Chess is a war game played on a board. It is amendable toself-learning. Every time you play chess, you learn something new.
Chess is a great game parents can use today to teachtheir children life skills that enable them to dealeffectively with the demand and challenges of life. There are 6 listed life
skills based on the WHO in 1999 (see listed below).
Children enjoy playing chessat first because it is fun and exciting. But as they continue, they find chess verychallenging. That’s why many chess schools including GMG Chess Academy designed a chess curriculum so students enjoy the long term benefits of chess. Nowadays,most chess players become stronger thru chess center, chess club and self-training. Learning Chess has a positive influence on self-awareness of an individual as you can see later.
Life Skills
1. Decision-making & problem solving
2. Creative and critical
3. Communication and interpersonal skill
4. Self-awareness and empathy
5. Assertiveness and equanimity
6. Resilience and coping with emotion/ stress
Self-awareness is an honest understanding of your values, desire,thought patterns, motivation, goals and ambition. It is one of the components of emotional intelligence (EQ), the main factor for people success. There are 4 types of self-awareness: by strength, weaknesses, dark side and emotional triggers that can develop thru chess and applied in our daily lives.
Now let’s see one of the gamethat relates to self-awareness.
M. Carlsen – H.Nakamura, GCT 2019
All the chess championsstarted as beginners, they have won many games because of their self awareness.1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Nf3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. d3 Nc6 6. e4 Nf4?N (Nb6 is the
main line) Nakamura played a imaginative risky move, he wanted to controlthe d4, In life, we assess some things differently due to our emotional triggers from our environment (opponent). 7. Bxf4 exf4 8. d4 Bd6 9. h3 0-010. a3! I’m sure Carlsen assessed this position as better for White, the mainfactor is the center. In life, we assess things based on our knowledgeand experiences a6 Diagram 1 (Diagram 2, 10…f6 suggested by computer, although it looks unnatural to weaken your King and the a2-g8 diagonal to control the important square, In life, wedo what we want, but sometimes we need precaution, we must be aware what is
happening around us)
11. Bc4 Kh8 12. e5 Be7 13.d5 Na5 14. Ba2 b5 15. 0-0 (White hasa beautiful and advance center and better development) f6 (toolate) 16. b4 Nc4 17. Bxc4 bxc4 18. e6 Bb7 19. Qd4 c6 20. Qxc4 cxd5 21.Qxf4 Rc8 22. Ne2 Bd6 23. Qe3 e5 24. Ned4 Re8 25. Nf5 Bb8 26. Rac1 Rc4 27. N5d4 axb4 28. axb4 Ba7 (Diagram 3)
(28…Rxb4 Diagram 4 Black should havegone for this. It is better to suffer with equal material than being apawn down. Even we are in the dark moment, we must persevere and reduce or eliminate the source of our weaknesses. If you are fearful and worried, you are not really thinking. Fear is the greatest man enemy. 29. b5 Bc5 30. Qd3 Qb631. Rxc4 dxc4 32. Qxc4 Bxf3 33. Nxf3 Rxe6 34. g3 Re8 35. Kg2 Rb8 36. Rc1 Bf8 37. Nd4 h5 38. Ne6 Ba3 39. Rc3 Bb4 40. Qxb4 Qxe6 41. Rc5 Carlsen managed to transform into a winning queen-and-Rook endgame where the b-pawn will decide the game. As champion in life, we must focus on our strength and believe in ourselves in all the situations. You are the product of your own thought. Qf7 42. Qf4 Rd8 43. Qf3 g6 44. b6 Rd7 45. Rc8+Kg7 47. h4 f5 48. Rc7 Qd5+ 49. Qxd5 Rxd5 50. b7 Rb5 51. f4 1-0
by Gerald Ferriol
Chess & Life Coach