Descriptive Essay On A Chess Match

In the story “Rules of the Game” written by Amy Tan, the game of chess symbolizes life lessons. When Waverly questions the rules of the chess game and why she can’t move the Pawn in another direction, her mother answers her by saying, “This is American rules… Everytime people come out from foreign country, must know rules. You not know, judge say, Too bad, go back” (Page 5). This quote shows that, even though the law is intangible, it holds power that can define a person’s life.

Arm Wrestling with My Father Change is inevitable, and often leads to emotional repercussions. Brad Manning expresses this idea in his coming-to-age essay “Arm Wrestling with My Father,” in which he traces the evolution of his relationship with his father. Using rhetorical devices such as repetition, selection of detail and analogy, Manning further proves his ambivalence towards his and his father’s impending roles reversals. Manning begins the essay by describing a regular arm wrestling match with his father, and uses repetition while describing the match “…is what he always said…he would always control the outcome… Dad would always win; I always had to lose” (156).

“Four Directions” is the story of Waverly Jong, the young prodigy chess player who lashes out at her mother because of her constant showing off of Waverly. After returning to chess, Waverly realizes that her skill and determination is gone, along with the support and love from her mother. She beings to understand that her winning was solely dependant on her mother’s boastful remarks about her daughter, the love the Lindo was so openly expressing.

The story “The Rules of the Game” shows how Waverly’s ability to play Chess well increases her mother’s expectations throughout the story. In the beginning Waverly wanted to play chess so much so that she was begging her brothers to let her play. Waverly says “ Let me! Let me!’ I begged

“My mother would proudly walk with me, visiting many shops, buying very little. “ This my daughter Waverly Jong,” she said to whoever looked her way. One day after we left a shop I said under my breath, “ I wish you wouldn’t do that , telling everybody I’m your daughter.” My mother stopped walking..... “Aiii-ya. So shame be with mother?” She grasped my hand even tighter as she glared at me. I looked down. “It’s not that, just so obvious. It’s so embarrassing.”... If you want to show off, then why don’t you learn to play chess?” (Tan 41).

Being faced with a win/lose situation can be a complicated task to be faced with, as someone always gets hurt in the process. In the story ‘Ashes’, Ashleigh is faced with a very complicated situation between her parents, that if executed improperly, can really mess up the connection Ashleigh has with her parents. Her mom has a teapot that is full of emergency cash, and Ashleigh’s father needs a couple hundred dollars to complete a project that he is working on. Her father brought up the fact that she could steal the money and give it to him for his project, and then he would get back the money with his project. The thing that is preventing Ashleigh from doing that is the fact that her parents are divorced, so that she would have to steal the

In Amy Tans “Rules of the Game” a first generation adolescent becomes fascinated with the game of chess and uses its rules as a strategy for life while growing up and away from her Chinese culture. This short story illustrates the struggle of growing up is especially difficult when in a culture different from ones parents.

Waverly plays is the board game chess, where she must think ahead and plan out every possible move to win. She must put herself in her opponent's shoes and try to predict their strategy. “I discovered that for the whole game one must gather invisible strengths and see the endgame before the game begins.” (Tan 8) By understanding Waverly’s thought process throughout a game, we are able to learn more about her as a person. She is aware of how different she is compared to the other players, and uses it to her advantage. “...I would clasp my hands under my chin, the delicate points of my elbows poised lightly on the table in the manner my mother had shown me for posing for the press. I would swing my patent leather shoes back and forth like an impatient child riding on a school bus. Then I would pause, suck in my lips, twirl my chosen piece in midair as if undecided, and then firmly plant it in its new threatening place with a triumphant smile thrown back at my opponent for good measure.” (Tan 12) These situations show how

“Oh no, please don’t tell me this is happening. Mom, can I just skip this tournament?” I pleaded, “There is absolutely no hope for me.” Being the dramatic person I am, I lamented the imminent end of my tennis career. I went into the tournament with an expectation of failure. I started the match by accidentally whacking the ball over the fence, tripping on my own feet rushing to end the point. The little confidence I had when going into the match dissipated within a few minutes. I continued the match pondering how to angle my racket to put spin on the ball. Every time I failed, I blamed it on the high skill level of my opponent. Unsurprisingly, I lost in an hour. When looking back on that match, I realized that it could have gone differently had I not brought myself down before. My lack of

