This is Alex in the middle of his first game of chess. He won this game almost by accident. He attempted to make an illegal move with his queen and put his opponent into check. When told that there was a legal move with the queen to put him in check, he took it. I looked for a moment and realized it was checkmate. The two boys running this activity were amazed and came running over to confirm the win. It was the only checkmate of the session.
Alex really impressed me during his second game of chess. As I mentioned earlier, he tried to make a couple of illegal moves in the first game, but by the second he seemed to have all the pieces down. He wasn't able to finish his second game, but if you were to have decided the game on points, he was ahead when time ran out. I am going to have to play chess with both of the boys. I was really pleased that they have both taken a liking to the game. As the grow older, and get better at the game, it will be a wonderful thing for us to do together. I suppose that I will have to learn to play multiple games at the same time, so that no one feels like they are being left out. Hopefully, that will also cut down on the kibitzing.
Alex really loved swimming. He was fearless, too. When the boys first got to camp, they took a swimming test. That wouldn't have been a problem except for one thing - Alex doesn't swim. That little detail didn't phase him in the least, though. He was taken to the deep end of the pool and, over the objections of myself and two other parents that were with us, jumped right in when he was told to. I don't know how much of it was from fear, and how much of it was from the cold water, but when he emerged, he had a look on his face that I had not seen before (and hope never to see again). Even that experience, though did not deter is love of the water, and by the end of the summer he had taken swimming lessons, and earned both his Swimming Beltloop and Pin.
No comments:
Post a Comment