International Master

Javier Gil

So, why chess?

By I.M. Javier Gil

Yeah, can you explain why we should take up chess?

This is something that I´d like to see in a lot of chess books for beginners, but never find it.
Why play chess in the first place when there are so many other things you can learn? Yes, good question.
Well, of course I'm not saying you shouldn't do other things, you should definitely do other things!, but if
you do take up chess, you really won't be disappointed as chess really has a whole universe to offer, it is
an awesome game, sport, science or art... or whatever you want to call it. It really is.
So, what are the real benefits of chess, what's it good for? I've been playing chess for more than 30 years
now, and I can assure you that I'm not bored with it, chess is lots of fun! but if that doesn't convince you,
chess…:

o Can help your self-esteem

o Is so well organized that your progress can be measured very accurately
o Develops logical thinking and problem-solving skills
o Improves concentration, attention and memory
o Can enhance imagination and creativity
o Develops the ability to foresee the consequences of one's actions and decisions
o Promotes independence and a sense of responsibility
o Can help you socially: you'll be able to make new friends at your local chess club.
o Studies have shown that playing chess could lower the risk of Alzheimer
o Chess has the power to make people happy

Maybe you've read all that before, but you're still not convinced? If you do a search on the internet trying
to find "the benefits" of chess, you'll find some really interesting material, even university studies which
were done to demonstrate some of those benefits.

It's not easy for me to say something new in this regard… but I have written a few lines on the beauty of
chess, if you’d like to read on.
Let me tell you, however, that what follows is not only a little hard to read, it’s also completely
unnecessary…

You’ve been warned!

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Humans are capable of some truly amazing achievements. Soon after the moment of birth, our minds
develop and we learn so much at such an incredible speed... We learn to speak, read, play a musical
instrument, how to use a computer, math, history, other languages... you name it. When we work in
teams, we can achieve even more amazing things: We have learned to cure most diseases, we have even
destroyed viruses, built pyramids and dams (250,000 workers were employed in constructing the water
conservation and hydropower projects of the Three Gores in China), we have shattered the atom
and looked inside, conquered the seas and the skies, explored the far-distant constellations (a human
built artifact has even stepped on the surface of Mars!), to name a few, and who knows what else we're
capable of...
However, sometimes that knowledge can only be applied later on in life, and often its application is
"merely" a means to earn a living.
Humans, however, also need other type of satisfactions in life, and one of those satisfactions is that of
"creation": being able to create, on their own, something new out of nothing, something which others
can call "beautiful".
When you play, say, soccer, basketball or other sports, yes, maybe after a few years you become a
formidable player, you have a great technique and you're really effective at scoring, or passing, or
defending, maybe you're a great team player and the team depends on you, sure but... are you really
creating something new and unique, something that can be preserved, something that actually
produces aesthetic pleasure on the person who's seeing it and who can say: yes, that was created by
you, no question about it?
Chess, like music, has the capacity to produce that kind of pleasure on the observer (or the listener in
the case of music) and that's why it is often called an art. Unlike other forms of art, however, chess is not
really open to different types of interpretation, when you see a chess game and you really understand
what's going on, you're in very close contact with the mind of the player who created that masterpiece,
the ideas which crossed his mind in all their complexity can be reproduced to a mathematical
dimension, in all of their exactitude. It’s like taking an x-ray of someone else’s creative brain.
This is actually what makes chess such a pure form of art: creations and ideas are transmitted in their
original version, a pure form not stained by the different interpretations of the observer.
But let me explain this a little further. Take a look at the following picture:

It is never easy to enter the mind of the artist, to decipher exactly what he
thought, felt or tried to tell us when he painted a masterpiece. Often the
observer will have his own idea of what the artist meant, but that's his own
interpretation. Sometimes it will coincide, but others it won’t. For example,
"El Coloso" ("The Colossus"), painted by Francisco de Goya, has been
interpreted to represent Napoleon, some art critics believe it actually
represents France (after the invasion of Spain) and other people simply
think that it had nothing to do with the invasion of Spain by Napoleonic
troupes. Still a beautiful painting and probably very meaningful. Maybe even
the fact that we ignore what the artist wanted to transmit makes it even
more interesting. I agree!

But aren't we adding speculation to the process, aren't we actually playing with the unknown, using
our imagination to guess what he might have meant? I think we are, and not only that, we could be

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Whywrong...
Chess? Page 3
I'm not saying there's anything terribly negative with that. After all, I think that's one of the missions
of art itself: to open new doors in your mind, doors which will let you see reality from angles which you
didn't even know even existed. All I'm saying is that in chess, the expression of beauty is more pure
than in other forms of art because ideas are identified equally by all observers

So, what exactly does the beauty of chess consist of?

Let me explain this by resorting to mathematics. You’ve probably heard of the Pythagorean Theorem,
which states that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares
of the other two sides (see picture below)

When you first learn about this theorem at school, you don’t quite believe
it. I mean, it’s really quite surprising, then you test it and soon realize that
it’s mathematically perfect, it works every single time, and the fact that
a human being was able to observe this incredible “truth” and share it
with the rest of us Is amazing!
As I was saying, this mathematical fact is not open to interpretations or
speculations such as “I think what he Pythagoras meant was…”. No! the
concept is pure, crystal clear… it just works!
A chess game is full of little ideas which, just like in mathematics, are
identified equally by all those who are able to understand them, and
some of these little ideas are simply mindboggling, and when you reach a level which allows you to
understand most of a chess player’s ideas, then it’s like looking at an exact picture of that person’s
ability, and you begin to realize what a bunch of extraordinary creatures we are… and that’s the main
reason why many people see chess as a astonishing form of art, we get a little closer to the minds of
other men and women, we see wonderful ideas stemming from their brains by simply seeing their
chess games…

It’s fascinating!