Every pawn is a potential Queen. 是我很喜欢的一句国象行话，即小卒一旦到达对方底线即可升变为除王以外的任何棋子，包括皇后。虽然我并不会下棋。
小朋友开始下棋源自很偶然的一个explore：因为我自己喜欢看书，所以家里总是四处堆满书。我买书不会去想她现在爱读什么，而是觉得是好书就会买~现在不爱看，也许将来就爱看了呢？买书恐怕是世上性价比最高的投资了，所以虽然是图书馆常客，我还是会自己买很多书~这种随时随地的存在感，就像每天住在图书馆，不是经常去图书馆可以替代的，因为你永远不知道下一秒她会被哪本书吸引，passion如吉光片羽，稍纵即逝，那么珍贵的火种，岂是省几个书钱可以收服的。
也就是有那么一天，她发现了书架上一本Usborne旗下的国象入门漫画书。津津有味地翻完之后就跟我说：帮我买付象棋吧，我想玩。家里没人会玩，但又必须对弈，就Google了一下找了个附近的Chess Club。因为所在区的原因吧，比较白，不太鸡，Chess Club也是很散养的那种：免费，不上课，纯玩，玩中学。但是每次下完，Club的头儿都会来笑眯眯地跟我说：她下得很好，学好快。当然我都是还以礼貌的微笑，心想，哈，什么都能夸成一朵花，我懂。
最巧的是，俱乐部里有个老太特别喜欢她，仔细问了她的生日之后喜滋滋地跟她说，你知道吗？我跟你同一天生日哎，我们正好差了八十岁，我今年八十八。从此再不会忘记她是八岁开始接触国象。老太太前几年过世了，之前每一年都会跟她一起过生日，还总是从自己微薄的积蓄里省出钱来给她生日红包，说好羡慕她的外婆有那么可爱的外孙女，既然亲生外婆不在澳洲，就由她当外婆吧，感觉自己赚到了呢~每次都说得我好窝心。
就这样在俱乐部掌握了一些基本的走法，回来也总是继续兴致勃勃要找人来一盘，可惜我讨厌一切形式的对抗，所以实在没法扶持，就发挥自己的搜索调研精神给她下了一个下棋的app，就是Chesskid。
我觉得一定是下棋符合了她的某种内在逻辑。
比如，我一直觉得她是个规则感很强的人。有次在朋友圈记录了她的一个笑话：中提琴回课的时候，老师说，这段指法错了，我上次就给你写谱子上了，你怎么不看呢？她回说：你说的，拉铃木的曲子不可以看书。老师和我都一头黑线：让你不看是为了记谱，不明白的地方当然要看啦，看一眼又不会原地爆炸的。她就是这种，定了规矩，就会严格遵守的，学校老师也一直都表扬她很有work ethic，是那种自己一个人做作业也不会去翻答案的人。
而且，她也是个很teachable的人。就是给出指示之后能够完全按照指示去做的人，不会中间漏掉一些细节或者索性天马行空那样。所以记棋谱的能力不错。
然后，她棋品挺好。输了虽然会难过，但不会去怨恨对手，也不会把失败内化成对自己能力的质疑。这些都让下棋成为她真正enjoy的事，一个玩儿的过程，而不是一个必须一分胜负的负担。
所以我一直都不太同意学一样东西就一定是苦的，那种说法。反倒是很赞同学霸妈妈跟我说过的一句话：一件事小孩子naturally喜欢，那一定是因为那件事对他来说难度适中，既不容易到boring，又不难到奔溃。瓶颈什么的一定是会有的，但是因为自己喜欢去主动面对挑战和被逼无奈去迎接挑战是完全不同的两种体验，前面的“苦”是虽苦犹乐的，就像咖啡的苦跟药的苦不一样。
我觉得下棋对她来说就是那种naturally喜欢的事，她可以一边做别的事一边在那里听棋谱讲解听上一天。
在变幻莫测的现实世界里，我想下棋大概带给她了一种特殊的稳定感和确定性、可控性，成为她各种飘摇时刻可以实实在在抓住的一根救命树枝。
下面是她写的关于Chesskid的用户体验：
I was attracted to chess when my mum bought me an Usborne chess book. I was intrigued when I saw the graphics of the book and the interesting ways the chess pieces moved. I wanted to learn how to play when I realised that chess could teach me more skills to become more intelligent. This is what started my journey of chess.
