Thursday, September 14, 2006

Power Pays Plays




For you chess fans (or not), here's a good lesson in Power for us all!

Donica and I have a chess game going at all times in our game room near our office in the basement. As we come and go to our computers, we stop to make a play. It used to be that I would almost always win the games (if I may say so, ever so humbly). But then suddenly Donica started paying attention (she's not dumb!) and taking the game seriously!

Look at this game, which we just finished last night (I think it was her "victory lap" after the Phenol injection!). She creamed me with half the power I had! I'm the off-white-red (black) player; she's the white-blue (white) player. At this point of checkmate, I had 2 Queens (that back Rook is a Pawn I had Queened), one Bishop, a Knight and a Pawn. She had one Queen and one Bishop. While I was trying to always be on the offensive, checking her King with every move, trying to set up my checkmate, she was sleuthing her pieces around to mate ME. I never once noticed! So the first play I made that didn't check her (I'm talking about at the end), she made the offensive move and caught me off guard. (Well done, Donica!)

Now, I don't presume to understand Power when it comes to Nations and war and things like 9/11. But I DO know that power is not always might. I do know that the most money, the most weapons, the most anything does not always mean winning or taking the Prize.

I do know that when we least expect it, we can be cut down at the knees (like Rome, where we bought this chess set a couple years ago!). Pride often comes before a fall. And David CAN beat Goliath.

That's all, folks!

7 comments:

  1. Thanks, Deb, for FINALLY leaving a comment! HA. See how painless it was? Now we just need to see YOUR site up and running. Please!

    ReplyDelete
  2. How true! Pride is often the downfall of many. It can blind us to our insufficiencies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. cool game. I never fully understood it when I was little. I was a checkers queen and wasn't interested in more. MY attention span is low so it's better I don't learn....

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mr. Fab: I did NOT play as a child so this is one of the adult games I've learned to love. But our games are played out over time--nothing fast about them!

    ET: You definitely have to pay attention!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I played chess with Roger a few times (imagine), and then with Don, but not for years now. That's a beautiful chess set! I love chess sets, even if I don't play. All those beautiful details.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We spent a lot of time, Ruth, looking for the set that we really liked. So many to choose from. Ha--I remember playing with Roger once myself when I was first learning the game. Memories!

    ReplyDelete

Texel Island, NL, 2024: Renovations

  To be honest, I thought I had already posted about our January trip to start some renovations in Jaap's bungalow, as a gift from Astri...