During the big storm we had just before the weekend my wireless keyboard fell from my desk. I guess it was the thunder. But in any case I work up one morning to find my keyboard lying upside down on the floor.
When I turned it over, the CUE key had snapped off and was just gone. I couldn’t and still can’t find it. The CUE key is the first letter of a standard keyboard and is the 17th letter of the alphabet, just in case you didn’t know.
Normally, this might represent a problem, as the letter CUE is a rare one and one can write a letter and even a complete essay without this letter.
However…
Since many things I do write about concern chess, this represents a more serious problem. Here are some chess terms I can’t type due to the missing CUE.
(X)ID [n. Short for (X)ueen’s Indian Defence, a standard defence for Black]
(X)UAD [n. A tournament with four players]
(X)UEEN (S) [n. The strongest piece at the beginning of the game. It combines the moves of a Rook and Bishop]
(X)UEEN (ED, ING, S) [v. To promote a pawn to a (x)ueen]
(X)UEENSIDE (S) [n. All the s(x)uares from the d1 to left and top of board]
(X)UEEN’S GAMBIT (S) [n. [n. A standard opening for White
S(X)UARE (S) [n. The basic unit of a chessboard]
Things are even worse with Descriptive Notation.
Now it is possible to play an entire game of chess without mentioning the (x)ueen.
Borochow-Fine
Pasadena, 1932
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.c4 Nb6 4.d4 Nc6? (4…d6) 5.d5 Nxe5 6.c5 Nbc4 7.f4 1-0
Fidlow-I. Mayer
Berlin, 1950
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4 5.dxe6 dxc3 6.exf7+ Ke7 7.fxg8=N+ Rxg8 8.Bg5+ 1-0
But such games are (x)uite rare.
I finally found my backup keyboard. It is not wireless, but still very functional. Now I can continue my chess endeavors and not have to worry about batteries.
The Gambit Chess Player 