I had a buddy that was a child prodigy. Never lost a professional match to anyone. Even some of the "expert" adults that came to the matches, he would just toy with them until he decided to crush them. (I remembered how offended this one "master" was, but seriously what could he say after getting his butt handed to him by a 10 year old that just threw away his queen at the start?) I sucked on the other hand. I figured the best was to beat him was change the rules, so I proposed we move two pieces a turn, then I beat him 3/3 times pretty easily (the standard moves will totally screw you). I also can beat him well over 70% of the time at just about every other strat game we've played since then such as backgammon, checkers, magic the gathering, risk, mario party. I don't really think being good at chess is a real measure of anything except for how good you are at chess, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Interesting, he quit playing professionally before the 7th grade stating that chess sucks, and that only queers played it. lol. Aaah to be a child prodigy.
