Chess and tightrope walking

I played chess on Tuesday evening as I usually do, at Southampton Chess Club. All was going very well for me, I was playing at pretty much the top of my game, and then a moment of blindness. I gave away my Queen. Nothing in return, no excuse either. I just completely missed that my Queen was under threat. And it had to happen when I was about to win, didn't it?! Well over an hour of good work totally spoilt by one shocking mistake.

It struck me that playing chess is a lot like tightrope walking in this regard. In both, you can be moments away from triumph and one error means it all goes to waste. Clearly, the stakes are rather higher (ha ha) in tightrope walking than in chess but, hey, no analogy is perfect!

And I hope I've got all the terrible moves out of my system as I'm playing in a chess tournament this weekend, starting tonight. I'm feeling okay about the great Queen giveaway but it's a bit worrying that my last game of chess was decided by a hideous mistake of mine. Still, things can only improve and I should comfort myself with the knowledge that even chess world champions sometimes make such mistakes...