Touch Move, Touch Take

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Those of you who know me know that I have a son that is very good at chess.  We celebrated his eighth birthday this past week and one thing that comes out of him turning eight is that I no longer get beat by a seven year old at chess.  Anyway, we have a tournament chess set (with a chess clock) and we play lots of games every week.

When we play, we follow the "touch move, touch take" rule.  The basic concept is that if you "touch" one of your pieces, then you have to "move" it.  If you "touch" one of your opponent's pieces, then you have to "take" it.  Now common sense applies.  If the piece that you touch that is yours cannot be legally moved or if the piece you touch of your opponent's cannot be taken legally then you obviously cannot enforce this rule.  Following this rule makes you think about your move and see its consequences in your head.  This is probably the rule that is broken most in chess overall.  If your opponent does touch a piece, you simply have to say "touch move, touch take" and they know you are enforcing the rule.

This morning my wife made oatmeal along with frying up some bacon.  Now, we have this rule at our house that you don't touch other people's food.  As my son was carrying the bacon on a paper towel from the counter to the table, one piece fell off onto the table as he was setting the bacon down.  He picked it up and began to place it back on the paper towel when I found myself saying "touch move, touch take!"

Who knew that chess rules applied to breakfast?

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon