"Jump, jump, jump, I win!"
I groaned and thunked my head on the floor as Daddy took the rest of my checkers pieces off of the board. I didn't think that I was going to win, but that still didn't mean that I liked it when I lost! I never beat Daddy, but he kept saying that I got a little bit better each time he beat me. I didn't think so.
"Well, then, good game, Cozy," Daddy said, lighting his horn and stacking the checkers. "You wanna play again, or should we do something different?" He looked over at the fireplace clock. "Or should we get some lunch or a snack first?"
"Can we have a snack, then one more game before lunch?" I asked, giving him my cutest smile. "I just don't think I'm ready for lunch yet."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Daddy replied, putting the checkers back into the box with his magic. He closed it and put it back in the game closet as he passed by it to get into the kitchen. "Apple slices sound good?"
"Yeah, thanks, Daddy!" I followed him into the kitchen and hopped up on a stool by the kitchen counter as he began cutting the apples into slices. I grinned and leaned my head on his shoulder. "Buuuut... can I also have a cookie?" I pointed at the cookie jar, where Mommy had put a bunch of freshly baked cookies last night. "Just one?"
Daddy shook his head and began putting the slices on two plates for us. "No, Cozy. You can have one tonight after dinner, okay?"
"Pleeeease?" I said, fluttering my eyelashes at him. "It's just one cookie, and you know how good cookies are with apples. It won't spoil my lunch at all, I promise."
Daddy tapped his jaw in thought. "Well, you are right. Cookies are pretty tasty..." He shrugged and took two cookies out of the jar. "What the heck? Let's live a little."
"Oh thank you, Daddy!" I said, wrapping my forelegs around him and nuzzling his shoulder. "You're just the bestest daddy in the whole wide world!"
Daddy chuckled and carried me and the plates to the main room. I slid off of him as he put the plates on the coffee table. "Okay, Cozy, what do you want to play next?"
"Can we play chess again, Daddy?" I asked, poking at the carpet. "I know you always beat me, but it's so much fun!"
Daddy shrugged. "I don't see any reason why not. Let me get the board." Daddy opened up the game closet again and pulled out a plastic chess set, which he started setting up while I munched on the cookie. Once he set the pieces up, he rotated the board so that I got the white pieces like always.
"You promise you won't go easy on me, right, Daddy?" I asked as I pushed the middle left pawn forward two spaces.
"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied, moving the opposite pawn forward one square.
"I'm going to beat you eventually," I grumbled, moving the middle right pawn next to the first one.
"Of that I have no doubt," Daddy said. "Your big problem right now is that you don't see the endgame, and by the time you get there, you don't have a lot of pieces left."
"But neither do you!" I pointed out.
"I have far more than you; therefore I have a much better chance of winning," Daddy pointed out as he moved one of his knights. "If I have my queen, a knight, two pawns and a rook left, and you just have a bishop and a knight, I have far more options. By that point, you're just trying to stave off the inevitable defeat, but I can checkmate you with my queen and rook, herd you where I want you to go with my knight, and even get one of the pawns to the other side of the board for another queen."
"I just need to figure out how to get the right pieces left, that's all," I said.
"In a way, sure, but you don't know what those right pieces are yet. For example..." He motioned to my pawn that was on his side of the board. "You get rid of your pawns really early, so they can't be used later in the game."
I rolled my eyes. "Daddy, they're just pawns. They just get in the way of the good pieces."
Daddy shook his head. "I'm not saying that you have to do everything you can to keep every single pawn on the board, but you're discounting what they can do. A pawn in the right place can provide support for a big attack, protect a key piece you're going to use later, or even prevent a checkmate." I took one of his pawns, and he returned the favor by taking my pawn with his bishop.
"But you don't have that piece anymore, Daddy," I said.
He shrugged as I moved again. "Neither do you. Who knows? That pawn could have played a huge role later on in the game."
"Maybe the one I just took will be a big problem for you," I retorted.
"Possibly, but I have seven other pawns to work with, on top of the bigger pieces. Another part of chess is being fluid in your plan. There's always the opportunity to make mistakes and have your opponent take advantage of them. You have to adjust. This isn't a game that lends itself to tunnel vision."
He might be right about that, but his rook was in a lot of trouble. If he moved his bishop instead of his knight, that rook was all mine! Yeah, his other bishop would just take mine, but, a rook was a lot more important than a bishop anyway. The only piece more important than the rook was the queen, so if I could get rid of one of them real early, I'd be winning.
