Strategery

I am proud of the kids getting together to play chess. It’s not just chess—we go down to the weight room afterwards. My great grandmother used to say plenty of people have strong minds and weak backs; plenty of people have strong backs and weak minds—you should have a strong mind and a strong back.

There are 5 kids, and I think that’s all I can handle right now. Not just because helping people look at three different chess games or playing three myself is too much, but because the weight room gets too crowded. Any chess playing weightlifters out there? We could do this in two shifts…

I guess what I want to get across to the kids, or maybe not get across to them… I suppose that I just want them to internalize some things from chess that are helpful in life. I think the main one is not to react. Chess can teach you patience. Novice or impatient players will be tempted by taking a piece easily. They don’t realize that it is either bait or it takes away their focus and forces from winning the game. Don’t react to a temptation if it keeps you from your goal. And don’t get panicky or mad if someone is pounding on you. Keep playing with focus and determination. Run what you brung. Chances are, your opponent is a “reactor,” and you’ll win just because they will self-destruct, the way you’re about to do if you don’t keep it together…

Or novice/impatient players are afraid to sacrifice a piece to advance the aim of winning. How many times have I heard one say, “if I do that, she’ll get my knight…” Yeah, but two moves later, you’ll have her king. They can’t be scared to sacrifice and work for a goal. If you play to not lose, you’ll get crushed. In chess and in life. This is why so many of the downtrodden don’t move up or forward—they are trying too hard to keep from losing ground. And many times putting in the hard work and sacrifice to go to school and work hard seems like too much for no gain… not seeing that the gain is a few moves down the road.

Last night, one of the boys came over to the house… to play chess. He stayed for two hours straight. Six games because he was getting pounded. The last two games, I made him touch every piece and show me all the possible moves, and then the moves he might make on his next turn. He was kind of mad at me at points. “Don’t react,” I said, “Think!” There are lots of choices—some meaningless, some disastrous, some ok, some leading to victory. But if he doesn’t look at every option, have a plan…

Finally, some of these kids have a hard time focusing, have a hard time thinking through. You’d think chess would be too much for them. But chess is the very thing for it. Not only will it make them think through and ahead, it will bring discipline.

Statistically, the best first move is for White to move the King’s pawn forward two spaces. They know this. When I play Black, I almost always play what’s called the French Defense. The first 5 or 6 moves of the game are almost automatic. Next week I think we’ll work through something called the Caro-Kann Defense. A new set to memorize, to set up. After that the Sicilian Defense, which I do not know much about, so we’ll learn together. They will have to recognize what each other are playing, and pull out the moves accordingly. They’ll never know that they are dealing with issues of symmetry, transposition, memorization of complex forms that will come naturally, leaving their brains open for the middle of the game where things get murky and furious—they won’t know this until it is too late and they’re having fun…

And I hope at the end I have some cunning s.o.b’s on my hands. People who think it through, who don’t react, who grab it and growl. We’re getting there. Matthew Highfill is 1-5 versus me. It should be 0-6, but he is quite wily. MK Punk still gets trashed every time, but he is going to crush me on the bench press.