A fortnight ago, Rohan and I had lunch with our grandson River and his Dad – River had just turned seven. He had celebrated his birthday proper at a party with his friends; now at lunch, as well as giving him his presents, he and I played chess (see first Illustration). This blog is about that lunch which for me was very special. 

In the UK, reaching the age of seven has no particular significance. In France, their culture hails a seventh birthday as a critical milestone – at seven, their children attain the ‘Age of Reason’. With their capacity to reason, it is expected that children will, for example, understand notions of good and bad, will recognise the concept of justice, and will take responsibility for what they do. In many ways River, in his thoughtful and reflective way has been behaving as a ‘French’ seven-year-old for at least two years but now he seems more aware of, and even lives out, these responsibilities. 

In the spirit of French culture, at our birthday lunch I asked River if he could tell me how he saw ‘good’ and ‘bad’.  After a short reflection and choosing his words with great care (he loves words!) he told me that, goodness was kindness, respecting and helping other people and being sensitive. For ‘badness’, as well as listing the opposites of goodness, he added bullying, hurting, stealing and cowardice.  Whether or not we accept this French milestone, it seems like River is developing nicely!

Now to chess – if ever there was a game that demanded reasoning it must be chess, and knowing how River ‘ticked’, I started to introduce him to the game when he was five. After all, I learned it from my father at around that age and have loved it ever since. 

Over several days during his summer holiday 18 months ago, I slowly told him about the different pieces and how they moved on a chess board, explained what the game was about and showed him how the pieces were set out on the board when the game started. Perhaps, and not surprisingly, it soon became obvious that my introduction was not working – he had simply ‘turned off – and although disappointed, I stopped. 

A year later I reintroduced him to the game and this time he was ready, indeed avid to learn, and I quickly discovered that he had actually remembered a lot of what I had shown him earlier. Then came the breakthrough – recently he was given a children’s iPad on which his Father had loaded a chess ‘App’. Since then, either by himself or with his Dad he has started to play against screen bot ‘AI’ opponents and has become a chess ‘obsessional’.

As he learned, he discovered there was such a thing as international chess ratings and calculated that his rating was around 1000 (Magnus Carlsen, currently the best player in the world has at rating of just over 2800, and for River’s grandfather it is around 1650!). For him, having a recognised skill level has been a great plus and one which means that on his App he will win against players with a lower rating – as indeed he does. 

The advantages of chess is that it is a  game of skill and reasoning where luck plays no part and which in so many ways mirrors those conflicts in life where outwitting is of the essence.

He was delighted to play chess with me over his birthday lunch and it was clear that he understood the game, its tactics, the value of the pieces, and the implications of making different moves. For me it brought back wonderful memories. Playing against my Father (see second illustration) was a highlight of my childhood. He was a domineering man but during our games it was as though we were equals. Interestingly, I very rarely beat him but when I did, I felt awful. 

I should add that one remarkable attributeof River is his thoughtfulness and originality. After we had finished our last lunchtime game I told him that he was a wonderful grandson who I loved dearly. In response he looked me in the face and said ‘Grandad, how lucky it is for us that your kid had a kid!’ Could I ask for more?

The first illustration shows a photo of River having just turned seven as he carefully sets out the pieces for our first ‘birthday’ game of chess. The second illustration is a photo of me at around seven ‘in heaven’ as I was playing a game against my father.

For helping me write this blog I would like to thank Annie, Tina, River, Ali, Joshua, Thierry, Rohan and Vivien.