Although I learned to play chess at the age of nine, I am no wizard at the game. In fact, my game is pretty mediocre. I leave pieces en prise (open to capture). I miss mates in two. I fall into opening traps. But I love the game and spend an average of an hour a day on Chess.Com solving problems, playing chess bots, and following the latest chess news.

When the conversation turns to the latest computer game, I just smirk. Chess is a game that will occupy my mind for a lifetime, not merely an intermission on TV.

If you look at all the possible combinations for white and black for just the first ten moves, the number is larger than the number of atoms in the universe. The game is over a thousand years old: It first emerged in India as the game called Chaturanga. It came to the West through Persia, where it was called Shah Mat (“The King Is Helpless”). That is where the term Checkmate arose.

I regularly play chess openings that date from the Sixteenth Century (the Ruy Lopez). There are mating patterns from the Eighteenth Century (Legal’s Mate).

I still have several shelves of classical chess books that I have pipe dreams of studying at some point. These include game collections from the likes of Bobby Fischer, Alexander Alekhine, Paul Morphy, José Raul Capablanca, and my hero, the Estonian Paul Keres.

Whatever happens, chess will have enriched my life immeasurably.