How do you think chess relates to life?

Hello, I am thinking of writing a fiction book about a girl with cancer that loves chess and it's going to have a heavy influence on her life. How would you relate chess to life lessons and what you could learn?

if you seek inspiration read the book "art of learning" by Josh Waitzkin.

intuition comes from God, see also insight and inspiration

Nobby

So glad you said that. I've seen the Lord lead me in directions that I would never have chosen, with amazing results. It's as if God says, "Bob, I'm God, that's what I do"!! Thank you Nobby

give us a copy when you finish!

roi_g11 wrote:

working hard at chess (or any sport) and doing well at it -- seeing your rating improve, winning money/trophies at tournaments, or just beating your friends who used to seem unbeatable -- is uplifting and builds self-confidence

in terms of in-game chess psychology there are a lot of fun topics.  One easy one is about bravery...playing complicated/sharp lines or going into unknown territory a bit unsure of the outcome but willing to fight for a win.  Some chess players shy away from that stuff. 

you could have a deep psychological discussion based off of one position.  Tal is a great example of bravery because he often made sharp moves that were not always tactically correct, and he has some interesting commentary about difficult positions. 

In his "life and games of tal" he describes his game against GM Vasiukov in one of the USSR Championships.  He was looking very deeply (40 minutes!!) into a knight sacrifice and wrote a long narrative about his thinking that has always stuck with me. 

Basically he wrote that the sac was not obvious and there were many many variations, and as he carefully worked through each one he found to his horror that nothing would come of it.  yet he did not stop calculating -- he did not give up!!  Ideas kept piling up...his head "became filled with a completely chaotic pile of all sorts of moves" as the branches on his tree of variations "spread with unbelievable rapidity".

All of a sudden he remembered a poem "oh what a difficult job it was, to drag ou of the marsh the hippopotamus".

While the spectators watched him, assuming he was calculating lines, he was actually trying to figure out how exactly to drag a hippo out of a marsh.  He had imagined levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder...and ultimately decided it was not possible and then the hippo disappeared and the position became simple.

he realized he could not possibly calculate all lines and that the knight sac was purely intuitive, so he bravely made it.

the next day all the commentators wrote that the sac was indeed accurate, and how impressed they were that he was able to calculate such a complicated line so well. 

It obviously was very well calculated, but they did not know that his final decision was based on intuition...i call that bravery.

it's kind of based on one of my online chess friends that passed away. she has an account here on chess.com so i dont want to name names. Her favorite player was Mikhail Tal actually. She liked him for his aggressiveness.

ajttja wrote:

give us a copy when you finish!

It will probably take a few years since I actually want to get it published and all- preferably before college (im going into 10th grade)

NobbyCapeTown wrote:

intuition comes from God, see also insight and inspiration

my friend didnt believe in God. well, although she was catholic she called herself atheist because she blamed God for her cancer anf that she wasn't able to be treated (her brother told me). I will try to incorporate a bit of belief. I am also catholic. I pray before every game in a tournament :)

I think there is a connection between character archetypes and the chess pieces, both: in how they move or what they see and what they do,  and how they work together.  For your purposes the idea of finding connections between characters and chess pieces in archetypes might make for some themes or a set of symbols to work with.  I think there is something interesting in the contrast between life and chess in that you can fully sacrificial campaign, decimating your own side and still win.  It makes me wonder how applicable the idea of winning is to life.  Since your story involved cancer, that seems applicable too.

musicalhair wrote:

I think there is a connection between character archetypes and the chess pieces, both: in how they move or what they see and what they do,  and how they work together.  For your purposes the idea of finding connections between characters and chess pieces in archetypes might make for some themes or a set of symbols to work with.  I think there is something interesting in the contrast between life and chess in that you can fully sacrificial campaign, decimating your own side and still win.  It makes me wonder how applicable the idea of winning is to life.  Since your story involved cancer, that seems applicable too.

thanks for your contribution!

You will all be in the acknoledgements in the back of the book for helping me out!

How is the title: The Final Checkmate

editors often have a lot of say in what the titles end up being so I'd worry about that last.  Just work on your outline, characters and their motivations and their "gestures" and ways of speaking and all that. (I'm an improviser/actor/comedian that teaches improv, where most of what I cover is making discoveries about characters and structure, so that's both my perspective and where my comments are coming from).

musicalhair wrote:

editors often have a lot of say in what the titles end up being so I'd worry about that last.  Just work on your outline, characters and their motivations and their "gestures" and ways of speaking and all that. (I'm an improviser/actor/comedian that teaches improv, where most of what I cover is making discoveries about characters and structure, so that's both my perspective and where my comments are coming from).

thanks for the advice!

anyone who wishes to have a copy when it's finished, message and friend me.

Life sucks, and then you die.  Chess is pretty much the same story.

Boy am I ever grumpy when I wake up from my nap....

baddog............I heard that life sucks and then you move to NJ!! Why do so many people pick on NJ.

so many good thoughts in this thread.....I'll probably get some disagreement on this thought but here goes anyway...........I've noticed that I'm enjoying chess much more now that I stopped obessing with WINNING, and instead, started focusing on improving and win or lose, enjoy the game of chess. It's a wonderful game.....and it has taught me som important lessons on life along the way......like, you don't hve to win every argument........in fact, if played right, you don't even have to escalate an intelligent converstaion into an argument!!

I read somewhere that the pieces represent various aspects of life.

Pawn - The decisions you make , they are small, cannot be taken back but together make a big difference.

Knight - Your travels, It can jump over pieces and can of course preform the knights tour.

Bishop - Your long range thoughts and plans,represented best in the Fianchetto.

Rook - Your house / castle - self explanatory.

Queen - Your money, assets, your power.

King - You.

:) :) :)

Laws of logic, correct and incorrect methods and decisions, immutable laws, and chess is a science. 

Emmanuel Lasker answered that question Chess like life is struggle that which cannot be cured must be endured we have to make the best of our circumstances and what we've got to work with and get on with it.