Academic/General Training Module by Adam Smith First Published in 2015

 
Describing an indoor game 
Describe an indoor game that you enjoyed as a child. You should say 
- what the game was 
- where you played it 
- who played this game with you 
- and why you liked it 
As a child I enjoyed playing chess. I think chess is probably the best known 
board game in the world. It’s a game for two players, and the aim is to defeat 

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 IELTS
 JOURNAL 
 
 
 
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the other player by taking his or her pieces and eventually trapping his King. 
This final move is called checkmate. I remember that it was a classmate of 
mine at primary school who first taught me to play chess. He had a small, 
portable chess set, and once I knew how each piece moved, we started playing 
at break and lunch times; we played in our classroom or outside on the school 
playground. Later my parents bought me my own chess set as a birthday 
present so that I could play at home. I taught my younger brother to play, and 
at some point I joined the school chess club. There I had the chance to hone 
my skills against some of the older pupils, and in my final year of primary 
school I made it onto the school team. There were five of us on the team, and 
we competed against children from other primary schools in the same town. I 
liked playing chess because I enjoyed the challenge of thinking ahead and 
trying to outwit my opponent. I was probably seven or eight years old when I 
started playing, and it seemed like a very mysterious and intellectual game at 
that time. Also, although I loved winning, chess taught me to learn from my 
losses and to congratulate the person who had beaten me.