I’m not the best of chess players, but I love playing it. Every moment I happen to play it, I learn how to play life. It will obviously consume your time and rake your brain inside out. Sometimes you will feel the pressure of the ticking clock or sometimes your butt will start aching having spent all that time strategizing your way towards victory. Well, it’s totally worth it. If you look at it closely, you quite had a good life lesson there itself. Life plays us, and it plays us BIG TIME! We are it’s chosen opponent whether we like it or not. So to win at it, we need to play it right. So I just thought I would word a few things I picked up in short.
1. To me chess is pretty much like a war at times.
Well, so is life right? In war we lose the best we have got at times. But it doesn’t mean that the game is over. Sometimes we need to be prepared to make great sacrifices because the greatest material sacrifice can result in a winning position.
As humans we tend to hold onto things. Even I do. The level of unpredictability and the fear of sacrificing something good which you have in hand already for something you cannot quite predict isn’t a pretty feeling at all. But where is the thrill of life without a bit of a risk? The point is, you have to make your sacrifice worth making it. Chess does a pretty good job in teaching you how to make sacrifices with a purpose, cutting your way towards victory and not like a blind fool towards your doom.
2. Do not underestimate. period! Just don’t.
In chess, the pawn is considered the minor who can only take one step at a time. We wouldn’t mind losing a pawn or two the way we mind losing our queen or our knight. But the beauty of it is that, this, same pawn has the potential of becoming a queen if driven the right way. In life you and I might be the pawn, or may be we are surrounded by those who we consider to be pawns. If it is you who is the pawn, then navigate yourself accordingly that it will pave way to meet your goal . Choose your circles right, make wise moves, slow is okay but steady yourself, become the queen! if you happen to be surrounded by pawns, treat them with respect, do everything in your power to protect them. Don’t be eaten by superiority to look down on minority because it might turn out to your disadvantage. Now you know why!
3. See the bigger picture.
We face different phases of life, whether it be career, education, relationships etc, and we tend to make certain moves based on impulse or due to our sudden adrenaline rush. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I happen to do it quite often. But bottom line is, bigger picture matters, or you could just be plain selfish and do whatever you want, the way you want, to hell with everyone and everything associated with your life if that’s okay with you. But you cant play chess if your moves got no purpose, and if the bigger picture isn’t considered. So to make a move and not end up like a total idiot, you need to look at the entire board. Same goes with life. A move without a purpose which is taken without considering the bigger picture can screw you up like nothing. How do I know? I have been there just so you know.
4. Don’t understand your opponents move or motive? you don’t always need to!
Well I have seen many people are quite busy competing with another that they tend to forget to spend some quality time understanding themselves. Once a good old friend told me “don’t worry about what others do and what moves they make trying to compete with them. Instead compete with your own self to know what’s the better move for you and to be the best”. Damn right she was! A sound understanding about yourself and your stand gives you confidence. Then you know what you need to do rather than worrying about what others do because at the end of the day what others do don’t really matter. Just because other make certain moves doesn’t make their moves better than yours. That’s what chess teach us, because even in chess sometimes our opponents make moves for which we rake our minds wondering why the hell they made that move. Well sometimes they also don’t know why the hell they made that move, so stop being a jerk and focus on YOUR move which secures your victory. Simple!
5. Finally, It all ends the same way!
Well, Play it fair and square. Play it genuinely. play it with passion. Play it with a purpose for a purpose. Play it with heart. Play it with a sense of equality and respect. Play it with good motives. Play it wise. Play it with dignity and end it the same. At the end of your life CHECK MATE your life with honor, because, for with all that it has given you and thrown at you, you will end the game with the peace of mind that YOU my darlings, have played it well.
As it is no secret to any of us that at the end of the game, all goes to the same place.
Caravanette Alpas 