Mu: Power of Empty Mind in Chess (Examples of 3 cases)

Background:

Chess is no different from a sparring session or a bout of swordfight. It's wit-against-wit. And the philosophy of martial arts and chess can intertwine. Of course, I am not the first one to write about it. Josh Waitzkin shed a spotlight to it drawing parallel from competitive tai chi to chess and even further to hydrofoiling or the mastery of any field.

I have studied a smattering of karate, aikido, muay thai, Filipino martial arts, a week of krav maga and fencing, as well as community yoga and tai chi. I have been obsessed with hypnosis, flow state, and peak performance and accelerated learning. I have been familiar with the concept of mu and how in martial arts it is emphasized that the optimal state is that of emptiness. The moment one thinks he is too good or cockiness, arrogance, or even a feeling of euphoria enters the mind, she can be kicked out of the flow state. This is why impassive, stoic state where one is indifferent to either win or loss like a cool calculative hitman or a samurai is the preferred one. Because once you think you have won, it gets in your head and doubt clouds the mind and complacency and finally loss seeps in.

I will not rehash the story of the Tea Master and the Ronin, but tout court it is about the state of mind and how it helped a tea master without any skill in swordsmanship defeat an arrogant samurai who wanted to pick a fight. Heck, I would further venture chess is NOT about some super high IQ of 200+ or how "smart" or "superior" one is compared to others or how it is always loaded against an average person where he will never be a grandmaster given no matter how much time, effort, and hard work he puts. Rather it is about state of mind. An average person in COMPLETE union with the Universe, unio mystica so to speak, devoid of an ounce of hate, spite, jealousy, arrogance, glee, self-doubt can, in my humble opinion, overtake Magnus Carlsen should the boss and GOAT be not in optimal state of mind. (In simplistic terms, Carlsen can have lifetime or training, photographic memory, and encyclopedic mind but to take to an extreme example if he is cold, hungry, miserable and irritated for days, he is obviously not in his peak shape and thus will have chink in his armor.)

The point is not if an amateur can beat Carlsen - rather a person with superior state of mind can defeat another no matter the rating difference. That is my bold theory.

Of course you would still need the foundation. And to illustrate my case, here are three ancedotal stories - all in a same night. (I have added some color and disfigured the facts so as to protect privacy and not to shame or humiliate anyone.)

Another caveat. All my ratings are public. I don't think I have earned enough high rating to impart wisdom or disseminate advice. With that in mind, I am just sharing my own experiences of ancedotes.

Game 1: Love defeats hubris

I was at a local chess club about a year ago. There wasn't much happening. The owner and her daughter and some few students were present. The lady does not play often if the group is full since she is part of the management. But sometimes she gives company and in my previous bouts I realized she is a strong player.

Now I am a new to the club. I was feeling especially dispassionate, was being aloof, and blasé, and was aware of my own inner calmness. I felt like she kind of undestimates me. I mean I found out the hard way that a 1600 online rated player can only be a 1200 FIDE rated one. At any rate, I wanted to brush away my emotion, do away with my usual chatty, class-clown, jovial yapping and be professional. So I start off with Italian and after a bishop f7 sacrifice holing out the king I find a way to fork and win the queen.

This was the bad part. I was out of my comfort zone. I never had such a material advantage and lead before. And sure enough hubris kicked in. Subtly. Then I realized her pawn could diagonally 'eat' my bishop and the rook to promote to queen from c3- b2 to a1 square because my queen was under threat and her pawn had to be taken out. So I was in a bind whether to save my queen or prevent her from queening. I was already off balance and my heart was beating so fast. I decided to let go off the grip from my queen to prevent her from queening. And that is it. The deathknell.

Then I see her father out of nowhere come and just look at her in such an admiring,kind proud way that I even felt the love for the father to his daugther. And she is an adult and it's not as if he does it everyday.

Now she took my queen and was a bishop up. The game would soon be lost. Then she casually asked me: "Why didn't you retreat the queen to x sqaure to attack the pawn?"

