Five, I know what J’adoube means, I know Perk’s defense, I know castling, en passant and underpromotion…
But what is the Two Rooks rule?
Maybe i know it but don’t know that it has a name.
Please share with the class.
In this fake commercial, the girls did not actually play chess – they were too busy playing dress-up with the pieces as if they were Barbie’s accessories.
I was being ironic, Turpentine. Clearly you don’t spend enough time in the Comments on Cecil’s Columns forum.
What is J’adoube? Perk’s defense?
I assume “underpromotion” is when you reach the eighth rank with a pawn and promote it to any piece other than a queen.
My then 6-year-old son taught me to play. He learned from my father, my boyfriend, and his summer camp. I suck, though, and he’s improving. Maybe I should play more. But who am I kidding? Now 7 years old, my son regularly trounces me at checkers. I don’t think there’s hope for me; strategy escapes me entirely.
Yves Bousquet, my absolutely incredible gr. 3 teacher.
Mark Alvidrez, on a rainy day in 4th grade. Had a major crush on him. Can’t remember how to play anymore, since I never played again after that year. Not even sure if my dad knows how to play chess - we only played checkers.
A whole bunch of people taught me how to play. I had a couple of different people show me how to move the pieces around.
But I didn’t really learn to play until I started playing with my friend a lot in about sixth grade… until then I just randomly moved pieces. He didn’t really teach me, I just figured it out by playing. So I suppose you could say I’m pretty much self taught.
My dad taught me as well. He played professionally and made it up to Master level, so I am proud to say I was taught well… but I forget everything I once knew. Damn. 
Oh well, at least I kicked ass in grade four Chess Club.
I read that once in Cecil’s book, but I didn’t question it because, well–it was Cecil, after all. But I have never heard of the two rook rule, either.
“J’aboube” is a bit of a joke, though there’s only one other person who knows that joke soi don’t know why i made a private joke to myself. It comes from a rule that if you touch one of your pieces, you HAVE to move it- unless you are adjusting them or something. “J’adoube” means “I adjust.”
When I play my friend, I sometimes make a move and then I yelp in horror when I see the obvious blunder of that move, and then i quickly take back my move-
“Hey, you can’t do that!”
“J’aboube! I was SO adoubing!”
“Yeah? Adoube this!”
No one in my family played. I learned the basic rules from this thing my Grandpa had. I think it was made by World Book Encyclopedias. You put in a huge circular sheet of paper that had exercises on it, and on top of that a smaller blank circular sheet of paper, and closed it up, and there was a window that showed some information and a question, and you wrote the answer in another window that opened onto the blank piece of paper, then you worked this sliding lever to advance it to the next exercise and a fresh spot on the blank paper. Well, if anyone knows what I’m talking about, remind me of the name.
I taught my sister how to play kids, but we always ended up in a stalemate. My husband talks me into playing sometimes, but I always end up bored and frustrated because I suck so bad at it. I’m 'way better at Go or Othello or even checkers. Grandpa taught me checkers. Dad taught me how to fish and ride a bike (not at the same time.)
My brother-in-law taught me the board set-up and moves when I was 8 and he was 19 or so. Didn’t teach me any strategy. I think I played three games all the way through between the ages of 8 and 33.
For some reason, in my early thirties, I got interested in chess and started buying and reading books on it. (J. Hannak’s biography of Emanuel Lasker is first-rate!) I’ve taught both my children (girl and boy) how to play; she’s indifferent, he likes it.
Oh, I’m a lousy player too, by the way. Although I excel at defeating small children and making them cry, I run away from grown-up chess players like the nasty bully I am.
I LOVE the British slang term for “lousy chess player”…
Wood-pusher.
Heck, Turpentine, our chess club made jokes like that all the time.
“J’aboube” was screamed out more times than I can remember, along with
“This is the Knight that says ‘Ni!’”
“Chess players love to mate.”
“Never go in against The Sicilian when death is on the line!”
ooooooh lord, we were such nerds.
Oh yeah, my dad taught me when I was eight.
Nobody. I have never in my life played chess. Ever.
I know. I am a strange one, but it is true. We were a Backgammon-playing family.
My husband taught me when we were dating. He’s pretty good. I’ve beat him a few times. He’ll still correct me when I accidentally put my King in check. Usually after five minutes of me moving a piece back and forth (between the only two spaces that keep my King safe), I’ll just say, “Take the damn thing!” He gets annoyed, because you don’t “take” a King, you just put it in check. I don’t expect to be winning any tournaments in the near future.
My father taught me when I was in third grade. It was one of the more useful things he’s done for me (Ok, sure, there were plenty of other things more useful than that. It was one of the more useful things in the “other” category of Things Your Father Does For You.), though he didn’t know it at the time – it was just another game, like checkers. I really got into it, played in tournaments, and went to a weekly club. I learned how to interact with adults at a much earlier age than most, and beating someone five times older than you in a mental game of skill is a great feeling for a kid. It develops your mind; it breeds respect for others who have developed theirs. It gives you the opportunity to meet many people from all walks of life with whom you may have never come into contact otherwise. There is even the opportunity for monetary reward – tournaments with prize money divided by classes of skill (based on USCF ratings) mean that anyone can win money. This is all aside from the fact that it’s a darn fun game. Can you tell I think teaching your son/daughter to play chess at a young age is a great idea? I know that wasn’t the main thrust of the OP, but I just had to say it. 
A college-age girl who lived across the street with her mother when she wasn’t going to school. My friends and I thought she was the coolest ever - along with the moves for chess, she also taught us how to make a little whistle out of a blade of grass and how to identify different kinds of rocks. Then she moved to Florida to live with a guy named Chuck and study marine biology, and we never saw her again.
She taught me NO strategy though. To this day, my preferred strategy is “Hmm… I haven’t moved the horsey in a while… let’s move him!”
My dad taught me, too. It was the only game he taught me that I’ve had any use for. (THe others were hockey, soccer, baseball, and football.)
My dad taught me how to play chess, but not how to concentrate, which is why I never became any good at it.
Chalk one more up (a) whose father tuaght him to play, but (b) really learned the game from Fred Reinfeld’s books.
I was passionate about the game through my mid-teens, and had a USCF rating in the low 1700s by the end of high school. But have played only occasionally since. I prefer five-minute to normal-speed chess on those rare instances when I play.
Dad also taught us a lot of card games - hearts, bridge, gin rummy, cribbage (the rage among DC Dopers!), and casino, among others.