But he didn't move his bishop or his knight. He moved his other knight and took the bishop that was about to take his rook. I glared at the board and took his knight with my queen. He chuckled and moved his remaining knight. "See? You wanted my rook so badly that you didn't pay attention to anything else."
"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, waving my hoof at him. "I get it."
I didn't do a lot better against Daddy from that point either. I took a lot of his pieces, but not as many as I usually do. I even tried to not just throw everything away to make sure he didn't have a lot of pieces either. I didn't have my queen, any pawns, knights, and I was down to one bishop by the time he started checking me, which meant that all I had was one rook to attack him with. He still had his queen, two pawns, the rook that I tried to take earlier in the game, and a bishop.
"I'm gonna win one of these times, Daddy!" I said, crossing my forelegs in a pout. "Just you wait!"
"I have no doubt of that, Cozy," Daddy said. "But right now..." He pushed the pawn to my side of the board and made another queen for himself. "Check."
I groaned and blocked his second queen with my rook. My bishop was behind my king, which couldn't move because of the other pieces, and so he just took my rook.
"Annnd... checkmate."
I flopped my head on the floor and pushed my king down the way Daddy said all ponies who play chess a lot do. Someday.
"You're getting a lot better, Cozy," Daddy said, using his magic to put all of the pieces back on the board. "It looks like you've been taking a lot of my advice to heart, but you still need to see the bigger picture. In chess, you have to plan two or three moves ahead."
"I know, I know," I growled. "But golly, it's just so hard to remember everything!"
"It can be," Daddy said with a nod. "But it just takes practice. Heck, you're miles better now than I was at your age. My dad didn't even bother with advice. He just crushed me over and over again until I learned."
"I'm glad you're not doing that, Daddy," I said with a smile. I stood up and patted my adorable curls to make sure that they were still perfect. "Can we eat lunch now?"
"Definitely," Daddy replied with a smile. He levitated me onto his back and carried me and the empty apple plates to the dining room. Mommy was setting out plates and bowls for grilled cheese and tomato soup! My favorite! I smiled at Mommy when she gave me my food. "Thank you, wonderful Mommy! Your cooking is always the best!"
Mommy gave me a happy smile as she sat down at her own seat. "You're welcome, Cozy. I'm glad you like it."
I dipped my sandwich in the tomato soup and took a bite. Yummy as always. "So, what are we having for dessert after the yummy dinner you're making?"
Mommy shrugged. "Well, we do have the cookies I baked the other day."
I gave Mommy my cutest smile. "Can we possibly... have chocolate cake? With that chocolate icing of yours that is so wonderful?"
Mommy frowned and tilted her head. "Cozy, that would take a little while to bake. We still have the cookies."
"Yeah, but think about how great the cake would taste, and then we'd have leftovers, so we could have your amazing cake for a few days after!" I pointed out. It seemed like a perfect plan to me. I could eat the cookies for lunches and for snacks. I could take some of them to school with me.
"I don't know," Mommy said. "Like I said: it would take a while to bake, and we do have cookies."
"But you like baking, Mommy," I said, pointing to her cake cutie mark. "It's your cutie mark and everything!"
"I suppose so," Mommy replied before shrugging. "You know what? Why not? Cake it is."
Daddy chuckled as I flew over to give Mommy a great big hug. "You're spoiling her," he said.
"Oh, she's just a filly," Mommy said with a wave of her hoof. "Let her live a little bit while she has the metabolism."
"Definitely," I said with a nod as I sat back down. "I have the meta-blossom!"
Daddy scoffed and shook his head. "Yeah, I guess you do."
"So, Cozy, I saw that you and your father were playing some games before lunch," Mommy said. "What were you playing?"
"We started with Stratego, which he beat me at, then checkers, which he beat me at, then we played chess, which..." I sighed and crossed my forelegs. "He beat me at."
"Yes, your father is really good at chess," Mommy said with a little chuckle. "I've only played your father a hoofful of times since we got married, but I've never even come close to beating him, and it's not like I'd never played chess before."
"Cozy is getting a lot better at it," Daddy said. "She almost got me on Stratego a few times, and I won't be better than her at checkers for very long."
"But I wanna beat you at chess most of all!" I said.
"You'll get there, Cozy," Daddy assured me. "You just have to keep practicing and remembering what I taught you."
I narrowed my eyes at him and leaned forward. "How do I know you're not giving me bad advice so that you win all the time?"
