I Suck At Chess – The #1 Game My Father Loved

I suck at Chess, but I have good memories of the game

Last week I saw a post by Hugh on Hugh’s Views & News on one of their Wordless Wednesdays series of a black and white image of a chess board sitting on a table. For some reason, this post brought back memories of my Father.

When I was younger, my father tried to play this game with me all the time because he loved it so much. I kind of wished that I had become interested in the game and had played it with him more often when I had the chance.

Unfortunately, that chance passed when he did. He would play the game with two of my older brothers, giving him at least one opponent. For a game like that, I was one of those kids who couldn’t keep my attention for very long so I just wasn’t interested in playing.

Knowing just how much he loved the game of chess it was easy for us to shop for gifts for birthdays, Father’s Day, and Christmas. When all my older brothers moved out to live out on their own and I was the only one left in the house besides my mother who he could have a game of chess with, but I suck at chess and didn’t like to play the game. So my older brothers must have felt sorry and got him those electronic chess boards you can play against.

He must have had 6 or 7 of those things scattered throughout the house. Ironically, he hardly ever played those. It’s a no-brainer that he would have preferred to play the game with his sons rather than a talking electronic device. I only realized this in retrospect, and I regret not picking up the game earlier so he could have spent more time with us playing the game he did love.

He almost always pulled out the chess board to play a game with one of my brothers whenever one of them would drop by. The game was kind of like a way to break down that barrier to open up in a conversation because my Father wasn’t a particularly open person who liked to talk about personal feelings or start a conversation by asking about your life.

So since I suck at Chess, I missed out on some great opportunities to have spent some quality time with my father, but those are opportunities that I will never have again. So, regrets. I have them. You don’t notice what you have until it’s taken away from you is an understatement. Not only do I suck at Chess, but I sucked at being a good son in my mind.

Conclusion…

Don’t take for granted the time you have with your family. You may regret things when life runs its course and takes loved ones away and you cannot get a second chance. Instead of risking things by wishing you have done this or you have done that, do those things now when you have the chance.

I wish I understood what my father was trying to do when he was trying to get me to play the game of chess with him back then. I probably would have gotten the stories he told so many others about his life and I could have shared them and had more great memories of my father also.

I wish I didn’t suck at Chess and played the game with my father when I had the chance and it sucks that I won’t be able to at all now.