Look at the whole board
There is an episode of The West Wing called “Hartsfield’s Landing,” where President Josiah “Jed” Bartlet plays chess against White House staffers Sam Seaborn and Toby Ziegler (Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe and Richard Schiff, respectively). It’s a simul of sorts as Bartlet shuffles between rooms playing the two men while at the same time handling a potential military incident brewing between the U.S. and China.
Writer Aaron Sorkin is using chess as a metaphor to mirror Bartlet’s brinksmanship in sending the U.S. Navy to the Taiwan Strait, one of the many “moves” being played out between the two countries. Seaborn is trying to make sense of the action and asks the President how the scenario ends.
“Look at the whole board,” Bartlet says, even though it’s obvious he’s not talking about what’s happening on their chessboard. He’s talking about what’s happening 9,000 miles away.
Look at the whole board.
Such simple advice, yet for many of us it flies right out the window as we fly through our openings or begin attacks, just to be brought down at the sight of a previously unnoticed piece or unseen maneuver capturing one of our own.
Try as I might, I seem to forget this advice game after game even after hearing it in Martin Sheen’s voice reverberating through my head. I get so involved in one little sliver of the game that I ignore what else is happening and it ends up costing me. I’ve only just picked the game up again so I’m hoping that the blinders will be lifted as I play more games, as I learn to look at the big picture.
Look at the whole board.
It’s not bad advice away from the chessboard either. Maybe if more of us look at the whole board in our own lives, there would be less drama and turmoil. Maybe by looking at the whole board, we might understand that wearing a mask during a global pandemic isn’t an assault on personal rights, but it is a help in saving the lives of our families, friends and neighbors. Maybe by looking at the whole board we can see how things outside our limited field of view relate to each other, the way attacks and defenses are layered on a chessboard.
Look at the whole board.
You won’t be sorry, at the chessboard or in life.
P.S. An interesting side note about the aforementioned West Wing episode: Toby plays white as he sits to play President Bartlet in the Oval Office and pushes his pawn to e4. Bartlet says “Ah, the Evans Gambit,” even though it’s about three moves too early to make that observation.
Danny Klein is a librarian, writer and genealogist, not necessarily in that order. Add chess player to that list. All opinions stated herein are his own.
