King’s Corner: Kiawah – The land of deer, flounder and chess in unusual places

This past weekend, I spent time at the beautiful Kiawah Island in South Carolina, where a friend of mine was having his wedding.

The island is beyond quiet. It is actually eerie how quiet it is out there, with their beautiful homes and golf courses.

Furthermore, the wildlife there is astounding, as the deer – aplenty on Kiawah – have become so people-friendly that they get right up next to you. And the flounder are as beautiful as they are elusive.

The AirBnB my friends and I stayed in was right on the golf course and within view of plenty of water. So, I turned it into a chess opportunity for the next battle of wits against a brand new opponent.

My worthy adversary this go-round was my longtime friend, Ben, now living in San Francisco but back on the east coast for the wedding.

Ben and I, along with three of our friends, made our way to the golf course near where the sun was setting; all the golfers were already in front of us on their round. We set up shop for an afternoon of fishing and chess.

What happened next was a series of fortunate events, as strokes of good luck continued to fall on us.

It began with the battle of wits, with Ben and I setting up next to the bridge separating golf holes and bodies of water.

Thanks to a series of solid moves on my end, I had Ben pinned back early. Due to this advantage, I was able to press my position and push Ben’s King to his bottom left corner of the board. I completed my well-played game with a checkmate, thanks to covering my queen on its king attack with a rook on the same rank.

Next, one of the aforementioned deer unafraid of humans made its approach to us, getting incredibly close. While we captured the moment, the young, adolescent deer never ran away.

While the deer, whom I have hereby named Henry, chilled with us as we played chess and fished – one friend reeled in a beautiful flounder. This was the first of two flounder over our two days of fishing, and this one was not as evasive as his buddy was the following day, who escaped after being reeled halfway out the water and almost onto the dock.

Next, one of the locals approached with friendly intentions and brought her two trusty companions alongside her – two beautiful retrievers named Cooper and Riley. They were the goodest of dogs, and completed a truly epic 25 minutes of fortunate events.

While it may be some time before King’s Corner gets a setting like the one seen on the beautiful coast of South Carolina again, the column will continue to provide interesting locations to play the great game of chess.

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