I am addicted to a show called Endgame.  (Some of you may be noticing that I am addicted to a lot of TV shows.  I would like you to know that I don’t drink or do drugs.  Therefore, I must find my addictions elsewhere and I’ve chosen TV shows and Diet Pepsi.)  (But I really do appreciate the concern.)

This show is about an agoraphobic Chess master who lives in a hotel.  It’s a Canadian program that you can only find on Hulu in the U.S.  I found it while I had the flu a few weeks ago.

I’m not sure why I like it.  I don’t really play chess unless my son makes me and the first time I played chess, it was a huge failure.

I was on a double date, sort of.  I was out with a friend, we will call Justin, whose roommate wanted to date my friend, we will call Kim.  Does that make sense? Justin and I were very platonic, insert 18 yr old love sick sigh.  But Justin’s roommate really, really wanted to call what we were on a double date.  So we did.

He taught Kim how to play chess.  They played for 45 minutes (we were in line to see Cyrano de Bergerac with Gérard Depardieu.  The line was 1.5 hours long.)  She had never played before.  I think he explained the game very carefully to her.  He then asked if I would like to play.  I said yes.  He told me how the pieces moved but didn’t really go over the object of the game too well.  He told me that “Check” meant you were about to get the King.  Well, from that information, it’s only natural to assume “Checkmate” means you are about to get the Queen.  (Think about it for a minute and it will come to you.)  I lost in 10 minutes.

It was a little humiliating.

Maybe I like Endgame because the main character knows how to play chess and has a psychological disorder and due to my humiliation, I would like to think the two things go together.

(And yes it is time I got over that experience, but my 9 year old son recently beat me so the wound is still fresh.)

6 responses to “Checkmate

  1. How funny! You are not the only one who has that problem. Yes, it is time to get over it. Play a game with your son wherein you will beat him for sure. I know it is tough. I loved to be good at chess because playing chess makes one look smart but are they really, or are they just good at chess? I have to search and see if there is a relationship between chess playing and being a genius at other things, such as, writing, cooking, math, etc.

    Lovely post…

    • My son is getting better at games. And being mature, when he does beat me, to make me feel better, I make him clean his room.

  2. There is huge irony here. I am Canadian and haven’t heard of this show. In Canada, you can’t get hulu.

    There you go.

    By the way, I just heard about Family Ties last week… I’m a bit behind.

    And I don’t play chess or think-ahead games. I play my life like a chess match. To do that in my leisure time? No thanks.

    • I think it’s a Showcase show from last year. And the US is usually a year behind Canada in most things…

  3. So, I’m going with the assumption that your 9 year old is a natural at chess (rather than the alternative which speaks to your playing level). 🙂

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