I started Chesskid when I realised that chess needs two people to play, and I can’t play by myself. I couldn’t play with anyone in the house because nobody could play chess. It was also very hard for us to always go to a chess club nearby because I was very busy. This resulted in my mum finding the app, she also later found a cheaper membership through one of her wechat friends, which allowed you to do unlimited puzzles, watch all videos and have animated avatars.
Chesskid has helped me play chess and was one of my major go-to websites. I have improved a lot at chess and I would like to share how I have used Chesskid to improve my chess abilities. Chesskid has a wide range of puzzles to do, I suggest if you get the puzzle wrong, don’t skip it and give it another go until you get it, although if you are stuck, you can look at the answers and think about why this is the correct move instead of the ones that you made before. If you are stuck on a specific subject in chess, you can go onto the website and select that topic, it will come up with chess puzzles that help you with this topic by showing you what the main idea is and how to play against and with this topic.
The videos on Chesskid have also helped me. If you do the levels in the lessons section, it will help you a lot because it has a video attached to it so that you can learn about the topic and it will later test you on the subject that the level wants you to learn. In my opinion, you should do at least 2 or 3 levels a week so that you can accel quickly and learn more by having lessons on not only 1 topic. If you are stuck on one puzzle of the test, you shouldn’t look at the hints, you can continue to refer back to the videos and do some puzzles on the topic. If you are stuck and everything you try is wrong, you can look at the hints.
The bots are also good to play with, you should not turn on the coaching device unless you are doing it for fun because, in an official or most tournaments, you can’t have someone telling you every move you have to play or what ideas you should try, so you should think and analyse by yourself. If you are a beginner, you should start from the bot, “Qwerty”, but it depends on if you know how to play chess pretty well, in this case, you can choose where you would like to begin. To improve by this, you should try to beat the bot you are currently on, if you lose, don’t close out the game, look at each move of the game and figure out where you went wrong, if you win, play 3 more times, each on a different colour because you can’t always have the same opening played against you after you have won all the games without any takeback moves, move onto the next bot and do the same process until you can’t beat any more bots. When you can’t beat any more bots, do some more puzzles on the reason why you lost.
I like to play chess because it is a good activity for the mind. When you analyse it, you have to think about what the other person’s plan is and how to stop it, you also need to make plans of yourself to try figure out how to checkmate the opponent and learn something from the game. Chess sometimes has some hard bits to it, you need to learn to not care if you get beaten in a chess game, this is very hard because sometimes you feel that you don’t learn anything from a lost game and it starts to get frustrating. The fun things about chess are that you can never always have a certain number of openings and you can get creative and start making different branches to a main opening.
基本上Chesskid承包了她所有的国象启蒙，然后她也比较幸运，在兴趣初始阶段，学校断断续续组织了几个学期的Chess Club，然后来教的人又正好挺喜欢她，当时也是Perth最主要的棋赛组织者。有时候就算她没有资格拿奖，大咖也会特意留一块奖牌给她，以示鼓励。
内因外力完美结合，成就了她对国象的情有独钟。虽然跟职业选手比起来，她还差距很巨大，但是因为naturally enjoy，她就很愿意尝试新挑战就像打游戏打怪升级一样。比如，今年她就自推说，不想再参加Junior总冠军以外别的Junior的比赛而是转为参加成人比赛，因为更hard，更具挑战性。因为win or learn嘛，输了才会学乖，才会吃一堑长一智。
至于教练方面，我家的经验是初初起步的时候最好上大课，有种玩的感觉，这样输赢不会太入骨，对比较玻璃心的小孩来说不会马上浇灭兴趣。但是如果真的确定对下棋有巨大兴趣，决定走职业选手这条路，那么私教的好处是很明显的：可以进行针对性练习，见招拆招，定点爆破。
总之，下棋这件事，mainly还是为了给脑子做锻炼，这是我的理解，并不是为了要谋一个title，所以摒弃功利心，慢慢来，细水长流才是正道。那些起步就在冲刺的人可能并不能最快到达终点。
另Chesskid金牌会员有团购价，具体请见（继续）小升初深度揭秘 一文，文章最末有牛妈义务团购网址。
