Looks like this year is an actual year of learning, because I decided to pick chess up on a whim.
A real whim, or a procrastination technique from doing up my portfolio? You decide.
I knew how to play the basics of Chinese chess (象棋), which just meant I knew how the pieces moved, so there are some parts that now feel familiar. I mean, am I calling the knight a horse (馬), because that’s what the Chinese piece is and they move in the exact same way in the L shape, except there are more restrictions on a Chinese horse?
Obviously.
Also, no flying King, which is something the General can do, which makes it a little less exciting for 5 year old me who wanted that General to fly every single time.
I can’t say enough great things about Learn Chess with Dr. Wolf, which is structured enough that I feel like I’m learning something new every time I open the app, but also gamified enough that I want to open the app. Some dialogue made me laugh outright, especially when I blunder — and I am blundering so much.
One important thing that I’m learning is just how many blind spots I have. There’s that analogy to the decisions I’m making not just in playing a match, but in real life. I’m not someone you can call impulsive, but in games, I can see how my inexperience and lack of focus make my decisions a liability. Sometimes I’m too eager to win pieces, but I end up losing material instead because I failed to see that the piece was protecting another more important one.
A bigger issue that I’m still working through is not being able to instinctively see when a move leads to a stalemate. I think this is slightly worse than losing pieces, and again, analogously to life, have I doomed myself to a lose/lose situation instead of one that would be beneficial on whichever metric I frame it with?
I’m excited to learn more, both about chess, and about how it feeds back into my life.
(Also, yes, I speed-watched Queen’s Gambit because I missed that boat in 2020 and only saw it for the first time last weekend. I love complex competent characters )