I said: "I panicked."

Truth being the early success threw me off kilter and pride, sure but subtle, crept in.

Game 2: A brilliant game of see-saw

I am 40. Forty-two to be exact. (cough cough). And the kid is probably 10. Haha. And he is an excellent player. He has me against the ropes. I have no idea as to the state of his mind, but I could sense the strident excitement in his voice that he has this in the bag. Then I get lucky. He takes my knight and I thought it was over because it was tied as the pawn guarding it was protecting my king who would be under check. But I didn't have to take it with the knight rather with my other bishop. Then his king opened up with queen in front of him. Then I sac my bishop for a disovered check with my rook with his queen pinned and thus gain his queen. The path is cleared and it is an easy-peazy game for me to win. But then - I swear to God- I say to myself: "I am gonna punish this kid as he didn't resign." And as I thought this and moved my king it became a stalemate. And I wrote the frikkin book on stalemate.

I shook hands, shared the honors, and decided to eat a humble pie and STFU internally.

Game 3: Never celebrate early

Universe is energy. And such flux of energy pervades through everything. Chess is no different. We tend to think it's always either the smartest, hardworking prodigy with trillion clock-hours and encyclopedic database who always has the upperhand. But have you ever paused to think the energy? Is an opponent in clear sound of mind without any haughtiness and pride?

So there is this kid. He is probably 12 or 13 or 14 and I am 40. Forty two to be exact. Usually we have a banter. He beat me 3 times and I beat him once I think. So he is a strong player but I could sense a subtle bullying. He would throw potshots: "How old are you?" "You are too old." "How long do you play?" What does age has to do with price of tea in China?

Now the other night I would engage in banter. But I decided to keep quiet. And besides he is less than half of my age. What am I gonna do? Be a jerk and an a-----? No. I decided to give him compassion. I surely won't be mean to a kid and mess up his future life. I chose the higher path.

He applied pressure and I was sweating bullets psychologically. He was making passive-aggressive comments and trash talk: "What is your rating? Zero?" And I noticed he likes to connect his knights and hover right over my king's head.

"You are a goner." He said as he pushed his pawn further suffocating and cramping me for space.

I wanted to milk it a bit. So I said: "Huh?" And I could sense he chuckled a bit inside.

I learned from another play to hold your card. I couldn't believe my dumb luck. I didn't engage with him in his banter, and decided to be the quiet professional. As he pushed his pawn, he opened up his queen to my bishop which I took.

This time karma shone in my favor since I believe my energy was good.

Endgame:

Now it is not personal, dear reader. Empty mind or mu is extremely difficult. We are all humans and we ALL have negative qualities of spite, anger, jealousy, arrogance, hubris, doubt, guilt and what not. Of course peak performers know how to control their shadow and use them to their advantage. People like Kobe Bryant and James maintain stoic, impassive, emotionless state as they have cultivated to hone and harness their flow state of empty mind. Sometimes it works for our favor and sometimes against it.

We all think of strategies, tactics, hard work, talent, practice, puzzles, principles, theories but we don't pay attention to energy or mental state of being. Don't you believe a child who is euthymic at heart and light and doesn't take life seriously but plays for the sake of playing would have better, superior, and ulterior advantage for superhuman peak performance as opposed to someone consumed in hate, or guilt or anger?

Experience has taught me so. When we are angry we cannot think straight. When we panic, brain shuts down in flight-or-fight. Brain operates at optimum level and performance when the internal thought and chatter dies down. It is called transient hypofrontality. A precursor to flow state.

My purpose in writing this blog is simple. We can grow old, we can be sick, we can have kidneys missing or have Down syndrome or be disabled, or be blind or be so tactically weak or not have any resources or just not to be genetically blessed or may be we are too far down the race to even eye the finish line let alone sniff -- but what no one can take away from us, and I hope more focus is given on this aspect of sports psychology- is our STATE OF MIND.

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” Lao Tzu

I leave you with Alan Watts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV7UARhMavU