Chess – The Sport of Kings
Oh chess, the sport of Kings, the game of sages! For how long has It been studied? For how long have the gruesome players looked deep into it, looking for a meaning, a purpose? For how long have we tried to understand it?
Life, poetry, war. No, chess is neither of those. Chess is the reflection of man. It was created by, perfected by, studied by, elevated by, and one day, inevitably, it will day with: MAN.
So be silent you. You who raise your voice in contempt, claiming that chess is a pastime, that chess has the purpose of fun, that chess helps you develop.
No, that’s not the purpose of chess. Quite simply, the purpose of chess, is the purpose of man. Whatever He searches for, he searches for it in chess. Glory, greed, annihilation. All goals that the untrained eye may miss, but a closer look will find without blinking.
This is why computers will never truly play chess. They’ll move the pieces, they will checkmate you time and time again, but at the end of the day, they weren’t playing chess. They might find the cold positional play, they might have found the strikingly strong tactic, but they will never find the need for victory that so well characterizes the human mind.
So be silent you. You who silently shouts that chess has no violence, you who whisper to the passing wind and the falling rain that chess is merely a battle of minds. You are wrong. Mortally wrong. And if your naivety pays of in this life, then this life is not worth living. Minds cannot battle. Pawns battle. Bishops attack, knights block, queens fall. Not minds.
And that’s the ultimate crime. You sit, comfortably reading the future, trying to stay three moves ahead, when a hundred of them are too few. But you never enter the muddy, dark and white squared battlefield. You stay well away from it, trying to maintain your precious god-like perspective. And for what? What will all those moves, all those advances and retreats give you? A chance to take down the king.
Oh yes. When the dice are cast, and they roll like a thunder in a storm, that’s what you go for. The crown. The king. Nothing else matters.
You give away pawns, calling it a gambit. You don’t give them a chance. You rationalize it, stating that it granted you “better development”. Guess what. You’re not developing life. You’re not developing technology. You’re simply developing an attack against an equally brutal foe.
And when finally you have that winning strike, you’re even willing to give up the life of your trusted knight, your faithful bishop, and your loyal rook. Yes. You’re willing to let all of them die, including your own love, your own family. Your own wife. Your own queen.
Your willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Yes. That’s what you call it. A sacrifice. Something that has to be done for the greater good. And what is that greater good? To checkmate your opponent. But you don’t kill it. No!
Killing an opposing monarch would be a brutality!! Barbaric. Bishops may be crucified, Knights may be severed, and pawns may be slaughtered. But they deserved it. Right? Because when the time comes, when they are near the final rank, they are willing to give up the lives of their companions so that they can get to be queens for a day. Until they are inevitably sacrificed too.
But never the all important king. No. That one has to face the shame, when he looks onto the proud eyes of his enemy. And then he must stand up, shake hands and say “good game”. Silent be you. You who say that chess is but a game.
Couldn’t have this been avoided? Couldn’t the mighty king have resigned his kingdom when he faced the inevitable defeat? Couldn’t he have simply given up when his queen was lost in the shadows of memory?
No. He had to fight ‘till the end. For a little glory. For a chance of murdering – yes murdering – a few enemy troops. Even if defeat is approaching fast, that doesn’t matter. The honor is what is at stake. Not the lives of your servants. No! Those are meaningless.
Chess. The sport of the kings indeed.
Tiago Devesa.
This is a short essay I wrote for a writers competition right here at Chess.com
I decided to share it with you guys