[and she returns the smile with one of her own that doesn't quite reach her eyes]

That's true. The board is a tool for strategic study. It wasn't always a plaything. Generals of yore used it to plan battles. I don't see it as a "toy" and I consider it derogatory that using it means saying that you're "playing."

Then again, I was never one for convention.

→→That's interesting.
→→That's certainly a strange way to look at things.
→→Battles? What do you mean?
→→I completely understand.