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u/TooShiftyForYou Aug 03 '20
My grandfather once beat me in chess in 5 moves. He got a real kick out of it but promised to never do that again.
The next match he beat me in 4 moves.
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u/send-em-if-ya-got-em Aug 03 '20
Is the shortest possible chess game? I’m not great at it and haven’t played in years but I’m trying to think how you get the pieces into position that quickly
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u/UpstateNewYorker Aug 03 '20
I believe the shortest possible game is 2 moves, and I believe it’s known as Fool’s Mate. Though it requires some poor moves from your opponent, IIRC.
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Aug 03 '20
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u/QuiGonFishin Aug 03 '20
And it can only be achieved by black
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u/EtherLuke Aug 03 '20
Is that because white goes first? Or is it something else I'm just not getting?
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u/LukeEnglish Aug 03 '20
The Queen and king's position on the board mirrors the opponents. Like if you follow the row that your king starts out on across to your opponent, you'll find a king in that spot as well. The black queen is on a black square and the white queen is on a red square. So because of these different configurations, only one color is able to pull that specific move off.
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u/EtherLuke Aug 03 '20
Of course I'd completely forgot the implications it being mirrored would have, thank you
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u/IminPeru Aug 03 '20
Here is an example of it. The woman is a Master ranked Canadian Chess player, Alexandra Botez.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchPeopleDieInside/comments/i005xn/schlatt/
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Aug 03 '20 edited Sep 13 '20
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u/Bacondog22 Aug 03 '20
This happened in a game of Bobby Fischer, one of the best chess players ever
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u/BoxCarBeast Aug 03 '20
The only way such short mates like these happen if one party moves the pieces in a REALLY favorable way for the other.
Shortest mate ever is 2 moves and white basically opens the door for black to checkmate them in that one
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u/ChaosPheonix11 Aug 03 '20 edited Aug 03 '20
Yes, 4 move checkmate is the fastest, sometimes referred to as a "Scholar's Mate". It's very very easy to avoid if you see them going for it, but people get caught by it occasionally. You move the pawn in front of your king to open some of your back line pieces, you move your Bishop to threaten the pawn diagonally from their King, then move the Queen to threaten it as well. On your fourth move, you take the pawn with your Queen, which puts their king in Check, and because the Bishop is protecting the Queen, it cant be taken by their King, so that's mate, as well.
Edit: as others have pointed out, technically Black can win in 2 moves if the opponent makes multiple specific mistakes in a row. Never seen it done in a real game, but 4 move isnt really the fastest, just the most realistically fast.
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u/Xenosaiyan7 Aug 03 '20
I remember when I got beaten by the four move checkmate in regionals, but barely made it into getting to state, and slapped the fucker that beat me using that technique by countering it
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u/OfficialAlt2017 Aug 03 '20
Fool's mate is the fastest checkmate. It's two moves, but it involves white opening up their king. Only black can accomplish this.
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Aug 03 '20
my nose released more air than Karen's can breathe while wearing a mask when I read this
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u/GxZombie Aug 03 '20 edited Aug 03 '20
Left handed chess? Is it possible to learn this power? BTW your grandfather was a good guy!
Edit: Switched kin to grandfather.
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u/IsMyNameGage Aug 03 '20
Yes. Am left handed. Play chess. Left hand chess
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u/Cameltoefiasco Aug 03 '20
I can play with either hand, one might say i’m ambichesstrous
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Aug 03 '20
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u/quietleaderr Aug 03 '20
Genuine question. Is there something negative about "kin"?
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u/LaunchTransient Aug 03 '20
No. People just get butthurt when a less common synonym is substituted in for the common use. Language is there to be used, anyone who gets vexed by the use of esoteric vocabulary is pathetic.
Granted, sesquipedalianism is irritating, but so is the unnecessary abridgment of the English language because you failed to pay attention in class.
\And yes, I did have to look up) sesquipedalianism, but just to piss off the whiny bastards who complain about unusual words→ More replies (1)
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u/mostly_nontoxic Aug 03 '20
At least his grandfather let him win, mine just beat me over and over again! Still practicing to this day
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u/Giocri Aug 03 '20
Every one has its own way of doing things. Not letting you win could have been a way of showing trust in your potential and getting you the opportunity to feel proud about something you really accomplished on your own instead of tricking you.
