Hello, dear readers!

Following the success of my blog post interviewing my grandfather about chess, I decided that now would be a good time for a sequel. However, before writing it, I had to ask myself the obvious question: Who should I interview this time, and what should I ask them?

Then, looking back at some of my posts, I remembered the Blog of the Month winner 'Moments When Chess Changed My Life', in which I shared some occasions when chess had a huge impact on the way things have gone for me.

Therefore, I thought it would be interesting to ask friends about similar situations that have happened to them, and to understand how their lives would be different if it weren't for chess.

I have tried to select people who are not only good writers but also hail from different countries. This will give us a sense of the global impact of chess, regardless of the culture in which it is played.

If you are an avid reader of my blog, you will probably already be familiar with these names, but let me introduce them to you again:

• @AstroTheoretical_Physics from India;
• @PokeGirl93 from Brazil;
• @Alina_Bakhtina_24 from Ukraine;
• @KevinChessSmith from the USA;
• @JustGettingThisOffMyChess from the second-best country in Oceania.

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The general question was simple:

Describe a situation or story in which chess has had a direct, tangible impact on your life.

Let's discover together how people of different ages and backgrounds have been affected by the game.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 - A Revolution at School

2 - Finding My Soulmate

3 - The Feared Maths Exam

4 - The Origins of an Author

5 - My Dad's Final Move

Conclusion

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A Revolution at School

by AstroTheoretical_Physics

It was May–June 2022 and I was in 9th grade. Few social skills, and only talking sporadically to two or three people. Our school had good facilities for football, basketball, badminton, cricket, etc. However, as a chess fanatic, I wondered why I never found anyone playing it.

My classmates would invite me to play with them, but I was never good at physical sports. One day, I finally mustered the courage to go to the sports room and ask the PE teacher if they had a chessboard.

There was one, but it was in really bad condition. “Nobody really plays chess here, so we haven't ordered any new sets."

A few months later, I saw two students playing chess on their own board, with a crowd of onlookers. At first, I just stood at a distance and watched. Their level of play didn't impress me. This was the perfect opportunity to socialize with my favorite game of chess! I won four games that day, with many watching.

The next day, they teamed up against me but still lost. People started asking about my playing style and for tips. Slowly but surely, I opened up and made a lot of new friends. Sometimes, I would even give mini lessons during breaks.

We joined forces and pressured our PE teacher to get new chessboards for the school. Our wish was granted!

School Sports Week came around again. However, as in previous years, chess was not included...

Weeks later, I was unable to play football with the others due to a leg injury, so I asked the teacher if we could play chess. During the game, I mentioned to him that I would like to see it added to the sports week next year.

I'll see.

By January–May 2023, chess had become the second most popular activity in school after football. I was now quite well known. Sometimes my seniors would greet me with: “Hey, chess player!”

I left the city in June 2023 and struggled to settle into a new school again. However, months later, one of my old friends texted me to say:

We finally have an official chess competition during sports week! Thank you for your efforts! We all still remember you!

The moral of the story is that, without chess, I wouldn't have been able to make so many new friends for the first time in my life. My self-confidence soared, and this also helped me when I started at a new school.

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Finding My Soulmate

by PokeGirl93

If the aim is to illustrate when chess had a significant impact on my life, the best example would be that I might never have met my husband if it weren't for it. He doesn't even play, so you might reasonably ask how that could be, but I'll explain.

He and I had both been working at the same school for a while, but we didn’t know each other. At the end of 2019, there was a Christmas party for all the employees, one of those typical company get-togethers.

The event was a game night for the teachers. The management had organized and rented out an entire café for it. The idea was to eat, chat, and anyone who wanted could bring board games to play at the tables.

I was sure there would be plenty, and that I wouldn’t need to bring any. Besides, I wasn't really in the mood to play something I could easily do online. Nevertheless, it wouldn't hurt to bring my small chessboard in case anyone wanted to play. At worst, it would just be completely ignored.

I put it on a table at random and went to play something else with my colleagues. At one point, I noticed that the box was no longer where I had left it. I assumed, surprised, that someone had picked it up to play chess.

Later that evening, it was time to head home. First, though, I had to look for my chessboard. My plan was to wait for the ongoing game to finish and then leave. However, I simply couldn’t find where it had ended up, until a friend told me:

"Oh, I saw [my husband’s name] with it. That guy over there!"

I approached him and asked about its whereabouts.

"Oh, yeah! The wind keeps slamming that door over there, so I grabbed the board and used it to prop it open. There it is."

I then saw my beautiful, beloved chessboard on the floor, being used as a mere cheap doorstop. I began to curse the idiot who had done that and who didn’t value an intellectual activity as sacred as chess.

"Calm down, girl. Sorry… I just thought it would be good because it’s small but heavy enough. Most of the game boxes are bigger, and someone could trip over them."

Clearly, the prospect of someone tripping over or stepping on my board didn't seem to bother him.

"You’re such a jerk, aren’t you? What a stupid idea!"

"My bad, hehe. But anyway, what’s your name?"

"Leticia, and you?"

The rest is history...

Therefore, my son Lucca only exists because my husband is ignorant and doesn’t know how to appreciate an ancient game properly.

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The Feared Maths Exam

by Alina_Bakhtina_24

Chess didn't just appear in my life as a game; it became so much more than that. It's a way of thinking and a source of connections and motivation.

