This piece is intended as a partner article to the previous post, “Why Experienced Chess Players Should Play in Tournaments”.

1. What you think you know can hurt you.

The only way to test what you’ve actually learned is live play with a clock against a human opponent. Chess players are decision-making animals. The real test of your strength is decision-making under fire. ‘Book-learning’ is useful and necessary, but unless your opponent blunders, you have to learn to make choices under pressure. Can’t do that with a book or, in my experience, with a computer. Chess players are excuse-making animals. We tend to cut ourselves more slack than our opponents do. I prefer using the computer to validate choices made in life play over the board. Use the computer to learn from your mistakes.

2. Human opponents do what they want, not what you want.

No matter how hard you study, they will present you new problems over the board. You have to learn to play against bad moves in an open field loaded with traps.

3. Losing is necessary and OK.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The worst handicap any player can proceed under is the belief that you have to play perfect chess to win. You just have to play better than your opponent. So focus on what you can do, not what you should do.

4. The problems you fail to solve have more to teach you than the ones you succeed in solving.

Play up as high as you can and see every mistake as an opportunity to find and correct leaks in your game. I like blaming myself for losses – I can fix me.

5. Feedback, feedback, feedback.

Consult friends, opponents, books, databases, and computers. Anyone or anything that can help you identify and understand your mistakes. Every game, every bad move, is an opportunity to learn.

6. But first you have to MAKE moves.

7. Chess is concrete, practical. We learn by risking failure and by making choices.

8. For fun. Once you get past the fear of losing and develop a little confidence, chess is almost pure fun. Join us!

-Don Maddox

1. What you actually know may help others.

Chess is a cross-generational activity – new players learn from older players. They learn tenacity and honesty. They learn to fight. They learn to respect the journey as much as they respect the result – no one moves from Class D to Class C, B, A, to Expert and Master without earning each step along the way. One of my favorite stories is World Correspondence Chess Champion John Purdy’s last OTB game. He collapsed at the board. When his son came to his side, Purdy said, “Son. I think I have a win, but it will take time.”

Purdy died with his clock running.

A perfect gentleman and former Australian OTB National Champion, Purdy served as a model for generations of players.

2.  Chess is a disease – or a blessing – that has to be passed across the board from one player to another.

Experienced players are essential to keeping the circle unbroken. They are our bridge to the chess past, and what they remember and what they know can nurture and guide new talent. Someone has to remind bright new stars that they don’t know everything, yet. Chess is one of those rare pursuits where adults and kids compete on equal footing. They need us, and we need them. In chess – like everywhere else – mentors matter.

3.  Even today, in the Age of the Internet, with rapid, almost instantaneous connection, Bobby Fischer is right – “Nothing is more important than a human touch.”

We need each other.

4.  Chess friends last almost forever.

Today, with so much on the verge of slipping from my mind, ‘long lost friends’ from 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago are reaching out to remind me that my life matters, that what I have given has been received, and that chess matters to those of us lucky enough to find ourselves hooked.

-Don Maddox