"Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art,and in its execution a science"(Baron Tassilo)
There are people who hate chess and there are people who are obsessed. The former wonder how can anyone love something like chess and the ones who are obsessed are too obsessed to think about anything else.
"There must have been a time when men were demigods,or they could not have invented Chess"(Gustav Schenk)
"We don't really know how the game was invented, though there are suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we'll let you know".
Most of them are like me somewhere in between. I learned the game when I was four and I started beating people around me and later on played competitive chess for 7 years. These 7 years I experienced all the emotions in their extreme.Intense frustration after squandering a completely won position, Absolute joy of discovering the most original winning moves, Ecstasy of winning a tournament and reading your name in the newspaper for the first time. Egoistic satisfaction of ruthlessly beating someone doubly rated and utter humiliation at the hands of someone who has just started going to school.
Playing chess I understood a lot about myself. Chess can reveal a lot about you and its quite possible for someone who understands the game to know his basic nature, attitude and the way one thinks.
"The way he plays Chess demonstrates a man's whole nature"(Stanley Ellin)
Logical, scientific, organised way of thinking and yet being creative is the greatest ability one can learn from this game. Its amazing to see how disorganised is our thinking and how much it is governed by baseless emotions that cause impatience resulting into disastrous choices of moves.
Amongst other things, what Chess has given me is patience and a lot of it for which I would always be grateful to this wonderful game.
"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 (often the hard way) is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether thats really a good idea and whether there are other better ideas."
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11 comments:
Faith Lasts said...
"There must have been a time when men were demigods,or they could not have invented Chess"(Gustav Schenk)
Hehehhe No wonder it was invented in India :))
WOW I am tempted to take up chess...
Maybe you should teach Chess as well !!!
So baseless emotions rule here as well??
Waah bhawanao tumhari maya!!!
Rintu said...
Too many choices, eh? ... about what move to make next :-) ... I am sure it gets easier towards the end :-D
Anand Jage said...
My Grand father taught me chess when I was 6. I beat him when I was eight.. I won in school but never learnt professional way of playing..
Tell u one incident of my Ruparel hostel days... I had a pro neighbour who just didn't lose.. Raj Parakh.. he use to humiliate opponents by beating without using Queen!
When I beat him (ofcourse after losing some 20 games) it was one of the most ego satisfying day of my life.. I mean those 20 odd defeats seem like feather weight humiliation to me after victory...
I haven't played a chess game after that.. If we have a pleasure meet at Anjana Di's place sometime lets play.. and please analyse my game to tell me my nature.. :) !!
Anonymous said...
Yes its as taxing or even more than a 90 min. game of football....cheers!!!
Anonymous said...
Wow !! so very real ... Even I play chess.. whatever is said is really true.. But i never thought it reflects my own self... Now I have starting my all those emotions I have experienced...
The last point to so very true.. wait patience and think .. is it really a good move or not .. superb !!!
Anonymous said...
Actually whenever I hear/read about chess, I often think of how I met you in India in my hotel room. And how you asked me what I am doing at the moment... of course i didnt get the answer right then... you were looking for the word 'breathing'... :-)
Abhay Karnataki said...
Could relate to this one so well!
hahaha! Joy and Sorrow of win and lose, and variety of opponents!
I learnt lot about life,Thought process from this game... of course, to avoid emotional disturbance, only AoL came to help! Till then, my ears used to get hot and heart would beat faster in an important game!
Unknown said...
A *much* better idea is not to play it at all!!!!
Muhahahahahahahahahahhhhhaaaaha!!
(evil laughter)
You din't mention that famous quote of the Kasparov guy though... i will leave it to you to tell them :)
Jai Gurudeva!
love
bawa
Anonymous said...
bawa, since rashmin has not mentioned kasparov's quote. what is it?
Unknown said...
this i must say was the first time i read someone ...anyone talk about chess....other than the players about their game and what they felt at that winning/losing moment... i really liked to read what you learnt.... i too like chess but am not an avid player....
Abhi said...
Can you recommend any sites/software/books to improve chess ?