Vanquished at Chess by Nate

I have always loved to play games with my kids -- Monopoly, a great card game called Oklahoma, and Othello. My youngest son, Nate, who's seven years old, has recently taken up Chess, and I've been playing with him. Until this week, I hadn't played Chess since Nate's older brother Jake, who is now 27, was seven. I was rusty as a box of hammers, to paraphrase my favorite songwriter, Jill Sobule.

I need either to improve at the game or get used to humiliation. Nate and I have played three times now, and he has checkmated me twice. The other game was a draw, I'm proud to say.

As Nate's older brother and sister learned many years age, I have a policy against letting kids win at games just because they're kids. I've always thought that phony wins are no wins at all and instill a false sense of privilege in a young person. An earned win carries far more meaning than an fake one, instilling genuine pride in genuine achievement. At least that's my rationalization, though the truth is that I also like to win at games.

Anyway, Nate has been kicking my flabby old butt at Chess, and his pride in the achievement in considerable. I wish he'd let me win. I wouldn't even mind a phony win!