What I learned from GM Peter Svidler: How to Lose with Dignity
I have always been a very competitive player. If I do not win a game, I might be upset and want to know what I could have done, or maybe more, why did I do what I did? From getting upset to being sad, and from smashing a mouse to crying tears in a bathroom, chess as beaten me around in many ways.
But I have learned from chess.
At my first chess tournament when I was in 8th grade I was playing in an unrated event and started five out of five in a six-round event. The final round I was paired with the other tournament leader, and we had a tough battle that started to go his way. Because we were playing slower, the tournament director put a clock on our game. It was an analogue clock. I had no idea how quickly the flag would fall! I panicked, and in my worse position, I lost.
The first thing I began to learn from chess was not to panic in the tough situations. That lesson helped me out tremendously at the Alabama State Scholastic Chess Championships, in the final round for first place during a battle with the three-time reigning champion. Under a time crunch, would you panic in the below situation?
A win I definitely did not deserve, but one I only can attribute level-headed decision making. In a recent interview with Chess24Live, 2700+ GM Peter Svidler said:
“Chess will teach children to lose and to accept that they lost and it wasn’t anybody’s fault. Because once you have sat down, you are in charge of those pieces. You can’t really claim any kind of outside influence. If you lost it was because your opponent played better than you on the day.”
But I still had not fully learned all that chess would bring to me. Once entering college, my ability to study dwindled to basically zero. However, I assumed I would still play fairly well and I expected to continue having wonderful results. The opposite happened. In my sophomore year, I had a rating crash of well over 100 points. I started getting quite upset at myself and really hated the fact I was blundering and getting out played so often. Even I would play online games and sometimes break a mouse (one or two only okay 😊?) out of frustration from a blunder.
I learned “sophomore” meant from the Greek, sophistēs meaning “wise” (sophisticated) and mōros meaning “foolish” (moron). I was probably mostly mōros more than sophistēs. However, soon I began to realize that such play from me was exactly what I should expect from a lack of chess study. In that same interview, Peter went on to say, “Chess does a good job of teaching you how to lose with dignity and generally get acquainted with the idea that everything in life will not go exactly as you would like it to go.”
Since my sophomoric year, I have gone up in down in ratings, now mostly playing online with COVID-19, and the results of a positive attitude are showing fruits. In the below game, at this point I totally blunder into not only a pawn down position, but also one where my king gets in serious trouble. As it was a blitz game, I had to recover quickly from the blunder, and attempt to keep playing positive chess. Eventually, with the clock’s help, I was able to squeeze out a draw from a completely lost position.
“It’s maybe not the most pleasant of lessons for you to learn...but it will stand you in good stead going forward,” Peter said as he was finishing his discussion on the topic. It really has not been fun at times, but what chess has taught me both as a player and a human has been tremendous. I hope to continue growing in both categories and I am sure chess has more to teach me as I keep “growing up.”
Svidler’s comments were all around the question of “what can chess do for a child?” If you are looking to introduce one of your children into this sport, learning the lessons I did at a much younger age could have amazing benefits on the character of that child. I believe in the power of chess, and I believe that any kid who learns chess properly will have a huge benefit in life from it.
Conclusions and Further Resources:
What has chess taught you? Can you relate to anything I went through? What about what chess can do for a child? I’d love to hear from you your perspectives!
During chess24’s Legends of Chess tournament (with Carlsen, Ding, Svidler, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, & more), I have been making daily videos! The videos are short, five minute clips of the top three most exciting, educational moments from each day in chess. My most recent one I have embedded down below, but if you follow me in one of my chess.com groups, my YouTube channel, Facebook page, or Twitter sphere, you find all of my videos there.
I’d love to connect with you! Friend me on chess.com, comment on one of the listed channels, I’ll be excited to get to know you!
Best,
Jonathan Rasberry
GM_Dude_Chess
A GRAND MASTER CHESS TRAP | Chess24 Legends of Chess Round 6 | Today in Chess
Q&A with GM Peter Svidler (Learning from chess discussion starts around 17:00
