Life Lessons in Chess

The Ba'al Shem Tov famously says that everything a person sees, hears or experiences in this world can be a lesson, an example, a moshal to learn and apply in our lives. As our teachers tell us, “Who is a wise person? Someone who learns from everyone.” In every place that we are, we are able to take a meaningful lesson and develop our understanding of the world and what our goal is in this world. This is what I will be trying to do in these short pieces, to try to learn something from physical, scientific creations.

Shmuel Reshevsky, a world renowned chess player, moved from Poland to America and it was known from a young age he was a chess prodigy, playing 5 games of chess simultaneously and winning every one. He was an 8 time US chess champion and one time when he was young he went to a Febrengen with the Lubavitcher Rebbe (A famous Rabbi and influencer in the Jewish Community renowned for revitalising Jewish life after the holocaust). The Rebbe noticed him in the crowd and decided to spend the time discussing the game.

The King - there is only one and this is the piece that is the commander of the board, He has sole authority, there is only one Ruler and Power, 1 Commander in this world and that's God. The queen - what one may call 'mother nature' can move all around the board and is most powerful, this is the manifestation of the expression of the will of the king in this world. The king is the most vulnerable piece on the board, very easy to capture, often leading for people to deny God and stop believing in Him, replacing Him with what they see being active, whereas He hides himself in this world to give us this challenge. This challenge of choice is represented by there being two teams which gives us the opportunity to move in the correct direction or in a different way. The bishops, knights and rooks are the 'Malachim' - the ministering angels which carry out God's various decrees in this world and form the spiritual component on the earth. And finally, the Pawns, they are very vulnerable and can only move at one step at a time. But the most notable thing about them is that if they move one step and then another and another until they reach the other side of the board they can turn into the best piece on the board. These represent humans, our job and way of success in this world is to move one step, improve ourselves in this way, slowly but surely in the correct way until we reach the other side of the board, until we perfect ourselves.