16 Jul LIFE LESSONS FROM THE ROYAL GAME OF CHESS – PART THREE

The last two
weeks we’ve been
extrapolating many
disciplines for life from
the profound game
of chess. Before we
continue, I thought I’d share with you an
interesting chess vignette of my own.
There was a shomer Torah u’Mitzvos
chess master by the name of Shmuel
Reshevsky, known in the chess world
as Samuel Reshevsky. At one time,
he was ranked 8th in the world. When
I was a nine-year-old boy, my parents
took me to the Pine View Hotel in
upstate New York to participate in a
chess exhibition in which Mr. Reshevsky
was going to compete against 50 people
simultaneously. At that age, I wasn’t any
kind of chess prodigy, but I had a good
understanding of the game and, I guess
because I barely reached the board, Mr.
Reshevsky didn’t pay much attention to
me. At the end, however, he was playing
me one-on-one until he beat me right
before the deadline.
Now, let’s fast forward. I am in my early

20s, a young scholar-in-residence at a
Pesach program run by Mel, Schick, and
Katz. A very aged Shmuel Reshevsky was
also there and he attended my shiurim.
On chol hamoed, he gave another
simultaneous exhibition in the hotel
and asked me whether I’d be playing.
I told him I’d love to. He then said to
me – with a twinkle in his eyes, “You’re
going to lose first.” I was stunned that he
remembered what had happened almost a
decade and a half earlier with a little boy
and I felt up to the challenge.
I played a closed-defensive opening
which I felt would at least gain me some
time. I watched with amazement as he
didn’t let any of the other players lose –
until he had smothered me to death. As I
tipped my king in defeat, I gave him an
admiring smile.
For me, one of the great lessons of chess
is how it can humble you. You think you
see all the angles but, if someone is a few
hundred rating points above you, they
will just see more possibilities and more
angles. It’s all so humbling to know that
there is so much more in life that we don’t

consider and that there are people
who can assess a situation and a
problem better and deeper than
we can.
As you get better in chess, you
just can’t rely on your opponent
to make a mistake. Better players
won’t make mistakes. Rather,
you need to create opportunities
for yourself to foster double
attacks, pins, forks, discovered
checks and other tactics. So too
in life, you just can’t wait around
for things to happen. Rather, we have to
look to make opportunities for ourselves.
Another important factor of skilled play
is to seize the initiative. In the highest
levels of chess play, those who are ranked
2700 and above, the one who plays white
wins 64 percent of the time since he has
the extra tempo of the first move. That’s
how important it is to take the initiative.
In Yiddishkeit, this is also true about life.
We are not supposed to just coast through
life. Rather, we are always supposed to
be climbing forward and upward. We
are taught that a malach, an angel, is
an omeid, stationary. He can’t grow. A
human, on the other hand, is a holeich.
He is supposed to be advancing himself
constantly. This is one of the reasons
why Yaakov saw a vision of a ladder
with its base on the ground and its top
in the Heavens. The journey of life is
to be constantly climbing one rung at
a time, elevating ourselves steadily in
spirituality.
The word for the Jewish soul is
neshamah. It is made up of the same
letters as meshaneh, to change. This
is to teach us that spiritual growth is
measured by how much we change. If
we don’t grow on our own, then Hashem
has to challenge us with nisyonos, tests,
to force us to grow. It’s preferable for
the person to constantly grow on their
own, such as ‘I will daven with more
concentration,’ ‘I will make more time to
study Torah,’ ‘I will add more spice and
freshness to my marriage,’ ‘I will spend
more time with my parents,’ ‘I will be
more active in communal needs,’ and so
forth. Taking the initiative, instead of
sitting back and letting life pass you by,
is a sure way to win in the game of life.
A special feature of chess occurs when
the pawn reaches the 8th rank. If it

successfully arrives in the last row, it can
be promoted to a queen. So too, as we
march through life, our focus should be on
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow:
Olam HaBa, the Afterlife. If a person has
the correct vision, that this world is only
a corridor to the Next World, it changes
our priorities and our decision making
for our entire lifetime. We will willingly
sacrifice certain fleeting pleasures for the
eternal rewards of the World to Come.
Finally, in chess, everything is for
the king. If the king falls the game is
over. So too we are taught, “She’kol
ma’asecha yihiye l’sheim shamayim –
All of our deeds should be for the sake
of Hashem, our King in Heaven,” and
the more things we do “La’asos l’nachas
ruach l’Yotzreinu – To give pleasure
to our Creator,” the more fulfilling and
rewarding is our existence.
I hope you will sit down with your
young chess players and introduce some
of these life lessons to them. May we
incorporate them in our lives as well, and
be blessed with long life, good health,
and everything wonderful.