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Club Information:
CHESS Minister!:
CCCC Championship:
The Club publishes a magazine entitled ‘CHESS minister!’ 3 times a year to keep members in touch.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact the Secretary:
The Club publishes a magazine entitled ‘CHESS minister!’ 3 times a year to keep members in touch.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact the Secretary:
Some of my parishioners are clearly amused when they notice several small chess-sets littering my office. I find this very strange. It appears to be a perfectly serious matter for my curate Anthony to make constant references to Manchester United in and out of sermons, for my Warden to uphold and regularly declaim the wonders of local church architecture and my Reader to be well-known as an enthusiast for choral choir-singing. Yet the thought of the Rector spending months over one game of chess is amusing. “You don’t!” was one recent visitor’s short comment, almost open-mouthed. “Really??” was her companion’s. Followed by a nod, or an “Mmm…” or something kindly, along the lines of “Well, that must be very nice for you…”.
Actually, I have started using this non-plussed ‘I-don’t-know-what-to-say-next’ reaction to good effect.
When Anthony turns to our OLM-in-training during a staff meeting and asks if she saw the match last night (She’s a Liverpool fan) I casually drop my latest tussle with my opponent’s cleverly-placed knight into the conversation. He looks up, blankly, and we return to the subject.
When the children on the front row in church are showing signs of the fidgets I break into my shorter ‘All Age Worship’ talk (which is obviously not managing to hold the rapt attention of all ages) and ask them if they have ever lost a board-game, and tell them that I had to resign my second chess game of the season last week, and then say something inane like “When you lose you feel disappointed, but you don’t stop trying, do you?” and we share a rare moment of sympathy and quiet reflection before they start chattering again.
When someone rings to tell me every detail of what they have been doing during the day and I become aware that I am no more pastoral use to them, I sometimes find I simply have to break off the call in order to email a chess move to one of my CCCC colleagues. I am guaranteed immediate release. A mild eccentricity or two in their minister seems to reassure people.
But no-one who has not enjoyed the magnificent interest of chess-playing can imagine the fun of curling up in bed with a chess-board, trying to work out what to do next. Falling asleep, and then, more fun…. having to go over it all over again tomorrow.