Daddy frowned at that. "Cozy, I'd never do that to you. It's my job as a father and a chess mentor to teach you how to get better. If I just give you all of the wrong answers, how is that helping you? How is that helping anypony? Would you want to do that to a filly of yours, or would you want them to be the best pony that they could be? It would be a fun challenge for both of you to play each other that way. I mean, think about it: wouldn't it be boring to just crush your opponent over and over again? Where's the challenge? Same thing goes if I went easy on you so you beat me every time. Where's the fun in that either? It'd be like if I just dropped the ball in the bucket for you during buckball. There wouldn't be anything about it that made you feel like you actually accomplished something."
"Hmph, I guess so," I grumbled. "But I like winning, and I've never beaten you. If you beat the best, you are the best, and I hate losing. It shows me that I'm not as good as I want to be."
"Well, good," Daddy replied, pushing his plate aside while Mommy gave us an amused grin. This wasn't exactly the first time Daddy and I had this conversation. "That means you'll push yourself harder and harder, and when you do eventually beat me, it'll be that much sweeter because you've worked so hard at it. Chess is a complicated game with a lot of moving parts. Once you get there, I think it'll be even more fun for us because we can give each other a real go at it."
"But I don't like losing! Isn't winning the most important thing?" I retorted.
“I suppose in terms of the game itself, sure, but no matter how many times you play chess, you always learn a little something. You get that much better. You develop another strategy in your arsenal that you can use to do better next time. You develop new ways to counter your opponents, as well as react when they may make a move that you don't expect."
"But you said that you should always think two or three moves ahead in chess," I countered.
Daddy nodded. "Yes, you should, but there's always the possibility that you make a mistake or your opponent makes a move you didn't quite expect, and you need to think about what he might be doing."
I sighed and pushed my plate aside. I'd been eating as Daddy talked. "Maybe. I still hate losing."
"Winning isn't everything, Cozy," Mommy said. "Sometimes you need to accept losing, and that it isn't the worst thing. If you lose a game of chess or checkers, nopony dies, or anything like that. Nopony wins every time. Losing is a part of life."
"It shouldn't be," I grumbled.
"That's silly," Daddy said with a smile. "If two ponies play chess, one of them is going to lose. If nopony ever lost, nopony would ever really win, would they?"
I grunted noncommittally. Mommy and Daddy might have a point about losing being a part of life. Somepony had to lose. I just never wanted it to be me. Who wanted to be the loser all of the time? Was winning even a good thing if you lost most of the time? If you were mostly a loser, then you won, ponies probably wouldn't see it as you getting better, they'd just think that you got lucky. I didn't want ponies to think that I won just because I got lucky about something. That wouldn't be as good.
"In any case, do you still want to play some games, Cozy?" Daddy asked as Mommy got to work, clearing up our lunch dishes. "We don't have to play chess again if you don't want to."
"No no, I do! I want to try again!" This time I'd do a little bit better.
"Chess it is."
As Daddy and I went back into the living room, while Mommy washed the dishes, he used his magic to put the chess pieces back. Sitting down at the board I picked black this time, and he pushed his pawn forward.
I knew that Daddy really wanted me to believe that the pawns were important, but they didn't even really do anything! You moved them forward one or two spaces, and then if your opponent forgot about them, you could eventually get a queen. Like that ever happened except for at the end of the game when it was really obvious who was going to win anyway. Ugh. Maybe he was trying to trick me with bad strategies so that he'd win every time.
Maybe not, though.
As we kept our game going, he really did seem like he wanted to keep his pieces safe for later. He'd protect pawns with his queen or rooks, and sometimes he'd miss attacking one of my pieces if he thought it was too dangerous. Usually, that meant that he’d use the pieces later in the game to take one of mine when I couldn't take one of his. About halfway through the game, he still had four pawns left, and I didn't have any. He also had my rooks, my bishops and one of my knights. I just had the other knight, my queen and king left.
"I don't think I'm going to win this one," I groaned.
"Doesn't look like it, no," Daddy said with a smile as he pushed his pawn to one square away from my back row. I grunted and pushed my king down. I didn't feel like dragging it out for another five moves.
"Let's go again," I said.
"If you say so," Daddy replied, putting the pieces back. Like Daddy said: every time I got a little bit better, even if it didn't feel like it. I'd never beat him! I still wasn't sure if he was trying to trick me or not! On the other hoof, he did seem to be using what he was telling me would work...
Ugh. This was getting too complicated.
Daddy moved his king side pawn forward one space, and I copied him by moving my queen pawn two spaces forward. I guess he didn't want to get his pieces involved too soon, because he moved another pawn one space. I copied him exactly. If I did, I could see where I needed to go. I could see his strategies, and even cause him to make a mistake!
