WHAT IS CHESS?

Ed Hirsch April 2003


A. Chess as part/whole

1. Chess is a rich, yin/yang tapestry woven of many opposites: Black and White, self and other, attack and defense, win and lose, idea and action, logic and intuition, tradition and discovery…

2. Chess is a game, a sport, an art, a science, a path of integration, that appeals to both the scientist and the artist within us. It combines sporting excitement with calm observation and thinking.

3. Chess is an art in which beautiful plays can be made, plays which elegantly combine wisdom, power, and beauty. You get to be the artist of your own game while creating a whole in counterpoint with another.

4. Chess is highly individualistic, where each player is king of his or her own side. And chess is also a rich history, tradition, culture, and community, in which each player participates.

5. Chess has many facets, both competitive and cooperative: tournament chess, speed chess, chess puzzles, computer chess, simultaneous chess (one person playing several boards), replaying master games, study of chess theory, chess variants (such as giveaway chess), and more.

5. Although every game begins with the same position of the pieces, and the pieces always move in the same way, the play of theme and variation is endless, allowing endless creativity.

6. Chess is a working together of the elements of Matter (gaining material advantage), Space (the space of the 8x8 board, controlling more space on the board, the coordination of pieces), Time (rapid development of pieces, the order of moves played, as well as time pressure), and Self (the King, as well as the experience, knowledge, creativity, and inner state of the player).

7. Chess can be enjoyed on any level from beginner to grandmaster. All generations of a family can participate as both teacher and learner. Chess is a Teacher (the muse Caissa) and has something to teach everyone. No one is master of the game itself.

B. Playing the game

1. Chess is a game of parts and wholes, both spatially on the board and temporally as a series of moves. It develops your mind to pay attention to details as well as to the whole view, to the interrelation of the parts within the whole. You look for the general idea or pattern behind the position while also looking to see if that idea works in the specific situation before you.

2. The chessboard is like a magic carpet transporting the player to the land of chess magic. The world falls away, and you are wholly absorbed in the drama unfolding in the land of 64 squares.

3. As you get a feel for the game, you make every move count, you activate your pieces as a team. You get a feel for the welfare of your team as a whole as well as each individual piece.

4. Just as the chess pieces love freedom (and checkmate is the ultimate loss of freedom), so you learn to look at all your viable options (for knowledge is power) and make the best of them.

5. Like a detective scanning the board for clues, you look for relevant details and relationships. You look for pieces of the puzzle which you can bring together into a meaningful whole of strengths and weaknesses. But instead of trying to figure out what did happen, you are piecing together clues towards what might happen (and later, why one side won).

6. A chess game is an ongoing puzzle which changes with every move made on the board. It is like a story unfolding which you try to understand as well as actively create. That story moves from beginning (Opening), middle (Middle Game), to ending (Endgame or earlier), from an original balance through crisis (the drama of imbalances–advantages and disadvantages) to resolution.

7. You learn to ask questions to focus and activate your mind. Rather than simply looking at the board and hoping that something turns up, you can systematically study and inquire into it.

8. Chess is an art of making plans and then being flexible to adapt them to changing circumstances. It combines the qualities of tough-mindedness with an open flexibility, of focused rational mind with open intuitive mind.

9. Chess teaches prioritizing. Among many possibilities, your challenge is to find what is most relevant and promising–both for yourself and the other player. Check and checkmate are priorities that are woven into the very fabric of the game.

10. Chess teaches you to objectively observe what is there as well as to mold it more in accord with the heart’s desire. You learn to integrate the ideal (the idea, the goal, the pattern) with the actual (what is actually, objectively, there on the board). Chess combines contemplation and action.

C. Chess as integrative path

1. As in any sport, you can get into the "zone," in which you feel in the flow of the game, totally concentrated and yet also relaxed into something greater than yourself. In this state, you feel open to a greater resource of power and awareness, though you do have to think for yourself.

2. In this state, you are dedicated to playing your best, for the love of the game rather than for winning at all costs (out of fear of losing). You actively engage in problem solving, sometimes in the midst of adversity and uncertainty. Although only one side wins, the game is win-win for learners.

3. Competition enhances self-development, honing your inner resources. You learn to face your fear and go beyond it. You deal with loss, mistakes, and failure as part of the learning process.

4. As a martial art of the mind, chess can serve as a discipline of mind, body, emotions, and spirit. It is a mirror for self-observation, self-knowledge, and self-transformation. It is a war game (a conflict model) that serves peace through its universality, as well as higher integrations in its players.

5. Chess engages the intellect, the imagination, the emotions, the intuition, and vital energy. All of these can be engaged as an integrated presence in the feel and the flow of the game. For example, a passion hot for the win can be combined with a cool, objective thinking.

6. Chess can draw you beyond self-concern. In this way, you engage life with intention, passion, and awareness and yet also with an ease that knows it is only a play in a greater Game.

7. Chess is a uniquely enjoyable form of active whole-brain learning. It awakens the inner genius, expanding the mind with the "Aha!" or "Eureka!" experience. Opening to a stronger move expands awareness to a greater whole. You learn to take the initiative, proactively engaging with problems rather than simply reacting to them.

8. Chess excites and quickens the mind, while it also slows down mental activity to think deeper and consider more of the whole view and unexpected possibilities. Thus chess develops both sharp insight as well as slow contemplation, both passion and patience.

9. Chess is an enjoyable way of growing beyond the reactive and limited mind and developing a disciplined, resourceful, proactive, and independent mind.

10. Children are attracted to chess, a game in which they can excel at a young age. But the real point is not chess excellence--it is what children can become in the process of chess development. They can track their progress, but more importantly, they can become more aware of their inner process as they grow and mature in chess. In the process of developing a more integral sense of the game of chess, they can develop a more integral sense of themselves.

Return to SCS homepage