i remember when i was about seven or eight years old my father lined up three chess boards on a coffee table and boasted he could beat me and my two brothers simultaneously on all three boards.

it wasn’t like i was any kind of chess prodigy at that age but i knew losing to someone playing three games simultaneously sucked for me.

in the last couple of years we have taken to playing chess via email. the scorecard has remained quite lopsided but after more than thirty some odd years i finally chalked up a win in my column. it wasn’t pretty but a win is a win.

adding to the drama, the game took more than six months to play and by the time it ended we were both living in different countries than when it started. here’s the log for posterity (i was white)…