Chess In Life

The Great Mikhail Tal(November 9, 1936 – June 28, 1992)

The picture above is of the Mikhail Tal. Probarbly the greatest attacking chess player to have ever lived. I took chess as my serious hobby after watching some of his games. Featuring brilliant sacrifices, he was 1 of the most imaginative player ever over the board. People throw money onto the board after watching his games. Even now, replaying his games brings the hair on the back of your neck stand. They call him, the Magician From Riga(his birthplace).

So what is exactly chess? Chess enthusiast call it an insult to call it a hobby. Some say it's more than a game. Some say it's life itself. I call it poetry. The best quote i believe sums up the argument.

"Ultimately chess is just chess - not the best thing in the world
and not the worst thing in the world, but there is nothing quite like it."

The beauty of chess, is its complexity. Seeing players, staring over a board, matching their wits with 1 another, with wooden pieces init, for hours and hours.

I fell in love with just that. The complexity. I grew up playing chess. I aren't a brilliant player. For my age, just an average player. Chess allowed me to explore my imagination and love the difficulty encompassing it.

I have won many games, with people around the world. The joy i get when i win games with brilliant sacrifices. Playing like Tal. But to be honest, i don't quite remember the wins. Its the defeat that's hard to digest. I remember it most. How i blew a winning position with 1 simple mistake. In defeats, chess thought me the most valuable life lessons.

Chess is not just a game. To an open mind and heart. It's a fascinating game, allow you to play the game how you want it. You control the pieces. You dictate it. Chess can be a road to self discovery. Self realization. When you understand why you lost, you evolve as a human being. It teaches you to handle and approach life challenges in the correct way. With the correct state of mind. When you smell a victory coming, your heart starts beating fast, you start thinking about what you are going to do after the match. That's when you have lost. Chess trains you to focus even in the most hardest situation.

Chess thought me countless important elements in life. Patience, the downward spiral, illusion of certainty and so much more. This is not a post to get you interested in chess. It's to show, you can learn important life lessons, from the least expected source. Catching a butterfly? Why not. It's how you see things in life. Everything in life has something to teach you. Approach it with an open mind, and be willing to learn and unlearn.

Life is a blur. Just like how you need glasses to correct your vision. Look at life through the glasses of art. Chess is art.
It allows you to envision life in a different perspective. It makes you a better person.

I sum up this post with a couple of quotes. To get us all thinking.

“Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make people happy”

“You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what Chess teaches you is that you
must sit there calmly and think about whether it’s really a good idea
and whether there are other better ideas”

“Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic”

“The Chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and
these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard,
express their beauty abstractly, like a poem”
(Marcel Duchamp)