TEACHING MY 4-YEAR-OLD HOW TO PLAY CHESS

It was early on a Thursday morning, sitting in my office at work when I heard a soft knock at the door. I stood up from my chair, opened the door, and found my four-year-old son standing there with a big smile on his face. He just wanted to "pop-in" and say hi to his dad. As he walked into my office, his eye caught something standing on the edge of my desk; an old wooden chess board my dad bought me when I was a child.

At that moment, my phone rang and I had to attend to the call. After a few minutes into the conversation, I suddenly realized that for some odd reason, my energetic son, is mysteriously very quite, which can only mean one thing, he is catching on some nonsense. No, he wasn't busy doing art work on my wall, nor was he carving our sculptures from my leather bench. To my surprise, he was standing right next to the chess board, observing and admiring all the wooden pieces standing at their undeveloped positions.That was a proud moment for me. My son was showing some interest in chess and in a few years time, "when he is old enough to understand", I would be able to teach him how to play the game and spend some quality time with him playing chess. It was at this moment when I had to attend to certain priorities at the office, and I had to hand him over to mommy so that I could carry on with my work.

That evening, after a long day at the office, I went home, had some dinner, and began to settle in at my desk getting ready to study some tactics and end my day with a good game of chess with some buddies here on chess.com. It suddenly came to my attention that something wasn't quite in order as I usually leave my desk at home. I noticed that some of my drawers have been left somewhat open. After a brief investigation to find out who scratched around in my personal space at home, I found JJ, my son, sitting in his room, with  my practice chess set in front of him. But there was something very strange that took place. Without me coaching, teaching, or even talking about chess to my son, he had placed every single piece at the proper starting position! I even found the queens on their correct squares ( I am still convinced that this was purely luck). It was at this moment when I had an moment of enlightenment, my son is a genius! My wife and I brought into this world a prodigy that is going to change the world and solve chess. Right there, I heard the call. It was a call for me to go put on my dad pants and train this little Grand-Master so he could dominate Magnus Carlsen one day.

It has been about a year and a half of training now. After long long hours, a few tournaments, and some bad defeats, I asked him if I could take a picture of him
playing chess.... here it is:

Looks like a genius, right?

In the end, chess is all about having fun. Sometimes we get so stuck in the competition, the grinding to improve, the books we read, that we forget to just simply sit back and enjoy the game. Is my son a chess prodigy that will dominate the chess world? Maybe not. Are we having fun spending time together and having a laugh over the board? Every single time!

Greetings,
PastorJLM