March 25 - Lisa's Musings (on chess) and Every Day Life

Every once in a while I go out on an assignment about which I have zero knowledge.

Not often, mind you, but there are those times.

Today was one of them.

I headed to Dicken Elementary School to cover a story about Martha Fierro, a Woman GrandMaster chess champion, who was speaking to an after-school chess club.

Fierro is not just a Woman GrandMaster, International Master and many time Woman Champion of Ecuador, she's the queen, king, rook, pawn, knight and all the other pieces on a chess board, best woman player anywhere, I think.

And she's the coach of the Italian Olympic Chess Team.

See, bet you didn't know that Italy had a chess team.

You learned something, too.

So, to say I was a bit out of my knowledge level was putting it nicely.

The six year olds know more about chess than I do.

I've never played a game of chess ... ever.

And when she said that age four was a good time to start, I knew I was really in trouble.

Fortunately, Fierro also had championship level patience and manners, and smiled sweetly when answering my questions.

And I don't think it was just because she's trying to promote chess in Michigan.

She was terrific with the kids.

And every one of them wanted her autograph.

Since she was so nice to me, I returned the favor, and supplied not only the pen, but also the paper for all those personalized autographs.

You can read all about this adventure next week in the A2 Journal.