Page 21 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

they wanted my relationship to the game to be abo ut learni ng and pa ssion fi st,
and competition a distant second. My mother and Bruce were pa rticul arly

ambivalent about exposing me to the har sh pressur es of compet itive che ss—
they gave me some extra months of inno cence for whi ch I am grateful . Whe n I
finally started playing in scholastic tour nam ents, soon after my sevent h
birthday, the games felt easy. Childr en my own age didn’t fashi on compl icated

attacks and defenses like the guys in the park di d, and they woul d crum bl e
under pressure. Some of the kids were armed with dan ger ous ope ni ng traps ,
memorized variations that could lead to early adv antages, so I often came out of
the opening down a pawn or two—but then they didn’t have a chanc e. Fo r me,

competitive chess was not about per fection. It was more of a mental prizefight,
with two opponents trading advant ages, momentum going one way and the n
the other. My friends in Washingt on Squar e were valiant compe titors, you
could never count them out—in fact they were most danger ous whe n on the

ropes. Many very talented kids expect ed to win witho ut muc h resistanc e.
When the game was a struggle, t hey were emotional ly unpr epared.
I thrived under adversity. My style was to make the game compl ex and the n
work my way through the chaos. When the po sition was wild, I ha d huge

confidence. Bruce and I also spent a lot of time study ing endgam es, whe re the
board is nearly empty and high-level princi ples combi ne with deep calcul ations
to create fascinating battles. Whi le my oppo nen ts wanted to win in the
openings, right off the bat, I guided positions into compl icated middl ega mes

and abstract endings. So as the game went on, thei r con ce shr ank and I
became a predator. Noticing these tenden cies, Bruce started calling me “Tige r.”
He still calls me Tiger today.
My first year of competitive chess was smooth sailing. I felt unbe atabl e

when matched up with kids my age, and the combi nat ion of street toughne ss
and classical education proved devastating for my oppo nen ts. Perha ps the most
decisive element of my game was the way my style on the bo ard was
completely in synch with my personal ity as a chi ld. I was unhi nde red by

internal conflict—a state of being that I hav e come to see as fundam ent al to the
learning process. Bruce and the park guy s had taught me how to expr ess myself
through chess, an d so my love for the g ame grew every day.
As the months went by, I piled up win after win and my nat iona l rating

skyrocketed. I’d show up at a tournam ent and kids were terrified of me, which
felt strange. I was, after all, a young child who was scared of the dark and loved