Chess is a board game of two players with an objective of checkmating the opposing King by moving the other 15 pieces of six kinds that are moved according to their individual rules and roles. I'd learned to play this board game when I was about 10 – 11 years old. My cousin taught me the mechanics of the game but I did not able to make it good. At my age then, looking at the sixty-four squares in white and green checkered arrayed in eight columns and rows, where on each square has the required arrangement of sixteen pieces called the King, Queen, two rooks, bishops and knights and eight pawns which are colored in white, while on the opposite side are the same set of sixteen pieces in black color, this makes my young mind confused to manipulate the moves of my pieces according to their rules and design the game plan to invade the opponent.
During my observation, I used to believe that chess is for academically intellectual and serious people only who must possess a high intelligent quotient to become good in this game. And when I heard a young player doing well in chess, I can’t help but give my respect to his skill. But through the passing of times, the game chess gave me new impression that it can get through perseverance and study.
I never played chess again but those times when I was about 10 – 11 years old brought me the characters that I am now. I may not be good in chess but this board game taught me to realize the understanding of our role in life and learned to anticipate the consequences of every decision that we made. I came to across weighing the pros and cons of my likes and dislikes. Whatever decision I made, I stand for it. The chess game also instilled me the value of perseverance, patience to take time as it is, be focused and not be impulsive that normally lead us to disgrace, dismay and disaster.
For some children, this game is boring because this is exactly opposite of the natural of the children of which their high adrenaline attracts to physical games. But trying to expose your children in chess will make an important contribution in their growth. Because the game chess enhances the creativity, memory, concentration, critical thinking and problem solving skills of the children. It also builds their self-esteem and intellectual maturity. As the child grows up into a young citizen, the game of chess inherent the basic principles of psychological learning theory: memory, pattern recognition, decision making and reinforcement. These are the variables that interact during a game of chess and it produces the results of the human thought process: a win or a loss.
Like the rest of us, I am fighting for my survival, a win or a loss. It depends on how I will drive my own life.
By Alex V. Villamayor
April 2009
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