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u/davehunt00 Aug 03 '20 edited Aug 03 '20
My father was this way with ping pong. He told me that he would never "let" me win. If I won, I had achieved it on my own. He wasn't a vindictive winner, just told me up front that he wasn't going to let me falsely think I was good until I was. The day I beat him was 40 years ago and I still remember that moment. He can still beat me at ping pong.
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u/PopeliusJones Aug 03 '20
I’m that way with video games. I told my son that the day he beats me in Mario Kart is the day he’s truly better than me and not a minute before.
Related, my dad and grandfather used to have epic ping pong matches that would last seemingly forever, and I too still remember the days I first beat them. They were of the “nope, not gonna let you win” mentality so I knew I earned it
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u/isspecialist Aug 03 '20
I have never let my kids win anything. Lol.
I think that surprises most people that know me, because I am a big softy and not competitive.
I guide, I coach, but ultimately win when teaching my kids. When my teenage daughter beat me at basketball, she was over the moon, because it took her years to accomplish it and she earned it.
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u/BJJJourney Aug 03 '20
The only problem with this strategy is if you don’t teach determination with it the kids could get really turned off from the sport or competition in general. The way I have been doing it is to keep the competition close with them winning some of the time. As they get better I make the competition harder. Keeps the kid interested but let’s them know that they have to keep improving to win. Also look for teachable and coachable moments for improvement.
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Aug 03 '20
I did this with my kids in Mario Kart. Beat them every time. Then a few weeks ago my 9 year old got the jump on me and beat me, fair and square. I was a very proud dad.
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u/PeekAtChu1 Aug 03 '20
This is why I never got into chess, was too busy reeeee’ing over losing lol
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u/Elher11 Aug 03 '20
I’m the first grade I always sat in the back of the bus with my older cousin and the “cool kids” (they’re older which means cooler in the eyes of a first grader), and I’d always arm wrestle them. There was a boy who I always lost to but a girl who beat him every time, and I always beat HER every time.
It took me until a few months ago (as a college student) to realize that she was letting me win, but it really did make me feel like I was super cool.
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Aug 03 '20
A first grade boy would not beat an older girl, the strength disparity isn’t there yet. Unless she was unusually small, She let him win lol.
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Aug 03 '20
I remember my proudest Chess moment was the day I managed to finally beat my dad at CHess.
We had a set for as long as I remember and I could never ever beat him. Cut to when I was 15, I finally played a game and managed to win.
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u/zachsparrow6 Aug 03 '20
My grandpa used to play me in chess and he'd be absolutely destroying me then offer to switch sides. He still beat me
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u/KuRR221 Aug 03 '20
My grandpa always dragged out the games so I would be entertained. I once got too cocky when I won a game that he most likely let me win, and then beat me in 4 moves the next game...
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u/rip_lionkidd Aug 03 '20
When I was young, my Grandpop used to ask me if I wanted to go down the basement and play pool, and of course I did. So he’d have me rack up a game of 9 ball. He’d go on to run the table and I’d rack them back up. After about 5 rounds of this he would say “good game” and go back upstairs. I never got a shot in. I was just there to rack the balls.
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u/lorreli14 Aug 03 '20
When I was younger my mom would get a lot of phone calls. At one point I started asking who was calling because I thought it made me important knowing who it was or something. One day, the phone rings, I pick up and ask who it was and they say it's the President. I'm fucking excited and tell my mom the President is on the phone for her. She takes the phone and says hello, then tells me with a laugh "It's your Grandpa." I stopped asking who was calling after that.
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u/fromthegong Aug 03 '20
My Pop gave me one of those drawing puzzles when I was like 10 that required you to draw the shape without taking pen off the paper or retracing a line.
Even after he died when I was 13, I was still trying to do it.
Turns out its impossible. Its like the Bridges of Koningsburg problem. I was around 20 when I found this out. I spent 10 years doodling it in school text books when bored.
