Is Life A Game Of Chess?

There are many similarities; we live on the earth with its boundaries, borders & parameters. Like a chessboard the daily news broadcasts bombard us with incidents that are often very black & white. Each day we face daily challenges, obstacles, tests & trials & often have to work through them by action & deed. 

The chess player will use his brain to work things out, using logic & strategy, & will make decisions to advance his pieces in such a way as to gain position. In the same way we have to make decisions on a daily basis, big & small ones as we journey through our lives. Sometimes we get counsel & advice from others more experienced than ourselves to help us make our minds up when we cannot decide.

Supposing there was a key issue, a key question to consider. For many people they would say the most important decision to make in their life. Ultimately it is your decision to make, no one can make it for you. Like all decisions you should weigh up the situation, look at the whole chessboard, before making your move. 

Talking to other people would be an important part of the search for the right decision, reading up on the matter, researching on line, listening to all the schools of thought on the subject & then ultimately making your personal decision. You see, to make no decision is not good, it is effectively a dangerous game to play, & it is like allowing your clock to run down in the game of life. A chess player can be winning the game but lose on the clock. If his clock flag falls he loses the game, so to not make a decision allows seconds of your clock to go. Those seconds soon accumulate to hours, days, weeks, months & even years, before long decades could go by & suddenly life’s end faces you! 

Many people make the decision before the age of 20 years, whilst some make the decision on their deathbed leaving it rather close to the end game! So the important decision, the decision of life, what is it? The bible, the world’s most influential book explains it clearly: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ – John chapter 3 verse 16. 

God gave His Son, Jesus to be the one who would come & ultimately die on the cross for all who have sinned & done wrong before a holy God. Sometimes a chess player will sacrifice a piece to gain advantage, to open the way & ultimately win the game. God was prepared to do that too, it cost the life of His Son, Jesus. God had a plan of redemption for all those who would believe in Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. He had a plan to raise His Son from death after 3 days. Jesus overcame death, darkness, disease, & sin for you & I, a unique death that was acceptable to God the Father for all mankind. 

Any therefore accepting this sacrifice for them & believing & confessing Christ Jesus, as their Lord & Saviour would be given new life in Christ by the work of God’s Spirit within. The bible says that our sins would be forgiven & we would be filled with the Holy Spirit, a down payment & a deposit of what is to come.

The bible says that Jesus is the King of all kings, Lord of all lords & one day all will bow the knee before Him. We can get to know Him by inviting Him into our lives by His Spirit, making Him Lord, allowing Him to sit on the throne in our lives.

(This article was written by my chess mission partner, Kevin Moore, from United Kingdom)

The Problem of Paul Morphy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Chess

Paul Morphy is one of the world's greatest chess grandmasters and world champions in chess history. His life appears to be a demonstration of a strange connection between genius and psychopathology.

Before the British Psychoanalytic Society in November 1930, Dr. Ernest Jones presented "The Problem of Paul Morphy: A Contribution to the Psychology of Chess."  He put it this way, analyzing Morphy's mind and extending it to the rest of chess players:  "the unconscious motive actuating the players is not mere love of pugnacity characteristic of all competitive games, but the grimmer one of father-murder." In Freudian psychoanalytical framework, the appeal of chess then lies in its capacity to gratify hostile "Oedipal impulses." To win over an opponent and checkmate the King is to render the "king" father sterile and incapacitated, aided by the mother (the Queen).

Noting Morphy's phenomenal performances in world chess happened just a year after the shock of his father's sudden death, Dr. Jones surmised that Morphy's "brilliant effort of sublimation was, like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Freud's Traumdeutung, a reaction to this critical event." Morphy's chess genius, continued Dr. Jones, reflected his capacity for sublimation of parricidal and homosexual impulses, all of which served a defensive function for him.

When a fellow world contender, Staunton, persistently refused Morphy's challenge to fight on the chess board, his sublimation broke down. His psychological defense failed. And Morphy could no longer use his chess ability to medicate his overwhelming id impulses and inner wounds. Stripped bare and deprived, Morphy collapsed and became mentally ill.

Psychology and Chess Performance

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), one of modern psychology's most scientifically proven clinical therapies, is used to improve chess players' performance.

In a 2009 study done in the University of Almeria in Spain, a brief ACT protocol was applied to international-level adult chess players and it was proven effective.

Another study with an equivalent ACT protocol was also applied to a group of young players. Results showed that 5 out of 7 participants that underwent ACT had statistically improved chess performance.

Sports psychology is a growing trend nowadays. In the case of chess, the use of therapy approaches such as modern psychology's scientifically proven ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) are evidence of the value of psychological preparations in sports.

"The Chess Player" Painting with J.Oswald Sanders and Paul Morphy

Christian pastor and author, J. Oswald Sanders, reports that years ago, Paul Morphy was the world’s champion chess player when he was invited by a friend to look at a valuable painting titled, “The Chess Player.” 

In the painting, Satan was represented as playing chess with a young man, the stake being the young man’s soul. The game had reached the stage where it was the young man’s move; but he was checkmated. There was no move he could make which would not mean defeat for him and so the strong feature of the picture was the look of utter despair on the young man’s face as he realized that his soul was lost.

Morphy, who knew more about chess than the artist, studied the picture for a time, then called for a chessboard and pieces. Placing them in exactly the same position as they were in the painting, he said, “I’ll take the young man’s place and make the move.” Then he made the move which would have set the young man free.

(Source unknown)

Chess and Life

This week, I played some brilliant sacrificial games with chess players from Serbia, Russia, and the U.S.A. 

It's possible to learn about life and share with others in the game of black and white, in the game of light versus darkness.

Would you like to play chess and learn about life at the same time?

I'd be glad to meet you, online and/or onsite, to play chess with you!

Feel free to drop me a note at www.drsubida.com.