Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A moment I spent alone doing something I enjoyed
Today, everyone had something on - my parents went shopping, my brother had CCA training, and my sister went to her friend's house......Perfect; the whole house was mine, muahahaha! I was finally free of the constant chattering encompassing me. Time to do what I liked best: playing chess. Ok, it sounds unbelievably lame; I guess if you were in a situation like mine you would probably jump to the computer and burn your eyes on it, or maybe the television. That's what my brother would do. And, I bet you're also wondering how I'm supposed to play chess with myself, since nobody else is in the house. Weird huh? Actually, I don't really play chess against myself (I've tried a few times and got really frustrated ) , instead, I lay out my chessboard and practice what my coach had taught during CCA training ( yes, I'm in the chess club), repeating the moves over and over again until it gets drilled into my mind. It may be boring, but it really helps improve my game. Although I'm not gifted in this hobby, I make it up with loads of practice
, keeping me at the same standard of my other team members.
But today was different. Upon realising nobody was home, I jumped for joy. After a quick shower and a rushed lunch, I brought out my faithful chessboard and deftly set the pieces. And, for the first time, I broke away from my routine. FINALLY, after weeks, I had the spare time to read my new book: The amateur's mind by Jeremy Silman. It was definitely worth my money. The amateur's mind is a chess book designed to help players improve their game in a unique way. The author, Jeremy Silman realised that most amateurs possessed erroneous thinking problems in their game, resulting in stinging defeats and painful reversals. Seeking a solution to this dilemma, Mr. Silman noted down the thoughts of his students while they played actual games, and cataloged the most common misconceptions that arose. This book shows the many chess games Mr. Silman plays with his students with detailed explanations about every move, and most importantly, the thoughts of the player.
After i finished the first page, i was hooked; the book actually led me into the mind of an amateur, allowing me to analyse his thoughts. I was shocked; upon analysing the game. I realised that I had an immense amount of flaws in my mental amour - I did not respect the importance of many grandmaster theories, for example: RULE 1O - The first official World Chess Champion, Willhelm Steintz pioneered work on the minor pieces. He stated that the way to beat Kinghts was to deprive them of any advanced support points. Then they would be inactive and, as a result, inferior to Bishops. The reverse, of course, is that if you possess Knights, you must strive as hard as you can to create support points for them. This made me realise the importance of creating support points for my Kinghts, a point I never made use of. That example was only the tip of the iceberg - I discovered many more terrible misconceptions that I had; the reason for my repeated losses. For the greater part of the day, I hunched at the table, following the many games in the book, at the same time correcting my mental flaws. I did not notice time pass by, and i was immersed in my own world. But as the saying goes - all good things must come to an end, my only gripe was that the end did not need to arrive so fast.
One by one, they all came back: end of freedom. First was my brother, repeatedly badgering me about the rationale of each of the million moves in the game, then my parents came back. There's only one word to describe it: ARMAGEDDON. "WHY ARE YOU READING INSTEAD OF DOING YOUR WORK?! DO YOUR ASSESSMENTS NOW!" That was truly the end of my 'chess time', and the start of mountains of assessments.
Through The amateur's mind, I realised that the way to improve in anything is to take note of the many seemingly unimportant points and work on them. It dawned on me that i have many bad habits that need to be changed, and strategies to refine. muhahaha, the chess world is my oyster, maybe in the future i will join the ranks of the great grandmasters Bobby Fisher, Kaprov, Alekhine and Spasky. 50 years later, if you see my name in the newspapers saying "youngest ever chess player attains the rank of grandmaster", you'll know that's me.
