CHESS: A source of help? by Demola Sorungbe

In my previous article – “Chess and Academics”, I made mention of the fact that chess players, at times seek solace in chess. It has always been in times past that people occupy themselves with certain activities just to help them overcome their emotional trauma, such that is resultant of difficult situations and problems. For clarity, examples of such activities include drinking, smoking, sleeping, partying, eating, etc. There is a kind of disparity between different individuals as to whether they really help or not. Notably, most religiously inclined people do not believe indulging in such activities help; rather they believe in praying to their God and reading their various scriptures.

To some chess players chess helps drown their sorrows. The question now is: Is chess really a source of help?

I personally believe it is a mistake to seek solace in chess, because the problem still persists even after a session of chess playing. Though, relaxing with friends in a chess club is one good way of relieving stress and freeing ones mind, but going one step further to play could be a mistake. One might be tempted to get ‘buried’ in it, for fear of facing his/her problem. The complexity of the game of chess is enough. Therefore, trying to solve a complex situation with a game of chess is only asking for more trouble. A troubled mind can hardly win a game of chess against a stable mind of equal strength, talk less of that of greater strength. Such a person ends up inflicting on himself more pain. Each loss feels like a stab to the mind by his opponent, who keeps doing it without realizing what he is doing. 

Chess; being just a game, I feel should be treated as one, and should be isolated to a great minimum from the issues of life. For some people chess is life, and they think chess is the solution everything. Yes, chess bears some similarities to life, but it must be noted that chess could only be fashioned to look like life and not the other way round.

Someone (Kasparov I guess) once said about Bobby Fischer that he really didn’t have any other life apart from chess, which was why he became emotionally traumatized when things weren’t going so well for him in the chess world. To people like Fischer, chess is everything. In his case, the love of the game took everything from him. When things started going bad for him, then there was nothing or nobody to fall back on. It was said of him that he sought happiness almost everywhere. That he even joined a particular church denomination where he was always asked to bring money.

Problems need to be faced squarely. The braveness of a chess player on the board that leads him to making sacrifices, that makes him leave a piece on a square en priced, should make him face his problems squarely. We shouldn’t loose focus of our problems until they are solved.