How a TV Scene Helped Me Understand Chess
Random musings.
A few weeks ago, my husband accomplished something neither of us thought was possible: he taught me how to play chess.
For years, I declined his attempts to school me in the art of the game. I never had any interest in it. I grew up thinking chess was for Other People. You know, old guys who gathered in public parks or angry Russian men or Bobby Fischer. It wasn’t for girls who lived in the projects and spent their free time listening to hair metal while flipping through Bop Magazine. (It was the ’80s.) Plus, it looked boring. No game that requires that much concentration and stern staring can be fun.
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But a few weeks ago my kid expressed interest in learning how to play, so I agreed to give it a shot. Before my first lesson, I pulled up this (brilliant) scene from The Wire, written by David Simon, in which D’Angelo shows that the drug trade isn’t all that different from an extended game of chess.
I watched it simply because I love the show, but I was surprised to find that it actually helped me grasp the concept of the game. The king stays the king, but he ain’t got no hustle. The queen gets shit done. The pawns are the soldiers, and the most disposable. Those little tips enabled me to see each piece in a way that I hadn’t before, and I actually did okay when it came time to play.
So, it turns out chess isn’t solely for Other People. I just needed to wait until the right show came along to lay out the rules in a way that made the most sense.