Chess is a Language

Chess is a language

One of my favorite books is "Masters of the Chessboard", by Richard Reti. The book is a collection of profiles of famous players, such as Laster, Capablanca, Rubinstein, Alekhine, etc. Along with notes that give practical lessons, there are insights into the game that you don't get elsewhere. At some point in the book, Reti compares Capablanca, who learned the game at 4, with other great players, such as Rubinstein, who did not start playing until he was 14. Reti observes that players like Rubinstein are quite brilliant, but to Capablanca, "chess was his mother tongue". As a result, Rubinstein would sometimes make a crude blunder, while Capablanca almost never did. In other words, chess was a second language to Rubinstein, and he would occasionally misspeak, but Capablanca was as fluent in chess as he was in his native language, so crude blunders are very rare in Capa's play.

When we think of chess as a language, certain things begin to make sense. Take junior chess players, for example. At that age, they have a much quicker ability to learn a foreign language such as French or Spanish, than adults do. The child does not question why certain things are said a certain way. Often he just copies Mom or Dad and accepts the fact that that's the way you say things. It's the adult who goes about learning languages all the wrong ways and finds it harder to pick them up than kids do.

So, I should not surprise us when one minute the junior is rated 1600, and the next, he's rated 1900.

Pawnda and Horses Club

I had stopped playing chess for quite some time, but when I returned, I found a community here on lichess that can help me learn the chess language again. Here on lichess, there is a club called the Pawnda and Horses club, which offers quite a nice tournament each Tuesday.

https://lichess.org/team/pawnda-and-horses-club

Some strong players gather there, and from the losses I've taken, I've been working out some problems with my speaking of the chess language by learning from better speakers. For example, International Master Sparklehorse has rolled up a nice plus score against me. It's ok. If you want to learn a language, you should just act like the child and engage with folks who speak the chess language better than you. If you have the right attitude, you learn quickly.

I blundered a Queen last night

Last night, I got a further illustration of Reti's point, after blundering a queen. Chess is not my native tongue either. On the way to the game, traffic held me up, and I arrived late. I was on the black side of the Gruenfeld Defense against Mark Kaprelian, the president of the Metrowest Chess Club. I don't know the opening, but like to use games like this against a lower rated player to figure things out of the board and teach myself. So I did that; in an unfamiliar environment, I figured out how to win a pawn, and did get a winning position. However, it only took a couple of moves in time trouble to throw it all away, topped off by the queen blunder.

It was disappointing, but good for Mark for taking advantage of his opportunity. I should say that I'm not even sure how the Metrowest Chess Club survived COVID, but am mighty thankful that Mark has stuck it out all these years and helps keep the club going. Good for him that he got enjoyment out of the game last night and seized his opportunity.

I always seem to start slow at something, and then at some point, pick up steam. I'm still waiting for that stretch where I win maybe 4 to 6 games in a row. As for now, as an Uber Driver, I felt like I just had to pay a toll after hitting a speed bump. This toll is the form of some 28 rating points out the window. I'll have to see if I can win the remaining games I play in the tournament, to mitigate the damage.

This is a game from the Pawnda and Horses club. Everybody there is dangerous. My opponent is Acerb8, who puts his language skills to use by writing a poem for each Tuesday tournament. He's just a nice friendly guy who wants to rip your head off. Here he exploits some language syntax errors I made in a rather ruthless style.

Remember that Capa said we learn the most from out losses!