Why Do I Play Chess?

I play chess in my free time because it is my hobby and passion. There are a number of hobbies to choose from but I find chess the best and most fascinating. For me there cannot be a better pursuit than playing chess in my spare time. It not only keeps me busy but also gives entertainment, provides a welcome change and creative satisfaction. However, it is never an obsession with me. It best suits my aptitude and liking.

I was initiated into the game by my late father when I was just 6 years old. My father was a very good player of chess and would play it on Sundays and other holidays in the afternoon with his friend. It was really fascinating to see them get so absorbed in it that it made them forget everything around them. Their playing sessions would sometimes extend into late nights. Sometimes, when there was a power-failure or load-shedding, they would continue their game in candlelight. I learnt the finer points and strategies of the game by watching them play.

Thus, it is perhaps in my blood. It is quite an intellectual game and diversion and also an art that creates beauty and lasting pleasure. There is no other gameor human diversion that reflects so well the vast range of encounters and situations of life as does chess. It reminds me of the famous Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the prince of the wise, who in a poignant mood exclaimed:

But helpless pieces of the game He plays

Upon the chequered board of nights and days;

Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays,

And one by one back in the closet lays.

For Shakespeare, all the world was a stage and all the person’s actors. For Omar Khayyam the world is a mere chessboard, the people chessmen, and God, the creator, the player. Do we not begin our life like chessman, equal in the closet, place the board of life to play our difficult roles as Pawns, Knights, Bishops, Rooks, Queens and Kings? Do we not become equal again in the sight of our Creator, as he returns us to the same closet at the end of the play? Death is the greatest leveller. It does not discriminate or it spare anyone.

Is there any other game, hobby or diversion as philosophical, intellectual and thoughtful as chess? No not at all. It is an ageless game and its hold over the human imagination and mind has been so great that sometimes real battles were won and lost while the players remained absorbed in their mock battle of pieces and pawns. Satyajit Ray’s film Shatranj Ke Khilari, was the only film I saw in a cinema house more than once, because of its excellent portrayal of the game of chess in such a trying situation.

The captive power of chess is really wonderful. For many a great man it has been their “mother tongue’. It is an abstract expression of the struggle and strife of life in general and is useful for studying complex and conflicting situations., It helps in developing decision-making skills and abilities. A chess-player’s strength lies in clear, rational thinking, right approach, logic, knowledge and ability not to commit a mistake. His power of vision, vigilance, intuition and imagination are what make him stronger than others. A game of chess means leisure time spent creatively and purposefully. It activates the central nervous system and develops positive emotional reaction. It is good training for those engaged in challenging tasks and intellectual pursuits. A player of chess is required to make a decisive move in a very complex situation and that too under pressure of time and that is what is required from people in many challenging professions.

Chess players have been found to possess a higher spatial ability than others of comparable intelligence levels. They also possess greater physical endurance, together with tolerance of frustration. A game of chess is a manifestation of both the will to win and create beauty, with the player aiming to surmount all complexity, rigours and barriers to realize his plan and ideas. It appeals to me most because it involves, at every move, at each stage, intensiveness, enterprise, resourcefulness, self-control, determination, vision and the quick execution of the plan.

It is an epic game, with the chessboard being like a battlefield and the two sets of pieces the two contending armies, and the two rival players think in terms of attack, defence, capture, threats, manoeuvres, ambushes and tactics. The game is full of such activities which suggest a real and live combat. It is a game purely of Indian origin; a great tribute to Indian genius. In ancient India, it was known as Chaturanga, which means the four limbs or diversions of ancient Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. Those four divisions or limbs formed the army proper, flanking on either side of the king and his chief minister or mantri/vazir.