My father taught me how to play when I was three, and it has influenced many of my other interests ever since, like science and writing research papers. I have also started approaching difficult problems in life differently. One story illustrates that particularly well.

Last year, I had a big math exam at school and, honestly, I wasn’t very well prepared. The night before, I planned to study all night, but somehow got hooked on online chess, intending only to “relax for twenty minutes”. Needless to say, those twenty minutes turned into almost two hours.

At one point, I played against someone who had a much higher rating. After blundering in the opening, I thought the game was practically over. However, instead of giving up, I continued playing, since I had nothing to lose. After a chaotic middle game, I managed to trap his queen and win.

The funny thing is that after that, I suddenly stopped panicking about the exam. I realized that I had been treating it like that lost position, as if one mistake automatically meant it was all over.

The next morning, during the test, I got stuck on one problem almost immediately. Normally, I would panic and waste a lot of time. This time, however, I skipped that question, solved the easier problems first, came back to it later, and finally figured it out. In the end, I achieved one of the highest scores in the class.

I know it might sound trivial, but if I hadn’t played that game the night before, I would have gone into the exam feeling stressed and performed much worse. Chess helped me to stay calm and not give up mentally after the first problem.

Also, thanks to chess, I have met many amazing people from different countries such as France, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Spain, New Zealand, and India. In everyday life, we often don't venture beyond our city, school, or social circle, but playing chess opens doors to a whole new world.

However, and perhaps most importantly, chess taught me to believe in myself. It transformed my character, making me calmer, stronger, and more self-assured. Without it, my life would have lacked vivid emotions, interesting people, and important inner discoveries.

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The Origins of an Author

by KevinChessSmith

In my teens, there was no one "Aha!" moment when chess changed my life. Instead, there was the gradual realization that a career in chess offered no clear path to financial security. The life of a chess hobo was possible, but a bit uncomfortable on cold or hot nights, even with a piece of foam underneath the sleeping bag to ease the ridges from the bed of the truck.

So, even though all my free time had been dedicated to playing and studying it, I set off on a course of college, followed by a career as an Air Force pilot, followed by a dozen years as a cybersecurity expert, culminating in a decision to retire from working for others.

Was that it? Didn’t anything else change because of chess?

In retrospect, my social circle was forever positively impacted. My three longest-lasting, best friendships were formed during those teen chess years. Two of the three were sparring partners, while the third was the brother of one of them. Half a century later, we remain in close contact, sharing tales of our good fortune and occasional woes.

Chess reclaimed at least ten percent of my days sometime around 2014. I joined Chess University and completed several years of coursework. I can even claim to have been taught by former World Champion Anand, who was a guest lecturer on several occasions.

Later, I paid for one-on-one lessons from IM Attila Turzo, forming a strong friendship that ultimately resulted in a collaboration on my third chess book.

After my retirement from life as a wage slave, further noticeable changes in my life took place because of my renewed focus on chess. I spent money on various opening repertoires, endgames, and a few focused treatises, such as defense and standard mating patterns.

But one day, I realized that there were gaps in the writing community. For instance, I was seeing a number of games where queens found themselves trapped. Yet, there was no work on trapping individual pieces, other than the king. So, I decided to write a book, followed by a second one months later.

Now I’ve seen three books published and have become actively involved in a social setting that encourages blogging about chess by hosting monthly competitions. That has resulted in new social networks and introduced me to a wonderful set of new friends.

It’s been an eventful journey so far. Who knows where chess will take me next. 🤔

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My Dad's Final Move

by JustGettingThisOffMyChess

It was my dad who taught me how to play chess. He is the reason I fell in love with this game, so playing chess has allowed me to feel closer to him. Back in 2022, my dad's health issues finally got the best of him. I set up a bed in his hospital room and stayed with him for nine days until he passed.

For the last week of his life, he was so high on morphine that he was pretty much unresponsive. I remember the moment it kicked in. I was singing ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles while he mumbled the words along with me.

Once the song ended, he never spoke again, other than one night, on Father's Day, when I kept repeating ‘I love you’ to him, and he suddenly yelled back ‘I love you!’

I kept talking to him day and night, about anything and everything. I knew he could hear me because he shed a few tears when I read him a poem that I had written about him and how beautiful he was.

We hadn't really spoken about chess for years. I began telling him stories, reminiscing about when he and I played together and how much it meant to me.

Every morning, a doctor would tell me that they believed it was his final day, and each day he held on. Hearing my dad's breathing slowly getting shorter was such a struggle... I began playing chess on my phone, one-handed, while holding his hand with my other.

This became a source of comfort for me. During each game, I would describe to him what was happening, including him in on my moves, whether they were brilliant or blunders. It did not matter whether I won or lost; it was just so soothing for me to bond over chess with my dad again, the way that we used to.

These memories still stick with me to this day. From that moment on, my dad has always been with me when I play chess, whether he is able to hold my hand or not.

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Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed finding out how chess has impacted my friends. Personally, I find it fascinating to see the many different ways chess has shaped people's lives, whether through amusing anecdotes, poignant farewells, or simple everyday moments.

If you have any similar stories, please share them in the comments section below. You can also send me a DM detailing it, as I plan to write another episode soon.

In the meantime, check out this amazing blog by @WinT0L0ss for more transformations through chess, including how the game changed his own life.

But above all, even if you cannot think of a specific story, chess has probably influenced your life much more than you realize. It is part of who we are, and that will not ever change, even if you stopped playing today.

That's all for now, dear friends! Take care and see you again in 15 days!