ETERNAL RETURN

Eternal Return: The theory that the universe endlessly repeats its entire history, cycling through infinitely many iterations of the present sequence of cosmological events.

Thirty-eight years ago, little Patrick Wolff asked his father to teach him how to play chess. Pretty soon, he was totally obsessed with the game, arising early to study Bobby Fischer's MY SIXTY GREATEST GAMES, and begging his father [me] to play with him. By the time he was seven, I could not hold my own against him, and passed him off to others with greater skill in the game. Eventually, he became a famous International Grandmaster, twice the United States Chess Champion, a widely read chess commentator, and a regular on the international professional circuit.

This morning, I received an email message from my daughter-in-law, Diana, Patrick's wonderful wife. She reports that five year old Samuel, my grandson, has become obsessed with chess and wants his daddy to play with him morning and night. I imagine it will take Samuel a bit longer to beat his father regularly than it took Patrick to beat me.