Chess and Life

James Wang (8th Grade)

My friend pulled up an online chess game and asked for me to play against him. I had some previous experience when I was in elementary school, and my impression of chess was just throwing pieces at each other and seeing who would win. Never missing a chance to score a win, I responded, “Sure, why not?”  On the 4th move of the game, I was down 6 points of material, losing to my friend. After about another 40 or so moves, I got checkmated.  I couldn’t believe how badly I had lost.

From that day on, I wanted to know how to beat my friend in a rematch. I quickly learned from YouTube videos some basic tactics such as pins, forks, skewers, and pressure on the pinned piece. I also learned some basic checkmate patterns and advanced tactics. 

I then asked my dad for a chess.com membership so I could have access to premium features that would help me on my journey. My dad agreed, and I watched 10 lessons that day. With the help from those lessons and more, my elo went up 200 points. (Elo is a number-based representation of your skill level in chess, and the best player in the world had a peak of 2882 elo.)

Finally, the day of the rematch came, and this time I won. I evaded all his opening traps and could see very clearly what was going on on the board. The game was well fought, and overall I came on top. 

This win inspired me to become an even better player. During the following 3 months, I trained myself as much as I could, and my elo rating went from 700 to 1000. Going from merely knowing how to move pieces around on the board to understanding advanced conceptual ideas, I was thrilled by how much better I’ve become through my journey of chess. 

Moreover, I used to be so afraid of losing that I would often hesitate for a long time on a move.  Losing would make me so frustrated that I had to keep playing till I won.  But now I’ve learnt to appreciate the importance of setbacks: you need to lose 5 in order to win 6. Now, losing is, in a way, more of a win than actually winning, as game reviews would always be there to explain my mistakes and help me learn.

I’ve developed a new habit, applying “game review” to my daily life.   If I accidentally knock something over, it’s an inaccuracy. If I stay up late at night instead of getting sleep, it's a blunder.  I would rate the decisions I’ve made on a scale of Blunder (worst), Mistake (bad), Inaccuracy (not bad, but not good), Excellent (good), Great (really good), and Brilliant (life-changing), as chess has sparked a strong passion in me to improve myself.

 A famous quote from Mikhail Tal states, “Every move you make in chess should always improve your position”. I think this also applies to life.  Everything you do in life should always improve yourself.  Sometimes in chess, you need to make material sacrifices for positional compensation. Just like in life: sometimes you need to make sacrifices in order to achieve a better outcome in the future. So I’m not exaggerating when I say, “Chess is life.”