les échecs

Me: Hey!  Can you do me a favor??
G: Yea.
Me: Can you write down all of the moves to your favorite chess game?
G: What?
Me: Can you write down all of the moves to a favorite chess game that you've played?
G: ... Just one game?
Me: Yea, and preferably of the French defense!
G:  OK.  Why?
Me: ... I'm going to use it in my blog tonight.  (me: big, accomplished smile)

Success!  :)

-----

Gary likes chess.
Gary loves chess!

It has been his outlet for a long time now, and when I first met him and he mentioned he likes to play chess, I had no idea that a person could like playing chess this much...  lol.  But he does!

It's cute!

Chess to me is:
The knight moves at a diagonal 1 space, then 2 spaces.
The pawn moves forward, 1 or 2 depending on the turn.
The bishop goes diagonally as many spaces as it wants.
The rook goes in a straight line as many spaces as it wants.
The queen does whatever it wants.  Period.
The king moves one space at a time, any direction.

And that doesn't even get into how the pieces can capture each other, which piece goes first, or the strategy.  And let me tell you, there has to be some strategy involved, oh, and analysis too.
(This is where I fail.)
I'm too busy trying to remember how the pieces move, that by the time I figure out where I want my piece to move, G has planned out his next 3 moves, and he's going to ask me why I chose that move, why it was good (or bad), and what my next move should be. 

The majority of the time, it doesn't end well for me... He hasn't mastered letting me "win" yet.
For shame!

Chess to G is:

[Event "Amsterdam"]
[Site "Amsterdam"]
[Date "1970.??.??"]
[EventDate "?"]
[Round "?"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Efim Geller"]
[Black "Wolfgang Uhlmann"]
[ECO "C09"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]
[PlyCount "93"]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 exd5 5.Ngf3 Nc6 6.Bb5 Bd6
7.O-O cxd4 8.Nb3 Ne7 9.Nbxd4 O-O 10.Bg5 f6 11.Be3 Ne5 12.Re1
a6 13.Bf1 Kh8 14.h3 Bd7 15.c3 Rc8 16.a4 Re8 17.Nxe5 fxe5
18.Nf3 h6 19.a5 Rc6 20.Bb6 Qb8 21.Rc1 Rf8 22.c4 e4 23.Nd2 Rxb6
24.axb6 Bc5 25.Re2 Rxf2 26.Rxf2 e3 27.cxd5 exf2 28.Kh1 Nf5
29.Ne4 Bxb6 30.Qf3 Qe5 31.Bd3 Qxd5 32.Nc5 Qxf3 33.gxf3 Bxc5
34.Rxc5 Ne3 35.Rc1 Kg8 36.Kh2 Bb5 37.Rc8+ Kf7 38.Kg3 Bxd3
39.Rc7+ Kf6 40.Kxf2 Nd1+ 41.Kg3 Nxb2 42.Rxb7 Nc4 43.h4 a5
44.Rd7 Bc2 45.Rc7 Bb3 46.Kf4 a4 47.Rb7 0-1

By the way, in case you couldn't tell, this is the French defense, and black wins.
He adds "It's the French defense... I'm not going to give you a white win".  (Scoff!)

I still have no clue what this combination of letters and numbers (the moves) means, but that's okay.
When I want to play chess, I remember how to move the pieces, and I move them.  :)

For his birthday, the first year I knew him, I even made him a chess set!

It was like a big scavenger hunt for me... deciding on and getting all of the pieces together, painting them, packaging them, and the presenting them.  I heart it, and Gary was impressed!

Back to the present tense though.
G will continue to study chess.
I will continue to learn it.
And we will play again... someday!