Searching For Lukie Fischer

It all starts here Gortron

"I win daddy" announced Lukas, rather succinctly as his Knight moved down two places and over one to occupy the spot where my King previously sat.

Lukas, who has been playing chess since the day he started kindergarten last Fall, is actually getting good at the game.  He even attended a week long chess camp a couple of weeks back, as the youngest competitor. He won the 'Fierce Competitor' trophy, which he proudly shows everyone who comes over, pointing out "I'm the FIRST in our family to win a chess trophy."

 Given that, we had bought a wooden set for his birthday that we have set up in our living room.

It was a good move on his part, the taking of my King that is.  Even though I had him dead to rights leading up to that move, having captured more of his major players than he had of mine, my little guy - who just recently turned six - seemed rather nonplussed by his predicament.

It was like he didn't really care.

That seemed odd to me.  In all honesty, I was very proud of how well he was taking his imminent demise at the hands of his more experienced father

The strange thing though (and there is often a strange thing isn't there?) is that he was not only nonplussed, he actually started dancing back and forth from one foot to another.  And singing.  Yeah singing.  He sang over and over, something to the effect of  "I'm going to win, cause my Knight got in.  I'm gonna win, cause my Knight got in".

I thought that was cute.  But not cute enough to save him from being soundly defeated in what was to be mere moments.  The hammer was most certainly about to come down.

Then he took my King in one swift move.  I was aghast!

"Hey" I advised.  "You didn't say 'check' before you took my King.  I didn't know you were there."  I was prepared for him to complain about this, the fierce competitor that he is. But instead he just looked at me and acknowledged something.

"You're right daddy, I should have said check."  he admitted   "Right before I beat you." he smiled.

I had to smile myself too, since he was pretty cute through the whole of the game.  I think I need to brush up on the game myself.  Because at this rate it won't be long at all before he is legitimately beating me at chess with one hand, while building Lego's with the other.

At that point I can envision needing to take him to one of those outdoor chess parks, so we can find an old Russian guy sitting on stump for him to play. Just one of those games could take hours, so I'll have to have my phone fully charged.   After that I'll probably have to arrange a match with some super computer named Gortron, or Mind-bender - which has never lost to a sentient being before.

Yep, I can actually envision these things. Unfortunately though, what I couldn't envision was his Knight taking my King.

Even if he didn't say "check" before he dealt me the deadly blow.