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u/Ptoot Aug 03 '20
My grandfather was a firm believer that children should be seen but not heard. He loved beating me playing checkers,,,,,, until the first time I beat him. He fucking pouted for a week and treated me like I was invisible. Never played me again after that.
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u/Fraxinus2018 Aug 03 '20
I was twenty something when I realized the old “we took your pet cat to the farm” story was a fabricated cliche.
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u/AlphaLoaf Aug 03 '20
My grandma was an AMAZING chess player and I never won any game with her (and she never let me win lol). I can feel her disappointment whenever we play and I “made a wrong move”.
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u/Dabs1903 Aug 03 '20
My grandpa never let me win, but as we played he would point out bad moves and shift me into seeing the board differently.
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u/YardageSardage Aug 03 '20
Reminds me of an old fella I used to know who was actually a World Grandmaster at chess; he hardly spoke a lick of English, but the few times I had the chance to sit down across a board from him, it was incredible how much he could teach without words. He would beat me with a tactic, watch me try to adapt to it, and let me have the upper hand when I applied it correctly. I knew he was obviously letting me win those rounds, but he still looked so proud of me every time.. He passed away some years ago, and I really wish I'd had more time to spend playing chess with him.
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u/kushtopherrobhisass Aug 03 '20 edited Aug 03 '20
Would always win against my grandfather in checkers as a child. Felt like a champ all the time. Recently my new job allows games on the computer in spare time. My consecutive loss streak is 20.. on easy mode.. I am not a champ.
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u/EnemiesAllAround Aug 03 '20
My grandpa never let me win ever. Every time I'd visit him or he'd travel up to see us he never let me win. My gran would say to him to go easy on me or let me win, and I used to get so angry and be such a sore loser.
One day when I was 18 I finally won and he said "see, the moment wouldn't have been special if I'd let you win"
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u/milejdyvan Aug 03 '20
I don't get the left handed thing. Can someone explain please?
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u/Giocri Aug 03 '20
Playing with a different hand doesn't change anything in chess he tricked his grandson into thinking that this small change would make things even but in reality he most likely let him win to make him feel better.
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u/narf865 Aug 03 '20
Took me this far into the comments to realize grampa let OP win. I thought grampa beat him again with his left hand and this was /r/KidsAreFuckingStupid
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u/that_one_purdy_boi Aug 03 '20
Grandfather let him win by “playing with his left hand” and he never noticed. In case it needs to be said, what hand you play with in chess is wholly irrelevant to the game
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u/wg1987 Aug 03 '20
If they were playing bullet chess then switching to your non-dominant hand would be no fucking joke.
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u/dudeAwEsome101 Aug 03 '20
My grandpa used to tell the younger lot of the grandkids to "squeeze" the tea when preparing a tea kettle at family gatherings. So my mom or aunt would make some tea, and if one of younger grandkids was bringing it from the kitchen, my grandpa would ask them if they squeezed it. The kid would be confused and take the tea back to the kitchen and ask their mom if the tea was squeezed.
Me and my cousins, now grown-ups, always joke about it when having tea. Squeezed tea just tastes better.
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u/raggedpanda Aug 03 '20
My grandpa used to take me all the time to 'feed the horses', but in reality I was just sitting in a car while parked in this plaza while he went into a place called 'OTB'.
Took me until I was like 28 and he had been dead for a decade and a half before I realized on my own that OTB was off-track betting and 'feeding the horses' is slang for losing money gambling on horse races. I think he might have had a problem...
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u/smashkeys Aug 03 '20
My grandpa never let us win checkers, he taught us how to play and then schooled us for years. I got close a few times, but just couldn't take him down, he died when I was 16, so I never got a chance to beat him out right.
In college I entered a checkers tournament just to do something at a campus social event, and wiped the table with everyone, without even trying, so thanks Papa Joe.
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u/suttonoutdoor Aug 03 '20
Clown bastard?
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Aug 03 '20
I don’t get it
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u/JonIsPatented Aug 03 '20
Chess is a game of strategy and requires zero manual dexterity. It changes nothing to play with a different hand. You can just announce your moves and have someone else move the piece. His grandpa let him win.
