Chess Jocks
i spent Saturday at a scholastic chess tournament. It was great... chess everywhere. Nothing but a gym full of nerds playing the most strategic game ever invented by man, stretching their minds and sharpening their intellects.
my students took 2nd place in this massive meeting of the minds, after two tie breakers which separated them from the winners. i came home with a massive trophy and a slew of medaled chess 'masters.' We were triumphant.
Today the chess club met to go over their games and to play bughouse, a new chess variant that they taught me briefly in the Skittles room. Incidentally, they also introduced me to the idea of plunder chess, though it requires special equipment and i have yet to play it. After club met, played, and left, i had a meeting with the elementary chess coach and our respective principals.
At this informal meeting i learned, to my dismay and near disbelief, that two of my players had gotten into a fist fight in the hallways while waiting for new pairings to be posted. Chess players! Fist fighting! i guess sometimes the stress of having to assert yourself as a man in this adolescent jungle just becomes too much. The constant thrust and parry of rooks and pawns must have overwhelmed the boys who took to each other with rampant masculine drive to assert dominance over one another.
On the up side, the football coach is now a little scared of me... all i have to do is look at him and say, "be careful, man, i'm tough, i play chess."
my students took 2nd place in this massive meeting of the minds, after two tie breakers which separated them from the winners. i came home with a massive trophy and a slew of medaled chess 'masters.' We were triumphant.
Today the chess club met to go over their games and to play bughouse, a new chess variant that they taught me briefly in the Skittles room. Incidentally, they also introduced me to the idea of plunder chess, though it requires special equipment and i have yet to play it. After club met, played, and left, i had a meeting with the elementary chess coach and our respective principals.
At this informal meeting i learned, to my dismay and near disbelief, that two of my players had gotten into a fist fight in the hallways while waiting for new pairings to be posted. Chess players! Fist fighting! i guess sometimes the stress of having to assert yourself as a man in this adolescent jungle just becomes too much. The constant thrust and parry of rooks and pawns must have overwhelmed the boys who took to each other with rampant masculine drive to assert dominance over one another.
On the up side, the football coach is now a little scared of me... all i have to do is look at him and say, "be careful, man, i'm tough, i play chess."
posted by ellie at 18:03
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