Him taking one of my knights a few more moves into the game showed me that that wasn't the greatest idea though. He smirked a little bit when I groaned. This time I didn't sacrifice my pawns too quickly. Daddy was right: they were good for stuff like blocking and making sure that he didn't take other pieces of mine. I didn't think that he'd let me get another queen, but maybe he wouldn't be paying attention long enough for me to at least make him think that I was about to.
I think I did a lot better in that game. At least it gave me some ideas about what to do next.
Three games later, my head was starting to hurt a little bit. Daddy and I had played a lot of chess, and it was getting close to dinnertime. I wanted to beat him at least once before Mommy said that we had to stop and eat, especially since I don't think that Daddy and I could play more chess after dinner. I still had a little bit of stupid homework to do for math. I hate math!
I used one of my pawns to make sure that he wouldn't take my knight, which stunk. I wanted to use it later in the game to fork his queen and king. I hadn't taken his queen all day! I grimaced when he moved his rook to block my bishop. I couldn't take his rook without him taking my queen. I poked my tongue out of the side of my mouth and narrowed my eyes. He was gonna mess up! I could feel it! I just needed to make sure that he didn't take my queen or something like that, then I could get him. I was almost there, though! If I moved my rook out of the way, I could actually checkmate him! If I did that, though, he'd see it and block me, then I wouldn't know what to do after that.
I was brought out of my concentration when Mommy walked in. "Hey you two! It's almost dinnertime. We're having veggie noodle soup." Mommy winked at me. "And I may have baked the best chocolate cake ever for dessert."
"Yay!" I said, almost knocking my pieces over, "Thank you, Mommy!"
"Thank you, dear," Daddy said.
Then he looked at Mommy.
I focused on the board again. He wasn't looking. He wouldn't even notice if I bumped my rook to the side, then checkmate him. If I moved with him looking, I'd miss my chance, and I wouldn't beat him today. Maybe not even tomorrow or the next day. Maybe it'd be months. I'd gotten lucky. If he didn't notice, though...
I'd win.
But I'd have cheated.
I thought about what Mommy and Daddy said.
Winning isn't everything, Cozy. Sometimes you need to accept losing, and that it isn't the worst thing. If you lose a game of chess or checkers, nopony dies, or anything like that. Nopony wins every time. Losing is a part of life.
You'll push yourself harder and harder, and when you do eventually beat me, it'll be that much sweeter because you've worked so hard at it. Chess is a complicated game with a lot of moving parts. Once you get there, I think it'll be even more fun for us.
If I moved my rook without him looking, I'd have cheated to win.
But I'd win.
He'd probably call it lucky, and he'd beat me the next hundred times, but he'd never be able to take that loss back. If neither of them saw me move the rook, nopony would ever know I'd cheated just a little bit to win. I wouldn't tell them.
Slowly, carefully, I reached out just a little bit and bumped my rook aside. Just one space. He might notice, and if he did, I'd just say that I accidentally knocked it aside when Mommy told me about that cake and golly I was sorry, I'll put it back right now!
I held my breath when Daddy looked back to me, then looked back at the chessboard. "Okay, Cozy, where were we? I think it was your turn, right?"
I smiled and nodded. "Sure was, Daddy! Which is good because..." I grinned and slid my queen forward right next to his king, with my bishop and knight backing it up. "Checkmate!"
Daddy's mouth dropped, and Mommy gasped. I giggled and buzzed my wings. I did it! Daddy lit his horn and grabbed his king in his magic. "No, can't be. If I move my king here... no, your knight will get me. I could move it here... no, then your queen can still get me." He scoffed, shook his head, and pushed his king down. "Well, I'll be darned. I guess I wasn't paying attention."
"I did it!" I cried, flying into the air. "I finally did it! I won! I won!"
"You sure did, Cozy," Daddy said. He looked like he was still really surprised. Mommy was smiling really big, though.
"I'm so proud of you, Cozy!" she said. She smirked at Daddy. "You might be losing your touch. I should play you and see if I can beat you for once."
Daddy rolled his eyes and waved his hoof. "Yeah, yeah. I don't know about all of that. Don't think I've lost my touch because our really smart, really talented daughter finally listened to her old stallion and beat him at chess."
"I still think you're a really good chess player, Daddy," I said, flying over to hug and nuzzle him. “I guess I just got really lucky."
