Chess

Chess is a competitive game and a war game and a great game.
To play is to be human, but does competition show that war too is a natural part of the human condition? After all, if I win a game of chess, my opponent loses, and suffers damage, if only to his ego.
In these equal days the triumph of the strong and the skilful and the lucky is deemed unfair.
So, is chess a depraved game? Does it lead our Youth to sin against Fairness?
Is it a boy thing? In other words, is it criminal?
Does it offend Big Mother?
If competition is wicked then surely chess is wicked too.
But all sports start with a theoretical equality, and that is where the pleasure lies.
It is nice to lie on my back, watching the clouds roll by, and it's nice to play my whistle and I enjoy the feeling that I might be improving as a whistle player, but it doesn't get the adrenalin running like a good game of chess with Dick.
Games are a sociable activity too. It is a way to get together, particularly for us guys.
Indeed, war probably originated as something like a Sunday afternoon game, like a rugby match between two neighbouring villages, an excuse for some fun and raucous laughter.
Perhaps one day somebody stopped playing, and took it all too seriously.
Perhaps one day somebody gave themselves over to the Lie.
Perhaps somebody lost faith and cheated. 

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