I have been learning chess during this lockdown we’ve all been under and thanks to the amazing Nabil Fakih I have actually been improving a great deal. Much like most things that Nabil does, he is brilliant at chess and I finally see now what he has been talking about for years that chess often mimics life and that there are lessons which you can learn from playing the game which can most certainly be applied to your life, and this is actually very true indeed. I may have only scratched the surface of this game but this is absolutely true and I have already started noticing different thought patterns because of it. Here is how chess and life can combine.
Decision Making
The entire game of chess is based around taking decisions and through the playing of the game you can really boost your ability to take decisions where perhaps you couldn’t before. There are also different decisions which need to be taken, sometimes it will be a simple decision to take back a piece where there is no threat, but sometimes you will have to make a tough call to move a piece into danger for the greater good, assuming that you have gauged your opponent right. This involves risk calculation and tough decision making and that is why it is a great game to play.
Strategize
Those who are best at this game are those who know how to strategize and those who can think many moves ahead to decide on how best to move forward. This teaches you the ability to plan for the future and map things out before executing them. There is also the need for a plan B, often a plan C and D as well, because you cannot always trust that the opponent is going to do what you want them to. This is one of the main reasons why it feels so bad to lose a game of chess, because you very much feel outsmarted by the opponent that they were able to strategize better than you could.
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is a key part of life and whilst most of us don’t recognize it, there are so many areas of our lives where we have to let something go in order to gain something later on. This is the essential aspect of the chess end game, knowing exactly what you should and shouldn’t be giving up in order to gain an advantage later on. This is something which you will learn so much more about when playing chess and you may even find that in your life you begin to understand better what the short term loss is all about in the long run.
Ultimately there are so many aspects of chess which are similar to war and similar to life, and through playing this super fun game you can actually enhance other areas of your life, thanks to the lessons which it teaches.
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