cw: talking about parasitic wasps baby!!!!!! also swearing too, forgot about that
april 22nd, 2024 - gukesh won the candidates woooooo!!
not sure why you're talking about
losing chess games in the abstract
when you've got at least one in mind -
you built yourself a little fortress
zigzagging across the middle of the board,
most your pieces backing each other up,
and you were so proud of yourself
for shutting down your opponent's offense
until you realized you were also just moving pieces around,
you were too afraid to give any of yours up
and risk the whole thing collapsing,
and then it collapsed anyway when your friend
found a metaphorical crack in the wall
and smashed through it with a queen,
captured most your pieces until you were left
with a king and a handful of pawns,
like one of those fucked-up parasitic wasps
that paralyzes bugs, lays eggs in them,
and the little larvae feed on/break out of the bugs
like real-life alien. just thought you should know
that's a thing.
chess - good chess, at least - is more like
partners dancing, all coordinated and thought out,
sometimes flashy and sometimes reserved,
ready to switch things up
if the moment calls for it,
I guess capturing a piece would be like
one of the dancers having to take a breather
while the other does their thing? not sure
this is a great metaphor, actually,
but you get the idea. and you're personally
way too focused on that bishop on c4
when you should really care about
what the knight on f3 is doing
before whoops, your position's shot,
a bunch of your pieces are hanging,
there goes any strategy you might've had,
better luck next time.
and despite the way media in general
likes to prop up chess as this
Sport for Intellectuals, a sign of Genius,
you aren't just Good at Chess,
you can't just be Good at Chess,
that's something you have to work on,
being able to see the whole board,
guessing what your opponent's likely to do,
remembering your general rules and principles
and the many, many games you've played already,
maybe there's something about the pros
that makes them a bit better at playing chess
from the get go, but they still have to play chess.
and you know all that already, but it reads
way too much like you're over here
defending your intelligence, yeah,
you might suck at chess,
but that doesn't make you any less smart,
your friends, and him in particular,
like to talk about how
you're so mature for your age,
the tiniest bit of personal development
over the last year,
but just like that fortress
you can't let go of the idea
you have to be smart,
nobody would care about you if you weren't smart,
nobody would care about you because you're you.
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