Thursday, March 7, 2013

Sacrifice

I used to play chess. Stopped at 11 years old. Never really regained a taste for the game.

I find it... pretentious. And I'm not very good at it. When I used to play, I play a war of attrition. I take pieces with no grand design, hoping to turn a stream of tidy profits that could prove my advantage.

It was berserker chess, with no philosophy and every move a simple gambit.

Of all the pieces, I have always had special affinity with pawns. Maybe because of their usefulness or their symmetrical nature - my other two favourites being the rook and the queen.

I don't like sacrificing pawns. They stay on the front lines and they absorb most of the damage. I don't think it's fair they get to die first. But they always do.

The only redeeming quality is, if a pawn lasts long enough, and marches forward enough, it can become any piece. Still, a pawn cannot become a king, but it can be a queen.