I'm reading a book by chess champion Jennifer Shahade and finding it rather inspiring. She not only recounts games & opponents, but also talks about chess' place in various societies and the difference in mens' and womens' attitudes towards the game.The last part is what I'm finding most interesting, though I'm also surprised at some of the remote places tournaments are held.
   I play chess badly.
   When I was little, I didn't know anyone who could teach me how to play,though we had part of a chess set that was included in a box of games. I was especially enamored of the knight, because it was a horse. When I was a teenager, I did a pastel painting of it and a couple other pieces for a still life assignment in school. I finally learned how to play when I was about 20 years old. I used to attend church with a family who often invited me to their home afterwards & the father taught me how all the pieces moved one Sunday afternoon. Though I then taught my sister, she was always too busy to play, but did buy me one of those pre-PC battery operated chess boards, which I actually defeated once. After I got a computer & discovered online chess I was a goner.At one point I was on 5 different sites, playing the maximum number of games at each. Eventually, I realized I wasn't getting any painting done & scaled back, until presently I'm just on1 site, GameKnot (playing under the name jkhsquonk).
    The thing is, that after all these years of playing, I'm still terrible at it. How can I like something so much and still be so bad at it? Augh! It takes me longer to lose these days, so perhaps I've improved a bit. I've tried reading chess strategy books, but all the numbers confuse me.It reminds me of math, ick! However, this year I've resolved to play more aggressively in hopes that helps. I lose so many games anyways, so why not go down fighting?
    I'll let you know how that goes. *wink*