“Play stupid games — win stupid prices”.

Chess is no exception

Even if you’re a grandmaster — quit chess, it’s a waste of life

Gods are embarrassed with you

 

That’s one lesson of chess — don’t waste life on fake games, fake competition, and fake prices

 

Ok, there’s one more lesson to chess

Verily gentleman’s game, if that gentleman should learn that lesson

Bear with me

 

First there are the LEGAL rules of chess

e.g. how pieces move, and what it means to win a game, lose, or draw

The rules are not difficult, but are not trivial

The rules are objective

And of course, if you don’t know the rules — then you can’t even play

Meaning you can’t possibly win

It’s equivalent of being DEAD, in life

Can’t win in life if you can’t live, can’t play

 

This is simple, but relevant

There ACTUALLY ARE people who seem to forget that rule

When you’re not playing to win, not playing at all — but just passing time — obviously you can’t win.

And of course if you kill yourself, deliberately or through neglect — then you’re fucking dead, you lost

And you will be dead eventually, your clock time will run out too

That’s another lesson — there’s NO TIME

 

That was simple

Once we know the basic rules of chess, then come principles of PLAYING CHESS WELL

There are strategies and tactics

There are positions

There are advantages

There are imbalances

There’s the opening, the middle game, and the endgame

There’s a lot of nuance

 

Now, here’s the beautiful lesson:

All those various principles are in a TENSION one with another

The different principles suggest different plans — and realisation of one plan is a compromise on another plan

The ART is to find the plan which most harmoniously reconciles those different principles

E.g. creating an attack, but not compromising the king safety

 

And the principles in isolation can be rather simple

e.g. “develop pieces”, “don’t create weaknesses”, “protect the king”, etc.

It’s the INTERPLAY between those different factors, principles, as well as the interplay between short term and long term — which is where difficulty lies

And this is VERY life-like

Where simple rules and principles nevertheless result in a complex consideration, with a lot of possibilities and UNCLEAR way forward

 

THIS is the gentlemanly lesson

FOOLS take one or two principles — apply them dogmatically — and then refuse to change their mind

When you tell them that their conclusion, their move is wrong — they point to the rule

You tell them that there are more principles, rules, than just this one. That fianchettoed bishop is not so strong in EVERY position

They say that you just refuse to see the reality, the REALITY of that rule, which they hold so real

 

But not only dogmatic fools err

Some take all those principles, all those choices, all those possibilities — and ultimately conclude that THERE’S NO CLEAR WAY FORWARD

That there’s NO MOVE to be made

They believe the TRUTH of the position is INSCRUTABLE, UNKNOWABLE

Except

Chess shows otherwise

In chess there IS the best move

And the STRONGEST PLAYER will (more) CONSISTENTLY find it — and PROVE IT to be the strongest move

 

And at any rate — the move must be made

just like in life

In life INDEED there are positions where it’s IMPOSSIBLE to know what to do

But the lesson of chess is that though you may be unable to see the way — there might nevertheless STILL be the way

And even if you don’t know what to do — DOING something will reveal the truth to you

Just like in chess

 

Maybe it sounds a bit like I’m overthinking it

I’m not

It actually is a beautiful thing to witness, how from the simple principles — there emerges a wonderfully complex problem

And it takes lifetime of study to solve such puzzle

And how that solution will be completely INSCRUTABLE to 99% of the witnesses — and yet will PROVE it’s value ON THE BOARD

JUST LIKE IN REAL LIFE

You and I and every other idiot is very confident in how well he can explain the world,

Except the moves we make SOMEHOW don’t seem to have the same STRENGTH behind them

 

Life of course has the element of luck

But luck factor of course is diminished over the long term

And even in chess, ELO rating probabilistically reflects the chances of one player beating, losing or drawing with another

Over a number of games — this rating is proven

Or, if the outcome is different — the rating is adjusted

But it’s rarely the single game which will prove one’s skill, at the highest level

 

This asymmetry of simple principles yielding complex problems reminds me of illusion of explanatory depth,

as well as of green lumber fallacy,

You can understand the rules well — but nevertheless fail to apply them

Or you can understand the wrong aspects of the rules — as opposed to someone who just knows the right moves, without even the ability to fully explain how he knows them

 

Finally, let’s consider the SUBTLETY of the INTERPLAY of those factors, of those principles

Chess actually is quite dogmatic

In that certain rules hold VERY Strongly

e.g. certain openings have a very bad reputation, or certain types of moves are very much frowned upon

AND YET, the INTERPLAY of those DOGMAS nevertheless MORE OFTEN THAN NOT results in INVALIDATING one of them

Meaning when all the rules are put together, all those factors considered — more often than not you find yourself making a move that’s at odds with one of those dogmas in isolation

e.g. marching your king up the board, to use it to help deliver checkmate

 

This again wonderfully reflects the real life

A case where dogmas in isolation make perfect sense

AND in vast majority of normal situations indeed hold absolute truth

YET in complex positions, situations, and THERE where it truly matters — is when dogmas must be broken

 

I see it in our stupid political discussions

I see it in business

I see it in how we live our lives

If you want to abide by all the rules and dogmas, at all times — you end up immobilised, impossible to move

And yet, to break any single dogma — you need EXCEPTIONAL reasons

THIS is how we get stuck, eventually

When the DOGMAS become impossible for us to reconcile

 

Those are the beautiful, gentlemanly lessons of chess

Don’t need to play chess to learn them. Play the game of life instead

Chess though is a good metaphor. And metaphor is a useful model to use to understand something

Play the game of life, then consider how other games often share similarities

Then learn to play better, more strategic, more tactically sharp, more patient, more sagacious