Children Play....Chess Is A Human Activity!

There is so much I want to say, to share with you all! And it has to do with the humanism intrinsic in chess! Some players increase my love for the game of chess....their humanity vibrates forth in the words they write; it is their consciousness, their vibration. This is aside from their purely chess abilities. For example, let's take someone like Paul Keres (1916-1975).

                                                                  Paul Keres, 1940

Keres' first big breakthrough was at Margate 1937, where he shared 1st place with Reuben Fine. Keres was 21, Fine was 23. In our time this might not sound very impressive, but in the late 1930's, to achieve such success at such a young age was almost unheard of.

MARGATE 1937

Here is his win against World Champion Alekhine.....

One thing about Keres, which I did not know until Bronstein mentioned it in one of his books, is that Keres was a nationally ranked tennis player in his native Estonia )2nd in the country at on point, if my memory serves me right).

                                                               Paul Keres Plays Tennis

One thing about Keres, besides the fact that he was a prodigy in chess, is that he was always elegant, always impeccable. Like Spassky, he had the air of someone from a royal family, some high-born person. I like him, and his chess, very much.

JOYS AND SORROWS

I believe, if I remember correctly, that it was Kasparov who said that chess imitates life. Kasparov, the great World Champion and competitor par excellence, considers chess as Art!

Indeed, he is not alone in this feeling. Many, many players feel like him, including many of my all-time favorite players, such as Bronstein, Petrosian, Tal, Gufeld, Nezhmetdinov, Adorjan....the list goes on and on!

But back to joys and sorrows....as humans, we experience them both in varying degrees according to our circumstance, character, decisions and destiny. No human life is exempt from joys and sorrows!

One of the proofs that chess is Art, according to either Bronstein or Gufeld, is that there are different styles in chess. Different players have different distinct styles and preferences.....a very subjective experience, for sure!

There was a famous writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, I believe, who said that "Art is God-Imitation"....God is the creator, and the Universe is his Art....so when we create, we are following an innate energy in us, a creative energy. But what does this have to do with chess?

If you have played chess for a while, you have played beautiful moves, and also played some ugly ones! This happens in Art; not every brushstroke will be the touch of genius. It takes artists decades to perfect their art, whether they are painters, sculptors, musicians, or even....chessplayers!

To become good at chess, you will have to lose many games; maybe hundreds!

José Raúl Capablanca, World Champion 1921-1927

TITLES, OR JOY?

Again, we go back to children....they love to play! When they have to go somewhere, they would rather run than walk! They have spontaneous joy, enthusiasm, purity.....No wonder Christ said we have to be like children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!

Children, like flowers, remind us of an inner aspect of life, a Source of Beauty, Light and Delight that we come from.....for me, they are messengers of an inner, spiritual reality...JOY!

                                                                       ORCHIDS

In chess, the title of World Champion starts with Steinitz (1836-1900). Steinitz reminds me of an important point or two (ok, maybe three). 

1- Titles are man-made. It is not really important to be or not to be World Champion. The goodness of your heart is most important! The title of World Champion came about at a time when the Industrial Age was taking hold....suddenly, you had new, rich people, who could sponsor and bet on World Championship matches! And this gave the opportunity to some players to become chess professionals. So, titles only have the importance that we give them. For Magnus Carlsen, the title of World Champion became empty of meaning in his own life. 

Going back to Steinitz......the simplified version we get of him is that he died "crazy", supposedly saying that he could offer God a pawn and a move, and still win!

Yet, in Issac Linder's book on Steinitz, I learned that, on his death certificate, it was written that he died of "melancholy". Apparently, both his wife and daughter had died, and Steinitz heart was broken.....he died of sorrow!

In the past, people who wrote chess books gave the general public an over-simplified version of , not only the game, but the players themselves...and so it is with Steinitz. I went from believing he died "crazy", to knowing he died of sorrow. Big difference in meaning!

ON WINNING AND LOSING
(AND RATING)

David Bronstein was writing about children, and about how they suffer when they "lose". One of the difficulties with chess, and sport in general, is that we identify too much with the result, with "winning" or "losing".

Bronstein's point was this: A child can play a good game, he/she can play well for hours, and then, at the end, make a small mistake, and go home with a big ZERO. Can you imagine? It takes a lot of energy to concentrate intensely for hours on something.....and you do it well, but a small mistake erases and negates the value of your efforts? It does not feel right, and children suffer the ignominy of "losing".

This, perhaps, is one of the weaknesses of our royal game of chess: that it can be a trap, if we identify too much with the pieces that we are moving. In that regard, it would be healthier for children to see it as a mathematical or artistic exercise.

One of the benefits of sport in general is that, in the process of trying to achieve the "victory", or the title of World Champion, or any other title, we experience the process of getting better at something; the sense of progress gives us joy.

A STORY ABOUT PETROSIAN

Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984) was World Champion from 1963 to 1969. In 1966 he defended his title successfully against Boris Spassky, but then lost the title to Spassky in 1969.

When he first became World Champion, he came to the United States to play in the Piatigorsky Cup in California. He lost the following game against Gligoric in one of the early rounds:

Right after he lost this game, he walked outside the playing hall. His wife Rona, started scolding him, asking him how could he, the World Champion, lose a game like this?

Petrosian turned towards her and said: "I never wanted to be World Champion. I just wanted to be better every day!"

This process of self-transcendence, of going beyond your present capacity, is the main source of joy in any human activity....

ON THE RATING

In this era of computers, we are used to quantifying everything...it is a form of validation for us. But what if we can concentrate on the activity itself, and go deeper into the game of chess, and try to unveil its mysteries?

What if we are willing to try and try, to put in the hard work, day in and day out? What if we really try to understand the reason behind every "mistake" we make? These processes will guarantee that we will maximize our potential, that we can reach the limit of our talent, whatever that may be.

HUMANS PLAY CHESS

Going back to the main point of this post, is that playing chess is a human activity. We play sports, we play music. Children play games. Life is a game of joy, an evolving joy.

My aim with this post is to encourage players to enjoy the game, to derive joy from the game itself, not from the results; not from victories or defeats, but from the activity itself; from doing something that you love, something that brings you joy. Your heart will guide you through your life; that feeling of joy is your guiding light. 

The day chess does not bring you joy, you will do something else, or at least do chess less, so you can develop other aspects of yourself.

Computers cannot play chess...they can calculate moves. But they are incapable of human emotions, whether it is joy, or sorrow, love, or compassion. For these things, you need a human heart, a human soul. Chess "engines" can help us understand the mathematical possibilities of a position, yes. But the human experience of playing chess, of playing well or badly, of winning and losing, of fear and courage, the joys and sorrows of the game, these are all human emotions.

Peace.