The Chess Game by Mongolita

Do you play chess? Do you remember when you learned to play? I do. 

I was about fifteen, living with my parents and my sisters sharing the same room in the Hotel Rich. The hotel was well-known by  Chilean refugees in Buenos Aires. The accomodation and food was provided by the Hotel and the U.N paid the costs.  The Hotelier, Pipi provided food for us, but as most businessmen he cut corners to make more profit  in the food and cleanliness. When I think about it now, the food was so bad I wouldn't even feed my dog that food. 

Those three long years;  that period of our lives I wouldn't call it living, I'd call it  existing, we felt we were in an Abyss.  

Time went  slowly back then, no schooling for my sisters or me and my parents weren't allowed to work. We received from the UN, a monthly stipend as a family to spend it on  essentials such as clothes and toiletries.

Mum kept control of the money we received, and on the odd occasion  she would say “I’ve saved up a bit of money to treat ourselves to a pizza.”  Mainly when that happened would be to celebrate one of our birthdays.

We kept our minds as busy as we could  by  learning to play card games, chess and other games. It was then that dad taught me to play chess.  Once I learnt the movement of each chess piece, I began to understand the aim of this intricate and tactical game. Dad was a bad loser, and I felt guilty as  I would often win most games. He would give me  excuses like “oh well, that's beginner's luck.”  I’d sometimes chuckle when he had that reaction.

My favourite piece in chess was the Bishop. I often positioned my  ‘Bishops’ strategically so that dad wouldn't notice they were there attacking his Queen and he would make the next move resulting in  losing it, feeling disappointed and angry  with himself by not realising that he had fallen for my trap. Dad’s favourite piece was the Queen, if she was taken it was game over for him. 

Some thirty years later, my second husband reintroduced me to play Chess, he was most surprised that I was able to play. We played a few games but sadly as Dad used to say ‘beginners luck’ evaded me.

His way of playing took me by surprise every time we played a new game. A game which could last hours, other times the game was over in five minutes. My Bishops weren't playing strategic moves as they used to and I could tell by his look; his self-satisfied smirk that it was check-mate! every time.