"Maybe so," Daddy said. "We'll have to play again sometime to see if you were, or if you were actually taking my lessons to heart. In the meantime..." He pointed to my flank. "I think you might have a little more to celebrate than just beating me at chess."
I frowned and looked back. "What do you mean? I..." My eyes widened really big when I saw what he was pointing at. "My cutie mark! I finally got my cutie mark!" It was the best cutie mark ever! A brown rook chess piece. I hugged Daddy really hard. "Today is just the best day ever!"
"I'll imagine that it ranks pretty high up there," Daddy said. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pretty awesome for me, too."
"Even though you lost?" I asked.
"Even though I lost," Daddy replied, hugging me. "Like we said, winning isn't everything, and if me losing a silly ol' chess game helps you get your cutie mark, then I couldn't be happier to lose that game." He scoffed. "But if I knew you were gonna get a cutie mark from beating me, I'd have guessed it would have been a queen, not a rook, since that's what you checkmated me with." He waved his hoof. "Eh, it's a really great cutie mark anyway."
"Thanks, Daddy," I said, nuzzling into his chest. "You're the best daddy ever." I looked at Mommy, who was actually wiping tears away. She smiled at me and patted my perfect curls.
"Well, I'm really glad that I made that cake tonight, then. I can't think of anything better to celebrate you getting your cutie mark."
"All that hard work really paid off, Cozy," Daddy said. "Doesn't this feel better than if I'd just kept going easy on you and letting you win all of the time?"
I nodded lots. "Yeah! I can't believe I won!"
"I can. You're really smart," Daddy said. "Now come on: how about dinner then that cake your mom has been baking." He lifted me onto his back and carried me into the kitchen while I hoof pumped. The cake would definitely taste a lot better now that it was celebrating me getting my cutie mark.
If winning was this good, I wanted to do it all the time even more!
* * * *
"Checkmate! I win again!"
Ruby Shine groaned and pushed her king down. "You know, Cozy, I don't know if I wanna keep playing chess at recess if I'm just going to lose all the time."
"Golly, I'm sorry! I thought we were having fun!" I said, as I started putting the chess pieces back. "But you're getting a lot better than the first time we played each other."
"If you say so," Ruby Shine said, rolling her eyes. "I guess you'd know. I'm the only pony who still wants to play with you. I think you're even better than Miss Hoof."
"I have had a lot of practice." I turned the board so that she could be black this time. "My daddy is the best chess player in all of Ponyville!"
Ruby Shine grunted. "How many times have you beaten him?"
"Only three times, and he said that he's never more proud of me than when I do!" As long as he doesn't look at just the right time, I can keep beating him until I get good enough that I don't need to cheat. Winning was winning, though. I'm sure that Daddy fudged the rules a little bit the first few times that he beat grandpa. If you can't win, change the rules. Lots of ponies change the rules. It's just the dumb ones that get caught.
I moved my king side pawn forward two spaces, and Ruby Shine groaned, but she moved her pawn, too. "You're really good too, Ruby," I insisted. "You just gotta think about the big picture. You should always think two or three moves ahead in chess. Also, pawns are really important. You keep letting me take them in the beginning of the game. I'm not saying that you have to do everything you can to keep every single pawn on the board, but you're discounting what they can do. A pawn in the right place can provide support for a big attack, protect a key piece you're going to use later, or even prevent a checkmate."
Ruby grimaced and took one of my pawns with hers, which let me take her rook with one of my bishops. She grumbled and crossed her forelegs. "I'm gonna get you one of these days. Didn't you say that you beat your dad because he didn't pay attention?"
"Uh-huh. That's how chess can be sometimes. You gotta pay attention all the time."
"I almost beat you that one time." Ruby Shine sighed and pushed her other rook forward three spaces. "I still don't know how I missed that rook."
I shrugged. "Like I said: you gotta pay attention all the time." Even if Miss Hoof comes over to ask you about which nights your parents are gonna come over for parent/teacher conferences.
"I guess. I thought I had it that time, though. I was gonna checkmate you the next move if you hadn't gotten me first."
"I know how that feels," I said. "I lost to my daddy a lot that way because I didn't notice that he was gonna get me if I didn't block one of his pieces."
"Sure." Ruby Shine clicked her tongue when I took her other rook. I think we both knew that she wasn't gonna win at that point. "I'll get you one of these times."
"It'd be really cool if you did!" I said. "It'd show that you were one of the best chess players around, and nopony could ever forget that! If you beat somepony that beat my dad, a lot of ponies would be really impressed! Although..." I smiled as I pushed my queen forward, checkmating her. "Winning isn't everything."
