Chess

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Neighbor Logan (11) asked to come over to visit, which thrilled us. He and John went straight to the chess board. I took this photo while he was concentrating on his next move.

The whole scene looked like this.

I asked Logan to pose for me, which he always does willingly. I haven’t had a close-up of him in a long time, and he is maturing quickly. In 20 more photos, he’ll probably be driving a car.

I wasn’t paying close attention, but John must have made a bad move. I think Logan offered to let him take it back. John said, “No, I made a mistake. You won.”

I had my phone ready and asked to borrow John’s so that Logan and I could play a fast game of Set. He is terribly quick, so we played two games before he had to go home.

What a wonderful world we’d have if everyone had neighbors like Logan and his parents!

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

44 thoughts on “Chess”

  5. You AND Logan are both fortunate to have such a lovely relationship. What is “Set?” My greatgrandson Edward, who is eight, is just learning Chess. Hi brother Philip has been playing for some time. Their grandmother (Candace) played a game with Edward and was giving him tips on the game. It won’t be long before I hear that Edward has become a chess master. 🙂 He is autistic, and something of an expert on video games…he not only plays them, but knows much of the details of creating and building such games. He is really into robots, especially R2D2. He is a remarkable kid, a surprise family member who vastly enriches the family.

    When he was going on three he once explained to me in great detail why a toy he had gotten for his birthday was his favorite, and educated me about how it worked and why. It was a ball-like thing that raced around the floor and avoided table legs and other distractions as it careened around the room. My first explanation of the Rocket Science involved.

    His Mom’s fiance died of cancer when Edward was about five. He went around the room asking people “how they felt,” and wanted to know why Matt was in that box. When Matt was very ill Edward asked him if he was going to die, and Matt said “yes, I am.” There followed a deep conversation produced instruction that ultimately had Edward explaining to everyone that “when you die you go to Heaven but you are dead forever..you can’t come back…. you know that, right?” We were expected to confirm that we did, indeed, understand.

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    1. Edward is a deep one! He sounds amazing.

      Set is a game of finding patterns in an array of cards. The object is to find three cards that are alike or entirely different in color, shape, and filling. The details are on the internet. I keep being amazed at how difficult it is for me and how easy for grandson David and neighbor Logan.

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  8. He is growing up fast and is a good looking young man. How wonderful that he plays chess with John. My Irish neighbour turned 9 on Monday and we had her over for a tea party. What fun. How nice to have young neighbours.

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  9. What a lovely sharing, a handsome young lad. We have friends with sons now in college, but we have been part of the lives and they invited us to their high school graduations! We were both thrilled. Good that John will play with him, a mutual blessing. Michele

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  10. Love the scene. Great moments for all. Looks like checkers in the pics. Does he play both? I’m just getting into chess this year. It’s challenging for me, especially when I am tired. Logan sure is growing up. Hope his soul stays this beautiful. With all you around, I bet it will be ❤

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    1. Well after the post was published, John and David told me of my mistake. I should have written checkers. You are the first one to comment on it. John does NOT play chess. Logan should. He has the brains for it.

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      1. Maybe the others are more polite than I 🙂 I do tend to be blunt. But actually I was more curious to see if he did both regularly. I was kinda hoping for a chess match on my next visit. I remember playing checkers with PopPop. While I’m not a huge fan of checkers (somehow it stresses me out), the memories of playing with him are wonderful. So nice Logan and Uncle John have that, too.

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  11. You’re right – Logan looks much older in the first picture – perhaps because he is studying the board so carefully, but when he turned his head to look at you, he has an impish, young grin.

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          1. Winning is good and games are good for the brain. I love my Klondike Solitaire, three games a day, sometimes five, then I quit. And one game of Word Wipe too. My mom did word search puzzles and there are some books here she didn’t get too. She would have loved Word Wipe as it is a fast-moving word search puzzle.

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  12. I was terrible at checkers and it didn’t take long form my granddaughter to figure that out! I love that you have a boy that age near by. A treat for you and for him. All kids benefit from knowing other adults.

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  13. You are fortunate to have such neighbours. We have a couple of pretty good ones but the rest of the neighbourhood is pretty sketchy. I was a good place for families back when Dan’s family lived here in this house.

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    1. We are very fortunate to have our lovely neighbors. The street where we lived on Long Island was also a good one. Both are dead-end streets, which adds a closeness that long streets lack.

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  14. and what a wonderful world we would have if all children had neighbors like you and John. We were blessed to live next door to an older couple that loved when our kids would come for a visit. She passed away a couple of years ago and last fall he moved out of state to live with his daughter. He passed away in the end of August. I miss terribly but cherish the memories.

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