Approach to a game, approach to chess

Hello everyone!

My name is Tomáš Pavelka. I have started to play chess in the age of 6 and my only teachers were my grandpa and books. Later on, I have begun to realize the truth of Lasker's "Chess is a fight".

But a fight against whom? Lasker probably mentioned the fight between two opponents, the persons playing a chess game. Thus, he touched the importance of psychology in chess. The way we play against certain players should be just the way which is in harmony, or rather disharmony, with the way our opponent thinks. But is it enough?

When I was younger, I always imagined that my pieces are living beings, that I am a general and those pieces of wood on my chessboard are my army. I'd bet that many of young chess players imagine something similar.

But now, several years later, I have become somewhat more adult in chess. Now I take care not of my pieces, but I raise the game itself like a living being, like if it was my child. I play every move with all the love and passion I have, so the game becomes a piece of me, and I become a part of the game.

"Chess is a fight". What fight? There are many possible answers, but I think that it depends on one's imagination, on one's approach to the world. Everyone of us has a child inside. Let him be a part of the game we love, and take care of him as well as we can.