"Irreverent: showing lack of due respect or veneration" - she played it once and then invented a different game she'd rather play.
Since he holds Chess in high regard, she "should have" fawned over chess, wanting to play it again and learn more about it. To not do so is to not show enough respect to his ideal of Chess.
If instead, she had played chess a lot with him, talked about how much she liked it, and then presented him with a game she made while downplaying it as a trifling diversion from Real Chess which she really likes, then he would have felt suitable respect was being paid.
aka politics, see also: we humans delight in finding or inventing things to be offended at.
See also: how would you automatically react if someone posted "my forum is much better than YCombinator" and had an account registered a day ago, versus if patio11 posted "I'm trying out a few different ideas for auto-moderating comments on my forum, would any of you come over and give it a try please?". Same basic point, very different presentations.
Since he holds Chess in high regard, she "should have" fawned over chess, wanting to play it again and learn more about it. To not do so is to not show enough respect to his ideal of Chess.
If instead, she had played chess a lot with him, talked about how much she liked it, and then presented him with a game she made while downplaying it as a trifling diversion from Real Chess which she really likes, then he would have felt suitable respect was being paid.
aka politics, see also: we humans delight in finding or inventing things to be offended at.
See also: how would you automatically react if someone posted "my forum is much better than YCombinator" and had an account registered a day ago, versus if patio11 posted "I'm trying out a few different ideas for auto-moderating comments on my forum, would any of you come over and give it a try please?". Same basic point, very different presentations.