Chloe is in the Chess Club at her school. She’s dabbled in chess periodically here at home and loves to play, but Craig is really the only one who can play with her and that limits her ability to play real games with real people at our real house most of the time. Hence her interest in Chess Club.

She’s been going to the club since last September, but just started attending tournaments this semester. Keep in mind, this is her first year with real training and first year to compete. Most of the kids playing have been playing for years and competing for just as many. She is playing as a member of the club team which means even if she doesn’t win her individual games, if the team wins, she also wins. If you are familiar with the way chess tournaments work you know what this means. If you are just a mom of an enthusiastic player (like me) this doesn’t mean much to you other than you are glad she has the opportunity to play and being on the team sounds super.

Anyway. Today she was at a tournament all day long. And I mean ALL DAY LONG. She left our house at 8am and didn’t come back until 8pm. Whew! And when we asked her how she did, she said she got one draw and lost the other three, but that she’d been playing high school seniors, so she felt pretty good about how she played. And she was smiling, so that’s the important part. And she had a first place trophy to show off as well because her team won.

Win-win.

I just got this email from her coach. He included this photo:

And here’s what he said,

Congrats to your daughter for playing very hard against some fairly decent high school players and being rewarded. She had a difficult time but never lost composure … never backed down … never quit fighting. Her efforts and attitude was even recognized by one of her high school opponents. The opponent was surprised to find out this was C10’s first official chess tournament.

Do you see her confident smile in this photo? Can you see mine as I’m typing this out? That’s my girl. My girl who needs this in her life. My girl who is going to to continue to persevere until she gets it down. My girl who is going to have a whole shelf of these trophies one day. My girl whom I am proud of even if she never actually wins a single game.

That’s my girl.