5 life lessons I learned while playing chess

I play chess, every day, it is a hobby since college days, I love the game and its need to think and the way it requires you to think.

I am not a master I play and lose a lot, but it is hard to lose, and after over 14 years of playing chess, I learned few valuable lessons. In this article, I will share them and show you them in action.

Lesson 1: You need to be careful when you are close to Win.

I can not tell you how many games I played where people snapped and made uncommonly silly mistakes when they were about to win, including me. The following game is a perfect example of that:

http://goo.gl/Au5vjv

I was winning, obviously the game was about to end, what was the logical move, any move other than moving the queen to C8, that was my move, and I lost the queen for no apparent reason other than I thought it ended.

In life, it is the same, when you are close to win, either it is exam, job, deal or anything, you need to make sure you will close it, do not snap at the last mile, keep the same performance and attitude to make sure you will WIN and end up WINNING BIG.

Lesson2: Don’t give up; no matter how f**ked you are:

I can not tell how many games I played and when I kill the queen people give up and resign, toooo many games.

I found that people give up early and easily, and a lot of them snap (check lesson #1), my 2 cents in chess and life don’t give up, no matter how deep in shit you are in, think strategically and move tactically, the queen is not your strongest piece on the chess board; your brain is the strongest piece on the board and in life, use it.

Check this game:

http://goo.gl/eg9ss0

I played this game against a extremely experienced player I took care and played the king gambit which should guarantee a exceptionally strong dynamic during the game as I was playing with white, but guess what, he set me up, and I lost the queen, and I couldn’t castle, I thought about giving up, but I didn’t, moved correctly and ended up advancing with 2 pieces.

So, chess and life are about your choices and moves, decide carefully.

Lesson3: Easy wins are not always easy

In chess, players target the rook as a highly valuable piece, it is the most valuable after the queen (of course skipping the king).

In a lot of games, you might see an easy target, but you need to be careful of what is the current situation, you need to think what others will do and don’t buy into a simple target because others might hit back hard.

check this game: http://goo.gl/n1nRGj

I was attacking the king side, obviously the other played didn’t think carefully about his current position, and bought the idea of forking the queen and rook, he ended up with a sad situation and position.

Also in life, don’t buy easy wins and target, they are lovely and sometimes you have/must use them, but you have to think ahead; what is behind them and will they benefit me?!

Lesson4: No matter how careful you are, sometimes you f*ck up:

I play careful and systematic games against experiences players, wither I play with white or black; I use a exceedingly systematic approach to avoid any surprises.

But no matter how careful I am, or you are or will, sometimes we do stupid stuff. We will always do stupid and foolish stuff, it is part of life.

check the following game:

http://goo.gl/5Lah4E

again, king gambit, everything is progressing as should be, but in the seventh move I did what, I took the pawn with the bishop, what the hell I was thinking, I don’t know.

I had experienced player against me, I lost a valuable piece, and the game still in the beginning, it is a tough situation, but I decided to recover and come back.

as you can see, I pushed with some tactical moves to prevent the queen from castling, and strategically to attack with the Rook and queen.

I ended up with a check mate. that was impressive and valuable lesson to me. In life, sometimes you do stupid things, disastrous to the point you might think I can’t come back from this.

But when you face these situations, it is time to apologize to others or to yourself, put a plan, gather yourself and recover, you can always do that, no matter how hard the situation you are in.

Lesson5: Chess about the bottom line, so is life:

Chess about mating the king, it is not about taking the queen or having more pawns, it is about someone who wins at the end, simple as that.

A lot of people forget this rule; I can’t tell how many time people ran after a hanging pawn or a piece and had to pay the price for it.

check this game: http://goo.gl/xWt4Kb

the guy went after the hanging pawn; I lined up the 2 rooks and the queen, setup the attack and launched it. he paid the price.

same in life, it doesn’t matter how many presentation you have done in your job, how many hour you worked; if you don’t have results, it is useless.

another king’s indian attack game

loved this game that I just played, won a big win, enjoy:

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2013.09.19"]
[White "busbar"]
[Black "abrantes"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1486"]
[BlackElo "1443"]
[TimeControl "15|10"]
[Termination "busbar won by resignation"]

1.e4 b6 2.g3 Bb7 3.Bg2 g6 4.d3 Bg7 5.Nf3 h6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Be3 Nf6 8.O-O Qe7 9.Re1 Nc6 10.e5 Ng4
11.h3 Nxe3 12.Rxe3 O-O-O 13.d4 f6 14.a4 a5 15.Qd3 g5 16.Nb5 Kb8 17.c4 h5 18.Rc1 g4 19.Nd2 fxe5 20.d5 Nb4
21.Qc3 e4 22.Qb3 Qc5 23.Nxe4 Qe7 24.dxe6 Bh6 25.c5 Bxe3 26.Qxe3 dxe6 27.cxb6 c6 28.Qf4+ e5 29.Qf5 cxb5 30.Rc7 Rdf8
31.Qg6 Rfg8 32.Rxb7+ Qxb7 33.Qd6+ Kc8 34.Nc5 Qxg2+ 35.Kxg2 gxh3+ 36.Kxh3 Rh7 37.Qe6+ 1-0

Chess game (White King gambit)

Check this game I played, loved the press the the bishop placed in the middle, first time to try that.. enjoy…

 

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2013.09.13"]
[White "busbar"]
[Black "aazzeeeemm"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1454"]
[BlackElo "1331"]
[TimeControl "15|10"]
[Termination "busbar won by resignation"]

1.e4 e5 2.f4 d6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 a6 5.Bc4 Nc6 6.Ng5 Be6 7.Nxe6 fxe6 8.Bxe6 exf4 9.O-O Qe7 10.Nd5 Nxd5
11.exd5 Ne5 12.d4 Ng6 13.Bxf4 Nxf4 14.Rxf4 g6 15.Qf1 Qg5 16.Re1 Be7 17.Rg4 Qd2 18.Re2 Qa5 19.Qf7+ Kd8 20.Bd7 Kxd7
21.Rxe7+ Kd8 22.Rge4 Qb5 23.Rxc7 Re8 24.Rxe8+ Qxe8 25.Qxe8+ Kxe8 26.Rxb7 a5 27.Rxh7 Ra6 28.Rg7 a4 29.Rxg6 Kf7 30.Rg3 Ra5
31.Ra3 Kf6 32.c4 Kf5 33.b4 Ra8 34.Re3 a3 35.b5 Ra4 36.c5 Rxd4 37.cxd6 Rxd5 38.Rxa3 Rxd6 39.Rb3 Rb6 40.Kf2 Ke5
41.h4 Kf4 42.g3+ Kg4 43.Rb4+ Kh5 44.Kf3 Kg6 45.Kg4 1-0