"Twelve is the right age", my dad explained when he convinced my mother it was time to teach me to play chess.

He wanted to teach me various skills and games that we might share, perhaps, when talking was too difficult. Dad owned a soapstone chessboard and a set of heavily carved wooden pieces, which before him belonged to his grandfather.
The day had come. It was February 1963 and a rather cold and rainy day. There was little money for heating and my dad always thought that education was more important than anything else, so in my family, all members were warmly dressed, also indoors, with home-knitted pulls and vests, and warm, woolen socks. I still remember my mother, forever working with colored balls of wool and knitting needles.
I think now that this was his way of protecting his family.

Ceremoniously he sat me down on a chair on one side of the board and sat in front of me. "Now", he said, "before I tell you what's what, you ought to know two things. One is that, because all the moves in chess are up to you, you will soon find out your own limitations. The second thing is - you could beat me."

I was incredulous: "Beat you?" I thought no one could beat my dad. He smiled. "The only aim in chess is to checkmate the king. You could capture all the other pieces and still lose. But if you checkmate the king, you win." Then he explained to me the roles and significance of all the pieces, its possible moves, different strategies, and over the weeks that followed I learned to play chess.

Quite quickly it became evident that I was going to be good at it, very good even, better than Dad had bargained for and when I reached my fourteenth birthday I could proudly say: "checkmate".
I enjoyed my sessions with him. He not only taught me how to play chess but also used these moments to teach me other, valuable life lessons.

I remember vividly how he encouraged me to read certain political opinions in two different newspapers. Afterward, we had long discussions about those same articles. He thought it important that I should form my own opinion and compare them with others. To think critically, to formulate arguments, to be able to discuss things, and never to blindly follow the dictates of others, only because they had the loudest voice or more money than we ever had.

I will never forget those hours with him. I learned so much.