Sumary: Hoss teaches Joe how to play chess. Written for 3rd quarter chaps and spurs.<\/p>\n
Rating: G
\nWord count: 1280<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Hoss, why do we always play checkers?\u201d 14 year old Little Joe looked up in question as he leaned against the <\/span>wall<\/b> of the general store.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hoss tossed the last sack of cornmeal into the buckboard then climbed up after it. \u201cCause I thought you liked it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I do, but Adam and Pa. They always play chess.\u201d He reached up as Hoss leaned back down and helped him into the seat. Hoss snapped the traces and the matched roan team moved down the road and out of town.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe continued his thought, \u201cSo I was wondering why we play checkers instead of chess.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, I reckon that\u2019s cause you don\u2019t know how to play chess, Little Joe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBut if I did know, would you want to learn too?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have to learn. I already know how.\u201d He tried to hide his grin at the response that <\/span>declaration <\/b>would bring. Sure enough, the <\/span>eruption<\/b> of emotion that Little Joe gave was worth a good laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve known how to play chess this whole time and you never thought I might want to! Aww, Hoss\u2026\u201d Joe sat back down and crossed his arms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCome on, Short Shanks, you saying you don\u2019t actually like playing checkers anymore?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo, I do. I just.\u201d Joe huffed in frustration. \u201cIf you know how, why don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMostly cause big brother Adam gets too serious about it.\u201d Hoss glanced sideways at his younger brother before continuing. \u201cSo it\u2019s more fun to play checkers with you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHm.\u201d Joe was silent for a few moments before speaking again. \u201cBut you know how. So you could teach me?\u201d He looked over at Hoss with wide hazel eyes, and there was no way his older brother was saying no.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *****<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hoss waited until he and Joe were alone and Adam and Ben were gone. Then he pulled out the chessboard and all the pieces. Joe watched excitedly picking up each piece to examine it before putting it back down. Hoss set down the basket that held the pieces and then turned to the board and placed each piece in its place. He waited until Joe had finished inspecting each piece and then spoke quickly before his little brother <\/span>launched<\/b> into a plethora of questions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlright, so I\u2019m gonna go over the basics. Keep in mind there are more rules that I\u2019m not gonna get into until you understand these, alright?\u201d He waited for Little Joe to nod, then continued, \u201cEach person has 16 pieces. These in the front row are all pawns. They move forward only, one spot at a time and capture another piece by moving 1 space diagonally. These are the rooks. They can move in a straight line, like this. As far as you want. These are the bishops. They can move in a diagonal line as far as you want. Good so far?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYep.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGood. Alright, next are the knights. These.\u201d Hoss picked up the black knight in front of himself. \u201cThey move exactly 2 spots, one has to be diagonal and the other has to be straight, like this. Now the queen. She\u2019s the most powerful piece on the board, and can move either diagonal or straight for however far you want, but you can\u2019t combine the two directions. And last, here is the king. He can only move 1 spot at a time, in any direction. Got it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCan they jump over other pieces?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnly the knights. They can jump cause they\u2019re horses. But none of the others can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen it jumps, does that capture the other piece?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo. It\u2019s not like checkers. To capture a piece, you have to land exactly on that spot. Here, like this. If your pawn is here, and my bishop is here, and it\u2019s my turn, I can move this bishop diagonally, land on the space your pawn is on, and that captures it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOk, so if I want to capture say\u2026 this piece.\u201d Joe pointed to the same bishop. \u201cAnd my rock-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRook.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy rook is here. I can move like this to take it?\u201d He moved the white rook three squares in a straight line without jumping any pieces.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s right!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOk, so how do I win?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou gotta pin down the other person\u2019s king. Make it so that he can\u2019t move away or block you from capturing that piece.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s harder than it sounds. There\u2019s a lotta strategy involved. Probably why ol\u2019 Adam likes it so much. Well, what do you think? Wanna play?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Little Joe nodded energetically and Hoss lined all the pieces back up. The game lasted for about 20 minutes, with Hoss correcting Joe every time he moved a piece illegally. A few times he pointed out how a certain move would seem beneficial, but would actually leave another of Joe\u2019s pieces unprotected. Other times, he didn\u2019t say a word and would simply capture the unguarded piece. After Little Joe had involved each of his pieces at least once, Hoss cornered his little brother\u2019s king and called checkmate.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLittle Joe, I gotta be honest. That game was kinda a <\/span>wreck<\/b>.\u201d He laughed as he spoke. \u201cBut it was your first one. We can work on it before you go playin\u2019 anyone else, ok?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe laughed along with his brother. \u201cHow about we work on it before I even go tellin\u2019 anyone else I\u2019m learning it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *****<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n They practiced as much as they could over the next two months. Each time, Joe made fewer mistakes and captured more of Hoss\u2019 pieces. As Joe began to get more familiar with the game and the ways each piece moved, Hoss gradually introduced other tips, tricks, and infrequently used rules. Eventually Joe was giving Hoss a challenge during the games and he found that his younger brother was an enjoyable opponent to play against. He took the game seriously, didn\u2019t gloat when he did things right, and didn\u2019t pout when he lost. One night after a snowstorm that left a fresh eight inches, Adam sat in his preferred chair in front of the fire. Hoss sat on the hearth and faced Joe who sat on the table with the checkers board in between them. Ben and Hop Sing were looking out the windows behind the kitchen table and reminiscing about past winters on the Ponderosa.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Joe took the last of his older brother\u2019s checkers when Hoss stood and slapped both his thighs. \u201cWell, I\u2019m about done in, Little Joe. But I tell you what. How about we get older brother there involved?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cNo thank you, Hoss. Checkers is more your thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFair enough, but what about a round of chess with Joe here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam closed his book, marking his place with one finger and looked up with an eyebrow raised. \u201cChess with Little Joe?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe might surprise you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlright. Set it up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The youngest Cartwright grinned and spun around to sit on the other end of the table and set up the board and pieces for chess. He lost miserably, but was happy to have lasted nearly ten minutes and taken three of Adam\u2019s pieces. Joe laughed as he tipped over his king in surrender. \u201cGuess I could use some more practice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou certainly could. But you did everything right. I just happen to have some more experience with the game. Where did you learn this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHoss taught me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHoss did?\u201d Adam turned to look at their middle brother who, despite claiming he was tired, had stayed to watch the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He nodded. \u201cSure did. Little Joe wanted to learn, and I figured maybe I had more patience for it than you or Pa.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell you made a good teacher. He didn\u2019t cheat once!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sumary: Hoss teaches Joe how to play chess. Written for 3rd quarter chaps and spurs.
\nRating: G Word count: 1280<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12510,"featured_media":40380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1009,39,30,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brothers","category-chaps-spurs","category-prequels","category-challenges","wpcat-1009-id","wpcat-39-id","wpcat-30-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Bonanza-slide.jpg?fit=1086%2C815&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}