Page 18 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

into the game. A couple of hours later the man appr oached my fathe r and
introduced himself as Bruce Pando lfi , a master-level player and a che ss

teacher. B ruce told my dad I was very gi fted, an d o ffered to teach me.
It turns out that my father recognized Bruce as the man who did television
commentary with Shelby Lyman dur ing the hi storic Bobby Fischer vs. Boris
Spassky World Championship match in 1972. The match had revolut ioni zed

chess—it was a cold-war face-off pitting the Soviet World Cham pi on along
with his team of one hundred coaches and trainers agai nst the br ash rene ga de
American challenger who did all his preparation alone in a room witho ut a
view. Fischer was a combination of James Dean and Greta Garbo and America

was fascinated.
There were huge political implications to thi s cont est of great thi nke rs.
Increasingly, as the match unfolded, it became per ceived as the embo di ment of
the cold war. Henry Kissinger called Bobby with suppo rt; politicians on bo th

sides followed each game closely. The world watched br eathl ess as She lby and
Bruce brought chess to life on television with thei r human , do wn- ho me
analysis of the games. When Fi scher won the match, he be came an
international celebrity and chess expl oded across America. Sudden ly the ga me

stood shoulder to shoulder with basket bal l, footbal l, bas eball, ho cke y. The n in
1975 Fischer disappeared instead of defendi ng his title. Ches s in America
receded into the shadows. Ever since the American chess world ha s be en
searching for a new Bobby Fischer, someone to bring the spo rt back int o the

limelight.
Shelby and Bruce had captured my dad ’s imaginat ion twenty years be fore,
and now it was a bit surreal that Bruce was offering to teach his six-year-old
bowling ball of a child. I was nonpl us sed. Ches s was fun, and the guy s in the

park were my buddies. They were teaching me fi Why sho ul d I ha ve any
more coaches? I was private about chess, as if it were an int imate fant asy world.
I had to trust someone to let them int o my tho ught pr ocess, and Bruc e ha d to
overcome this shield before the work co ul d beg in.

Our first lessons were anything but ortho do x. We har dl y “studi ed che ss.”
Bruce knew it was more important for us to get to kno w one ano the r, to
establish a genuine camaraderie. So we talked about life, spo rts, di no saur s,
things that interested me. Whenev er the discussion tur ned to che ss, I was

stubborn about my ideas and refused to receive formal instruct ion.