Life of Chess

by Daniel Perlov

“These experiences I've gotten from my dad and his dad and his dad before that have made me a better thinker, a better player, and a better person.”

My dad and his dad before that and his dad before that all played chess competitively. I guess I followed that trend as I learned the game young, but scratching… only scratching the tip of the iceberg. I would only know the way that the pieces move rather than any of the actual beauty of the game. It was as if I went to a museum, looked at a work of modern art and said, "I don't get it." As best said by legendary chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, "Chess is a game of unlimited beauty." When I was three years old, my dad explained the rules and I picked up on them very quickly. I was so blind to the study that I gave up the game shortly after. I only knew how the pieces move, but then, one of my close friends beat me in chess. I was never better than him in anything, so, I instantly decided to spend lots of my time studying to prepare and win against him, grown men, and children alike.

I eventually overtook my friend and became the best in my school. Working hard and never giving up were some of the greatest life lessons the game taught me. This to me was exemplified when my dad played this player named David Rakonitz. Both were relatively even in strength, but I would have to give my dad the edge. He was better in the theoretical aspects of the game, the intangibles of creating a plan and following through with it, to give himself a better position despite the other player's ideas. I remember him coming into the game confident and happy. He was excited to play. As the game wore on, he became more and more exhausted. It was his opponent gaining such an edge that you could have won despite the fact that my father was significantly stronger than he was. But my father's opponent missed the winning combination, a relatively easy one to find, and with this mentality of fighting back, even though the computer put him down as dead lost, he somehow clawed his way back into the game.

My father ended this game with a draw, displaying that regardless of the circumstances, he could still win. He could still clutch out the ending. With this in mind, there were many games that I would not have won if I had not fought to try and keep the advantage to force myself to finding a winning combination rather than play the safe move. Through these types of games, I forced myself to improve. These experiences I've gotten from my dad and his dad and his dad before that have made me a better thinker, a better player, and a better person.