What Champions Search for (and Where)

A man is down on his hands and knees under a streetlamp.
A policeman walks by.
“What are you searching for?”
“My keys.”
“Did you lose them here?”
“No. But there’s light here.”

We laugh at the story.
Then realize we live it.

In life and in chess.

We look for answers where it’s comfortable.
Where there’s light.
Where we already know how to look.

In chess, we study what we already enjoy.
Openings. Tactics. Flashy checkmates. YouTube videos and fun streams.

But the real improvement often hides elsewhere.

In the losses we never analyze.
In the positions that make us uncomfortable.
In solving puzzles we can’t get from the first try.

In life, same thing.

We fix easy problems.
We read motivational quotes.
We clean our desks instead of our minds.
We talk about growth, but avoid the dark corners that actually hold the keys.

The truth is rarely found under the lamp.
It’s usually a few steps away, in the dark park, where we don’t want to go.

That’s where we dropped it.
That’s where we find it.

If you want to rise, in chess and in life, stop searching only where it’s bright.

Take your lamp.
And walk into the dark.

Because champions don’t just search where there’s light.
They bring light wherever the truth hides.

With best wishes and love,
For your growth and fun journey,
GM Avetik (or Avo, as my friends call me)

***

P. S. Which dark park will you go to tomorrow? What will you look for?
Share it with me in the comments.

P. P. S. I’m just a FedEx guy, delivering lessons from my teachers to you.
If this message spoke to you and you know someone who might love or need this… share the package.
That’s how knowledge travels, one package at a time.

Thank you for reading, for growing, and for helping someone else along the way. 🙏

The article was originally published on https://chessmood.com/blog, where you’ll find over 100 other articles written by Grandmasters, who share tips from their professional journeys and how to adopt the right mindset for this beautiful game, in order to have fun and grow at the same time. 

If you’re not a ChessMood student yet, I have three gifts for you:

1. Opening Principles- The fundamentals and beyond in detail
2. My 10 best games
3. GM Gabuzyan’s 10 best games

You can watch all three courses for free, by creating a basic account here. (Takes a few seconds)