Chess

I’m on a 12-win streak on Chess.com.

During the first 2 years of University, it was pretty much all my classmates and I did in between classes (and on the 2hr bus to and from Uni). The popularity of chess at the time surely must’ve contributed, but nevertheless we played a lot and I got pretty good.

I got as high as 1200 ELO at the peak of the chess craze (~2022-2023) then sharply fell off to 800, dropping as low as mid 700s. Recently for whatever reason I found myself going on the app, after 5 or so games won in a row, I realised something had fundamentally changed, and so I’ve climbed back to high 900s in 2 days - not through nonstop obsessing, but by letting go.

This hardly makes for a post-able article, so where’s the relevance? What is my point here?

It is a subtle and nuanced angle I have extracted from the above described experiences, and it goes something like this:

By playing principled, reactive chess, I was able to win more games than when I made rash and risky plays to try to win as quickly as possible. It is not a race - it is a logic game.

I think this is not only highly applicable to other domains, but a reflection of my own self-development since that earlier time. Now, taking a step back and examining things from a third-person perspective objectively - or at least as objectively as a subject can - allows me to approach both relatively low-stakes domains like chess and higher-stakes academic and career pursuits with greater clarity and discipline.

This also relates to the art of letting go. As Lao Tzu put it:

“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”

Understanding and adopting this mindset, letting oneself be fluid and reactive to inevitably changing circumstances, promises a sort of principled wisdom that really only materialises with age - seen for millennia in the archetypal sage.

For me, it is the most viable way forward, and one I shall strive to live by.

Aptet et vincere.