Learning Chess and Learning from Chess

I've been trying to improve my chess playing skills as of late. It's the type of thing where the more you learn, the more aware you become of how little that you know. It can be daunting and discouraging at times. Still, I have a much deeper appreciation of the game than ever before. One very important lesson that I've learned that I can apply to other areas in life is getting the knack of doing the right amount of thinking. This is pretty tough to do in chess, because often times, you'll see a move and feel and instinctive drive to just play it! It's after that rash decision that realize you've made a blunder. The piece you attacked had an extra defender, or you've left a crucial square or your back rank unprotected. On the other side is overthinking. Here, you jump around, thinking about one line, and then another, and then another... Pretty soon you're lost in a see of possible moves, and no one is looking better than the others.

Memorization only goes so far in correcting this problem. Sure, you can move along by rote, but you'll never know why you're playing these moves. And when you finally do encounter something that takes you out of the book, you're helpless. You'll need to rely on memory, for sure, but that memory has to come from your own thinking process, remembering when you were successful in your decisions in the past, and when you failed.

The guides that help me the best are the ones that focus my line of thought. First and foremost, I have to look at the board. Where are my weaknesses? Where are my opportunites? Where are my opponents strengths? Should I take my opponent head on, or is there more opportunity on a flank where they have fewer pieces? In short, my first path is to decide what to focus on. Then I can begin to think through the possible moves. The crucial piece is to decide if this is working. If I am not getting enough good options out of this particular plan, I need to break off. There's something else on the board that I need to find. Once I abandon on possible plan, I need to let it go. Jumping back and forth will just make me indecisive, and more likely to make an impulsive move.

I think this game provides a chance to exercise good thinking habits. Sure, we aren't in opposition in everyday situations like we are in chess (at least not often). But any kind of impulsiveness might be something to keep an eye on. If it's harmless, there's no problem. But can something said impulsively at work possibly be harmful? By the same token, there is a time limit on our life. We don't have endless amounts of time to do whatever we like. We need to weigh our options, and not get bogged down into an endless loop.

Another very important lesson to take from chess is that you can battle someone over the board, but be polite and friendly with them at the same time. I'll explore that in a later post.