Page 52 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

critical moments of a game. He woul d also get up from the bo ard at
tournaments and talk about the position in Rus sian with his coach, a famous

Grandmaster. There were complaint s, but little was done to stop the che ating.
No one could prove what was discus sed becau se of the languag e barrier, and the
truth is that it didn’t even matter. Whi le valuable ches s ideas might ha ve be en
exchanged, the psychological effect was much more critical. Oppo ne nt s felt

helpless and wronged—they took on the mentality of victim and so ha lf the
battle was already lost. More than once, I watched top young American pl ayers
reduced to tears by this kid—but thes e dirty tactics were not reserved for local
soil.

In 1993, when we were sixteen, thi s Rus sian boy and I both traveled to
India to jointly represent America in the World Under 21 Cham pi ons hi p and a
formal protest was lodged agains t the American team by seven or eight
delegations because he was blatant ly cheating at the event. Compe titors from

all over the world approached me and demanded to kno w how the Americans
could do such a thing. I was embar rassed to be associated with thi s ki d and hi s
seedy repertoire.
As a result of this shift of tone in the U.S. scholastic scene, many of my

American contemporaries became dispi rited and qui t the gam e. The Rus sian
kids were great players who presented a who le new set of challenge s, and
instead of adapting and raising thei r gam es, American ki ds dr oppe d out . Fo r
my part, the new crew of brilliant Machi avellian rivals made me buc kl e do wn.

I had my home turf to defend and the first step woul d be to learn ho w to
handle dirty opponents without losing my cool. Sometimes no ticing the
psychological tactic was enough to render it harmless—but in the case of the
kicking and barefaced cheating, I really had to take on my emotions . The se

breaks from etiquette were outrageous in the ches s world and I was appa lled.
The problem is that when I got angr y, I was thr own off my gam e. I tried to
stay level-headed, but this one rival of mine had no limits. He woul d pus h me
to the point of utter exasperation and I woul d o ften self-des truct .

I have come to believe that the solut ion to thi s type of situat ion does no t lie
in denying our emotions, but in learni ng to us e them to our advantage . Ins tead
of stifling myself, I needed to channel my mood int o hei ght ened focus —a nd I
can’t honestly say that I figured out how to do thi s cons istently unt il years int o

my martial arts career when dirty oppo nen ts tried to take out my kne es, targe t
the groin, o r head-butt me in the no se in compet ition. III