On October 28th, 2017 my mother said “here” and gave me $30. “What’s this for?” I asked. “$10 is for lunch and the other $20 is for you to go to Six Flags with your friends (Keion Flenoid, Kamaurion Stokes, and Kelly Dang.) after your chess tournament.” The next morning, my mother took me to my chess tournament where me and my team (Gateway Middle Chess club) placed fourth in the tournament.

In life, each person has to follow rules at some point. The rules can relate to school, home, religion, etc. Our society follows rules everyday to make their life better. Throughout the short story, “Rule of the Game”, the author, Amy Tan describes the title using life experiences of the protagonist, Waverly Jong. This story is about a young girl, Waverly who lives in Chinatown, San Francisco and is passionate about chess. While exploring the world of chess, Waverly learns that in life she will have to follow rules made by others to achieve success. Waverly follows rules while playing chess and her mother creates rules for her to succeed.

What one expect isn’t always what happens. This idea is shown throughout the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. He introduces us with the protagonist, Rainsford as an experienced hunter. Further along the story Rainsford arrives at Ship Trap Island and gets stuck there. While being there, he encounters the antagonist, General Zaroff. There General Zaroff presents Rainsford, with a game where he is to be hunted for by the general and has to hide out from him for 3 days. Rainsford finds a lot of problems along the way, nevertheless he maintains his nerve and finds a way to outsmart the general, resulting in him winning the game. As introduced in the story, Rainsford is a skilled hunter who can keep his calm in dangerous

I felt like I could do anything. The moment was extremely surreal. I hadn’t accomplished anything so arduous in my life. The crowd’s cheers were thundering through my body. I had so much adrenaline coursing through my veins that I wasn’t even weary. People were jumping up and down, screaming in victory, and clapping so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. I couldn’t believe that I had just won the State Championship volleyball game.

B. suffered a lot during his time of imprisonment, though he did not go insane as quick as other captives. It was because he accidentally found himself a savior, ‘a wonderful weapon against the oppressive monotony of his own space and time’.7 What he found was a chess manual. With this book, his solitude suddenly perished! He immediately started preparing a chess-board with his sheet, and used bread for the chessmen. But it didn’t work, since he continually got confused about which piece of bread represented which chessman. Then he decided: he was going to play the games in his head. At first it was really difficult, because he had to memorize all of the positions of the chessmen. In time he got used to visualizing the chess-board and its thirty-two chessmen. He didn’t need the sheets nor the bread, for he had already reached the borders of

Over the summer, I played tennis with my dad and younger brother pretty often. I always had this preconceived notion before we went to play that I was a better player than my brother, even though he is amazing, especially for his age. One day, I played awfully; I felt like I hadn’t played that poorly in years. Instinctively, I came up with every possible excuse to reason why I played so badly. It was too hot; I couldn’t see the ball; I was distracted by the dogs barking nearby. I went on and on with excuses, external factors, but I never attributed my failure to any internal factors. I didn’t understand why I didn’t play well, so there must have been some other reason. I grudgingly accepted my defeat and told myself that there is always another day for me to play better. I realized that I wasn’t being honest with myself about the game after I went home and started replaying it in my head. It slowly dawned on me that I was at fault for not playing well, not the weather or other noises. I didn’t bend my knees enough, I didn’t follow through with my racquet, and I was too lazy when I had to sprint towards the ball. It was because of me that I lost the game, not because of something else. This showed me that just because something doesn’t go my way doesn’t mean I get to blame it on some external factor; I have to take some time to think about what happened to see if the reason the event occurred was due to what I did. On the other hand, when I found out that I performed really well on any test, I didn’t attribute it to the weather or to any other external factor; I never thought “The test was just really easy that time” or “The teacher graded it leniently this time”. I gave credit to myself for putting so much time and effort into studying, and I