Board Walking...(part 2) : Chessassination!

My dad had a magnetic chess board. The board was like a box. One could fold the board and lock it. The chess pieces could be stored within the box. Dad also had a backgammon board, which he never played. He, however, did play chess with some other people living in the same locale. The community consisted of some other Bangladeshi families, and also a few Bangla speaking Pakistani people.

I didn't know how to play chess, and nobody was interested to teach me. But the chess pieces (especially the rook and the knight) always intrigued me. When we came back to Bangladesh, one of my uncles taught me and my cousin (son of my Father's sister, as in fufato bhai) the art of chessplaying. Cousin received the chess set as a birthday present, and it became a duty for us to learn the game.

We spent a lot of time playing the game. Two 12 year old kids sitting on the floor, playing chess, giving frowned looks at each other, and passing momentary jokes--how weird a sight was that? Our favorite arenas included grandmother's bed, fufu's bed, chacha's bed, the verandah floor, roof, the small place in front of the entrance, etc. Most of the time we'd get driven out of the indoor locations, and we'd end up in the verandah and roof, quite a lot. It was quite comfortable playing chess in the verandah and roof during winter. The soft rays of the sun gave us ample pleasure to play for long hours.

I can't help smiling while I am writing this. To get better in the game, I used to play chess with my maternal uncle and another cousin (son of my mother's elder sister, as in khalato bhai). They taught me the "3 move check mate" trick. I still remember the surprised look in Rousseau's face, when I first applied the trick and won the game within 5 minutes. Soon his surprise turned in to anger, and like most other 12 year old's, he kicked the chess board and said I was cheating. I said no I am not, and I can do it again. So he gave a determined look, and sat down again. However, that 2nd game ended up with him stating that "I'm taking my board back home, and we won't be playing this game again." He lived a few houses away, but still quite near our's. Our's sheltered most of my grandmother's family. Almost alll of her children lived in our 3 storey building, occupying 5 out of 6 apartments of the building.

As all the games would take place in our building, I was responsible for keeping the board. But that ended that day. I kinda missed playing chess, but I never got myself one. He was the only person with whom I could play, and thus there was no point in getting another board. I don't quite remember how the problem was resolved, but after sometime, we started playing again.

I consider myself to be a lucky kid, because I spent my childhood with two joint families. Today's generation will never now what they missed from not being able to be part of a joint family. Joint family taught me some really important lessons. Among these lessons, perhaps the most important one is the tolerance ability.

Anyways, that was the story of chess. I competed in a chess competition during college, won one game, got 2 walk overs and lost 2 matches. Maybe I'll get back to that one later.