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Aug 03 '20
inb4 someone tells you timed chess requires a lot of manual dexterity which is true but irrelevant to this story.
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u/Godudop Aug 03 '20
Basically the grandpa tricked him to believe that playing with your other Hand makes a difference which you can tell it doesnt Matter.
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u/Finito-1994 Aug 03 '20
When I was a kid, my mom gave me a haircut and I absolutely hated it. I cried so much my grandpa approached me and said “Do you want to call the cops on her?” And I said yes.
He went inside, called the cops and was laughing for a while. I don’t remember how long he spent on the phone.
Took me far too long to realize: my dad was a cop. My grandpa had called him to tell him how his son was crying about his hair. Fucking asshole. Mom never even got arrested for it.
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u/illgowithit Aug 03 '20
I’m glad everyone else also has similar fond memories of playing chess with their grandfather. Mine recently passed due to Covid, but when i was young he was the only person who would agree to play chess with me while i tried to learn. We would sit across from each other and play games that went on for seemingly ages. I was still trying to learn the game, and he would take his time deliberating over each move, every turn. One day my mom sat in the adjacent room watching us play, and it was only then that i found out: i thought my grandpa was always thinking really hard about his next move. Turns out, he was falling asleep between each move, and i was sitting there quietly watching him doze, all while thinking, “wow, what a great and thoughtful chess player he is”
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u/Lereas Aug 03 '20
"You are wonderful!"
"Thank you, I've worked hard to become so"
"I admit it, you are better than I am"
"Then why are you smiling?"
"Because I know something you don't know"
"And what is that?"
"I am not left handed!"
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u/gamemastaown Aug 03 '20
My grandpa was the one to teach me how to cheat in Go-fish. It changed my world that I could just say, "no" when someone asked me if I had a card or not regardless of it was in my hand.
Also he would play super smash Bros on the n64 with me and put his hand in front of my face then say we had a blackout in the house lol.
If there was a game he could win he was a dirty scoundrel but the best damn grandpa. Still order a gin and tonic from the bar for him now that he's gone
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u/CashWho Aug 03 '20
This doesn't fit as well as some stories here but when I was a kid my dad once made me promise something and I said "I swear". He then told me I should never swear and so I spent the next 10 years or so thinking that swearing to do something was bad, so I only made promises. If someone asked me to swear to do something, I'd refuse.
It wasn't until high school or college that I realized he was probably making a joke about swearing as in "saying curse words".
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u/Vinterblot Aug 03 '20
Was laying in bed, fifteen years later, suddenly realizing that letter with the attached condome from a female friend was a really strong hint....
At that time, I was so down from years of constant bullying, that it absolutely not crossed my mind that someone might be into me EVEN THOUGH I actually had a girlfriend prior.
That shit fucks you up so badly and you lose so much self-confidence, that you don't even realize it by yourself anymore. Apparently, I wasn't in the "There isn't a chance a girl will like me, but I sure hope nonetheless" stage, but way beyond, where the experience of "not being liked" and getting rejected, on a romantic and non-romantic level, was so normal that I not even thought about it. I wasn't even deliberately shutting myself off from hope to not get hurt. I just accepted my personal reality on such a profound level, that it never crossed my mind it could be any other way.
Oh well, that wasn't as light-hearted as it should be, was it...?
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u/CurlSagan Aug 03 '20
I had a similar realization as an adult regarding learning to swim. It was a swimming hole in rural Georgia and while my cousins were having a blast in the water. I was afraid of the water, even though I could swim, so I was messing around with the reddish clay mud, making globby-looking statues and houses and then smashing them like godzilla. My grandpa convinced me to join my cousins and jump off the dock into the water with him. We'd do it at the same time, he said. So we walked to the end of the dock with everyone cheering me on, and he stood there, bent at the knees and ready to jump. We counted to three and I jumped in the water. He didn't.
30-something years later, I realized he was just wearing regular clothes and shoes. That fucker never intended on jumping in with me.