When my daughter first began competing in school chess tournaments, I often chatted with other parents. Sometimes, I' d ask if they played chess themselves. Usually, the reply was no. When I volunteered that I was learning to play, their tone was cheerfully joking: " Good luck with that! ” If this game is so good for kids, why are adults ignoring it? Seeing someone playing smart phone games, I wanted to say: "Why are you having your kids do chess while you do that?"Sure, we parents had work to do, work that helped pay for the lessons our kids were enjoying. But I also wondered if we were sending a subtle message: that learning was for the young. During one tournament, I saw a group of parents. They were playing chess! Just then, a group of kids passed me. "Why are adults learning chess?" one asked, in a vaguely teasing tone.
I was tired of （sitting on the sidelines）. I wanted in. And that is how I got a membership card and started throwing myself in. Early on, I was nervous, even though I really had nothing to lose, except my pride. "A master can sometimes play badly," as one grandmaster （国际象棋大师）put it, "a fan, never!" And fan I was. It was three hours of concentration and thinking, with my phone turned off. It felt like a gym for the brain.
Being a beginner can be hard at any age, but it gets harder as you get older. The phrase " adult beginner" has an air of gentle pity. It implies the learning of something that you should have perhaps already learned.