Page 115 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

Hands training. While it’s true that many of the old- school Taoist image s
should not be taken too literally, ther e is often a large kernel of expe rient ial

truth behind descriptions such as thi s one. I knew from chess tha t a supe rior
artist could often get into the head of the oppo nen t, mesmerize him with will
or strategic mastery, using what I playful ly like to call Jedi Mind Tricks . As far
as I understood, the keys to these moments were penetrating ins ight int o wha t

makes the other tick and technical virtuo sity that makes the discovery and
exploitation invisible to the opponen t. On the other han d, Chi nes e martial arts
tend to focus more on energy than pat tern recogni tion. My go al was to fi a
hybrid—energetic awareness, techni cal flui di ty, and keen psycho logi cal

perception. C hess meets Tai Chi Chuan .
In time, I have come to understand tho se words , At the opponent’s slightest
move, I move first, as pertaining to intention—reading and ul timately cont rolling
intention. The deepest form of adher ence or shad owing involves a switchi ng of

roles, where the follower becomes the followed in a relations hi p in whi ch time
seems to twist in a tangle of minds —t hi s is ho w the great Tai Chi or Aiki do
artist guides the opponent into a bl ack ho le, or appear s to ps ychically impel the
other to throw himself on the ground. But what is really happe ni ng? Le t’s

build on the last few chapters and t ry to br eak i t do wn.

*

My experimentation with intentional ity began dur ing my early che ss years. I’m
a bit embarrassed to admit that as a seven-year-old boy in scholastic che ss
tournaments, I sometimes lured my young oppo nen ts into blunde ring by 1)
making a move that set a trap and then 2) immediately groaning and slappi ng

my head. This over-the-top display woul d us ual ly ins pi re a careless moment of
overconfidence followed by an eager capt ur e of a poison paw n or some othe r
seductive bait. Not very subtle on my par t, I agree. But as with all ski lls, the
most sophisticated techniques tend to hav e thei r foundat ion in the simpl est of

principles.
As I improved as a chess player and compet itor, my oppo nen ts and I
developed increasingly complex under standi ngs of ps ychologi cal tells. By the
time I was ten or eleven years old, a slap on the head woul d ha ve be en an

absurdly transparent display of trickery. But a little chan ge in my br eathi ng
pattern might alert a rival that I had jus t seen s omethi ng I di dn’t like .