Page 20 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

more of a guide in my development than as an autho rity. If I di sagr eed with
him, w e would have a discussion, no t a lectur e.

Bruce slowed me down by asking ques tions . When ever I made an impo rtant
decision, good or bad, he would ask me to expl ain my tho ught process. Were
there other ways to accomplish the same aim? Had I looked for my oppo ne nt ’s
threats? Did I consider a different order of oper ations ? Bruce didn’t pa troni ze

me—some teachers rebel so far away from bei ng autho ritarian tha t the y pr aise
all their little player’s decisions, good or bad. Thei r intention is to bui ld
confidence, but instead they discour age obj ectivity, encour age self-indul ge nc e,
and perhaps most destructively, they create a di sho nes t relations hi p be tween

instructor and pupil that any bright child can s ense.
When I made a bad move, Bruce asked me what my idea was and the n
helped me discover how I could have appr oached the decision- maki ng pr ocess
differently. Much of the time in our lessons was spen t in silence, with us bo th

thinking. Bruce did not want to feed me inf ormation, but to help my mind
carve itself into maturity. Over time, in his coaxing, hum orous , and
understatedly firm manner, Bruce gav e me a foundat ion of critical che ss
principles and a systematic understandi ng of analysis and calculation. Whi le

the new knowledge was valuable, the most impo rtant factor in the se fi st
months of study was that Bruce nur tur ed my love for ches s, and he ne ver let
technical material smother my innate feeling f or the g ame.
During these early months of work with Bruce, we woul d meet onc e or

twice a week in my family’s apartment—sometimes early mornings, sometimes
after school. Most other days, I woul d go to Washi ngt on Squar e and duke it
out with my friends in the park. As a six- and seven-year-old boy I ha d two
powerful currents to my chess education, and the key was to make the m coexist

peacefully—the street-tough compet itor had to fus e with the classically
trained, patient player that Bruce was inspi ring. Tho ugh when very young I
was periodically reluctant about real chess work, I loved the subl ime be aut y of
old World Championship games I studi ed with Bruce—s ometimes sitting in

silence and calculating an endgame position for twenty minut es woul d thr ill
me to the core. But other times such serious thi nki ng woul d bore me and I’d
hunger to play speed chess with my buddi es, to attack, to be a little reckl ess
and create beautiful combinations. T he p ark w as fun. I was a chi ld a fter all.

Despite significant outside pressur e, my par ents and Bruce deci de d to ke ep
me out of tournaments until I had been playing ches s for a year or so, be caus e