Thanks to my brother-in-law, I’ve recently got back into playing chess. I’ve always enjoyed playing chess since I was young, but I’ve never really studied chess strategy.
The Active Pieces lesson on chess.com that I watched this morning made an interesting assertion: “The only way to win at chess is by playing with sound strategies and gradually making your position better, until you have an overwhelming advantage, or your opponent can’t handle the pressure and cracks.” I had never really considered the aspect of mental pressure and stamina in the game.
Reasoning from there, it seems to me that things like understanding the book openings and common defenses and techniques help to structure the game in your mind, helping you to manage the mental load of the game, and thereby making you a stronger player relative to players who do not yet have the categories to understand common situations on the board.
There is probably a lesson in here for the real world too.
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