Page 41 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

in the stormy positions in which I thr ived. Because of my classical che ss
education and my love for the endgam e as well as crazy middl egames, I was

usually able to move the position toward o ne o f my strengt hs .
Things got a bit more complicated when I was ten years old and I started to
compete almost exclusively in adul t tour nam ents, onl y pl aying ki ds in the
Nationals or World Championshi ps . Thi s was a big change becaus e hi ghl y

experienced tournament players coul d often gui de the chess position int o
closed, strategical battles which were no t to my liking. As I cul tivated my
strengths, I also had to take on the more abstract elements of high- level che ss
so I could compete effectively with more seasoned oppo nen ts. Just as mus cles

get stronger when they are pushed, go od compet itors tend to rise to the level of
the opposition. The adult chess world toughen ed me up, made me
introspective and always on the looko ut for fl s to be impr oved on. A bo nus
to playing grown-ups is that whenev er I compet ed in a scholastic Nationa ls I

had tremendous confidence—these were onl y ki ds after all.
The transition to open tournaments also forced me to take on the issue of
endurance. In scholastic events, a singl e chess game rarely lasts more tha n thr ee
hours. In most adult competitions, each pl ayer has to make his or he r fi st forty

moves in two hours (a four-hour time cont rol). Then ther e is an addi tiona l ho ur
for each player for every succeeding twenty moves. If eno ugh moves are pl ayed,
a game can continue for what feels to a chi ld like eterni ty. Olde r oppo ne nt s
know that kids have less stamina for long bat tles, so they sometimes made the

games drag on to tire me out. Once in Philadelphi a, a rut hl ess fellow made me
play for over nine hours. I was ten years old and he sat stalling at the bo ard in
front of obvious moves for forty-fi e minut es at a time. It was terribl e, but a
lesson learned. On top of everything else, I had to dev elop the abi lity to run a

mental marathon.
Chess was a constant challenge. My who le career, my father and I searche d
out opponents who were a little stronger than me, so even as I domina ted the
scholastic circuit, losing was part of my regul ar exper ience. I bel ieve thi s was

important for maintaining a healthy perspect ive on the gam e. Whi le the re was
a lot of pressure on my shoulders, fear of failure didn’t move me so muc h as an
intense passion for the game. I thi nk the arc of losing a heartbr eake r be fore
winning my rst big title gave me license to compet e on t he edge.

This is not to say that losing didn’t hur t. It di d. Ther e is somethi ng
particularly painful about being beat en in a ches s gam e. In the cour se of a