2001-03-28 - 11:59 p.m.

Lily Plays Chess

Throughout our relationship, Lily has been playfully asking me when I am going to give her chess lessons. I thought she was mainly teasing since as far as I can tell she doesn’t have that high an opinion of the game. She calls chess tournaments "nerd conventions." I thought she was just doing it to show a polite interest in something I was into.

Of course it's the dream of every chess nerd to have a girlfriend who plays chess, too. Well, maybe not. Probably most of them couldn't stand being beaten by their significant others. I really don't mind losing to female players, my manhood isn't threatened by it or anything.

One time, years ago, I was looking at the wall chart of a big tournament, and I decided to count the number of women playing. There were about 700 people in the tournament overall and the male to female ratio was about 70:1. That's even worse than in the comic book business!

It's quite a bit better these days, thanks to scholastic chess and role models like the Polgar sisters, but among adult players I'd say the ratio is still something like 30:1.

Anyway, when the two of us were down at the big tournament in New Jersey her interest got piqued. While I was waiting endlessly for the directors to print out the final results for me she was waiting patiently in one of the side rooms. While she was there a bunch of guys came in and started playing a variant of chess where each side moves without being able to see the pieces of the other side. She put down the book she was reading to watch the players try to hit each other blindfolded.

Anyway, on the trip back home she seriously asked me if I'd give her chess lessons, and of course I said yes.

Actually, I had some misgivings. At one point my old girlfriend Lilac expressed an interest in playing a game with me. I made a point of making second-best moves, but eventually I beat her. She got SO MAD! I tried to explain that I'd been studying the game for years and she had just learned, but she was having none of it. I seemed to spend a lot of my time apologizing to Lilac.

Lily, however, was smarter than Lilac. She didn't want to play me, she just wanted some lessons.

She already knew how the pieces moved, she just needed a little refresher course. I showed her some simple checkmates and how to work some of the basic endgames. She picked it up quickly, but I thought she would.

I know I really shouldn't be thinking of such things but Lily looked so adorable, chewing on her lower lip while thinking about her next move.

Anyway, once Lily gets started on something she's very pro-active. She searched the web and downloaded a chess playing program. At first it was slaughtering her, then she lowered the setting until she could beat it occasionally. When you play chess to improve, you should find an opponent that beats you about 70% of the time. That way, you can learn something but not get too discouraged because you are winning occasionally.

She then challenged a friend of hers to a game over the net. She managed to win the game but it was plain that both of them were having problems with the unfamiliar new interface. They were having a hard time seeing what they were doing.

Lily was very shy about showing me her losses to the computer, and I'm trying to convince her that you learn more from the games you lose than the games you win. Now, she's starting to save her losses, too. Advancing, one step at a time.

Right now Lily is very busy, so she's not able to devote much time to chess and the lessons are coming few and far between. Still, every so often I see her in the Library, playing chess against her computer before she goes to classes, while waiting for her hair to dry.