Chess

I am no great fan of chess. My father spent years trying to teach me to play, insisting, "It's a smart people game, Amanda. You'll love it once you learn the rules." I was never quite convinced. In fact, I joined my mom and brother in completely refusing to learn to play. It just never seemed like a game the would be much fun.

Will, however, loves chess. He and my dad make great chess-playing buddies, but unfortunately, they are currently on opposite sides of the Atlantic from each other. For the past couple of days, Will has been craving a good ole game of chess. Unfortunately, he has no chess set and no chess buddy here in Germany.

As you can guess, that's where I come in. Believe it or not, I just spent the past hour making him a make-shift chess set out of some spare cardboard and 32 euro coins. The layout is simple. Kings are represented by 1 euro coins, queens by 50 cent coins, rooks by 20 cents, knights by 10 cents, bishops by 5 cents, and pawns by 1 cent coins (for a total of 4 euros and 56- that's less than the cost of a cheap chess set). Coins placed on the "tails" side represent black chess pieces, and those placed on the "heads" side represent white pieces.

Now all Will needs is someone to play the game with him, so he made me a cheat sheet on the rules so that I can play. I have a feeling I won't be winning any time soon, but he's cute, so why not?

The chess set

Will, proudly displaying the rules cheat sheet and his new chess set
(Maranda will be happy to see that he's wearing the UNA class of 2010 shirt she sent him for his birthday.)