His hand paused, reached for the wooden piece with the pointed top, hovered over it for a moment.  I held my breath. He'd been studying the checked board for 15 minutes after I'd last moved.
Didn't he see?
He always did, but...
Then he changed, reached for the piece shaped like a horse head, moved it three squares, and sighed.
I smiled, started to touch on of my pieces, but waited.
Then I slid a piece with a crown down the white squares.
"Check."
I thought I had him.
An hour and a half later, the game still wasn't over.

***

When I was a little boy, my Dad taught me how to play chess. Usually, I'd watch him and one of my uncles, or a neighbor, sit at a table on a  rainy Saturday and spend a couple of hours studying the black and white board with the neat-looking pieces on it. If you didn't know about the basic moves, the  game was a mystery.

I learned the basic moves, and years later, the game is still a mystery.

Oh, I played some in college, and a little by mail, but then I went years without even seeing a chess board. With the advent of computers, I tried playing a little, but even rudimentary chess programs would beat me almost every time.

About a year ago, I saw a student playing chess on the Internet, and I couldn't resist. Since, I've played people all over the world, some who don't even speak English very well. I can win some games, and lose more. I've improved, but I know my "level," and it's just fair. A good chess player who has studied the game will beat me almost every time, because to me, it's a diversion, not a subject to study.

Still, I hate to lose.

Then a few months ago, I was in Border's Bookstore, and saw people playing real chess. I stood and watched, and eventually was invited to play.

I still can't beat the really good ones, but there's sort of an informal chess club there, no dues, no meetings, no officers--you know, the really good kind of organization.

Chess is still a mystery--it's a mystery to me the attraction of being able to actually touch pieces, rather than clicking on a computer mouse. Your personality influences how you play chess--aggressively, impulsively, defensively, sulkily, cheerfully--and there's so much psychology involved.

And no game is ever the same.

It's a mystery why someone so pressed for time, so impatient, can sit for more than an hour and match wits with someone else, on a slow-moving game that is at least 1,500 years old. It’s fascinating to me that thousands of people in this hurried world still take time to slow down and play a game invented when there was no electricity and time was measured by a sun dial.

Remember when you were a kid? What was the favorite board game? Monopoly? Clue? Checkers? Something else?

How long since you've sat down with family or friends and taken the time to lose yourself in a game? Too busy? Tell you what playing chess has taught me: if I'm too busy, I'd better hurry up and take the time. What are you doing on these long, cold winter evenings?

Now...it's your move.

Dr. Terry M. Clark
Professor of Journalism
Chair, Mass Communication Department
University of Central Oklahoma
210 Communications Bldg.
Edmond, OK 73034
tclark@ucok.edu
http://www.libarts.ucok.edu/masscomm/