I played chess with my mom for my birthday.

This year, when my mom had asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her I wanted her to play chess with me. This was so that I had an opportunity to teach her what I know because I want to be a chess teacher. The second reason was that I wanted to give her a good memory of chess.

You see, my father was not a good man, but he was the first person to teach her chess. It was 50 years ago, and it was his idea of a first date. However, this meant my mom had a permanent bad memory attached to chess because it reminded her of him. Therefore, I wanted to reteach her in a way that she would enjoy and think of it as a game she plays with me instead.

Sometimes, it’s not whether you win or lose. Sometimes, it’s not even how you play the game. Sometimes, it is who you play the game with that counts.

In all seriousness though, playing chess does sound like a good idea for a first date. That is the one thing in which I am the same as my father. It also probably explains why I turned 37 today and I’m still single!

But I have my mom! Thank you for playing chess with me, mom! And thank you to everyone for the happy birthday messages!