The Importance of Learning Chess

Matthew Gates 4m 952 #chess

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

The Most Valuable Life Lesson: Learning How To Play Chess

Chess is the game of life and for a very long time, before modern warfare, most wars were fought like a game of Chess, in which the king or capital city would be captured, and that would be the end of the war. Chess is all about strategy, technique, and precision. Each and every day, we play our own games of chess, having to make tough decisions, and eventually seeing the end results. These moves remain permanent and cannot be undone.

One move affects the entire game and whether it is a good move or a bad move, the outcome of the action will soon show the results, in the form of a check, a checkmate, or a stalemate. Chess consists of 16 pieces for each player: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. Each piece comes with its own limitations and special moves, with the queen being the most powerful, in order to protect her king.

Check is a move in which the king is in danger and needs to be moved in order to get out of check. Checkmate is when there are no moves left to protect the king. After a checkmate is pronounced, the actual piece never needs to be touched, and the game is over. A stalemate is a draw and occurs when any move will result in a check.

Chess is often played with two players and some professionals are able to play multiple games at once with many different people. I remember in college, being a part of the Chess club, and watching one guy play ten people all at once, able to calculate each and every move in the 10 games he had set up, and he had never lost a single game. How could his mind be so advanced to calculate and know the exact moves he should make when there are hundreds of possible different moves. In a game with ten people, most of them hardly make the same moves, but he was able to easily calculate the outcome of his own moves and see the entire game beforehand.

Chess can now be played against computers, which are highly advanced, and rarely lose, as a computer can calculate each and every move easily beforehand. In most computer Chess games, there are different levels of difficulty, allowing for the player to have a chance, and the computer to lose. Expert and advanced modes, however, rarely allow for the computer to lose, unless the player has come up with a unique technique and pattern towards the goal of capturing the king. In some cases, the computer may learn from the player’s moves, never allowing the same game to win more than once.

Chess takes time, patience, and practice. In order to become an advanced player, you should learn the value of every tool you are given on the board, including what each piece and their space represents. For every action, there is an opposite reaction that could either lead to the death of your piece, or the capture of the great king. One wrong move from either side could end the game in seconds. A more challenging game could last for hours.

There are different Chess variations, including a timed game, in which the players are given a countdown timer, and must hit the clock with every piece in order to stop the countdown. The idea is to capture the king as quick as possible. There is another variant called CrazyHouse, in which all captured pieces become yours to use as you wish, of course, with the limitations of the piece.

Chess teaches anyone who plays it to think differently, to make calculations and analyses in mere moments in order to defeat the component. Almost all chess games are never played the same and one different move to one piece can affect how the entire game is played. Thinking about and coming up with different a strategy every time or figuring out a unique strategy when a certain move is made by the component forces the player to come up with different techniques, challenging their brain to think.

If you have not learned Chess, it is time you took just an hour of your life to learn, preferably with a friend who already knows how to play. If your children have no idea what Chess is, it is time for you to teach them. You will open up their minds to new possibilities and ways of thinking that a video game could never teach them.

Chess is an intimate game, allowing for two people to communicate, and get to know each other, especially in understanding how each other thinks and reacts in certain situations. It is the perfect game to play while a couple are dating, or it is the perfect game to play for two friends who have not seen each other in a long time, or it is the perfect game to play when two people are bored and looking for a fun activity to do together. Chess is a non-violent game that requires two players to physically be turned towards each other, thus invoking conversation, or just eye contact.

Chess is one of the oldest and most versatile games in the world that has been adapted to the way politics work, wars are fought, and businesses are run. While the idea of Chess is to capture the king, the more important takeaway from Chess is the way the game teaches you to think and analyze your situations differently, and sometimes, those situations require you to make rash decisions quickly.

Matthew Gates is a freelance web designer and currently runs Confessions of the Professions.

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