One of the oldest games in the world that dates back to twelfth or the thirteenth century and had its origins in India was in the news recently and India again grabbed the headlines there, kind of like coming back home. Indians add to their gold reservoir by winning in both Men’s and Women’s Team Chess Olympiads for the first time. Indian chess has been on the ascent and though ironic, they won their first gold medal in the forty-fifth edition and that too, double bonanza with both men and women earning the apex finish. Indian Chess was good earlier but not this good. They had Vishwanathan Anand and other Grandmasters but only Anand was the world champion.
Mention chess and my entire life story flashes in front of me as a movie reel, not that I am a grandmaster or so. Closest I came was a grandmaster by the name of Tejas Bakre and I reveled in his glory by stating Tejas is a Grandmaster. Jokes aside but chess has had lot of memories. Every kid who grew up in India in ‘70s,’80s, ‘90s had a portfolio of 1 B and 4 C’s to choose from to spend their summer holidays – Books, Chess, Cards. Carrom and Cycling (weather permitting) before the fifth C took over everything and that was Cell phone. Every Indian middle-class household had a chess board stashed somewhere. Chess had least barriers to entry and needed two people – doesn’t matter the age, gender, and you could have an afternoon well spent, away from the burning sun or pouring rain. I am saying this about India but considering how well original USSR, China, Eastern Europe etc. have done, they probably had a similar journey through their formative years. In United States also, you wouldn’t find a school district or maybe even every high school which doesn’t host at least a chess club.
Chess has historically been proven to intellectually stimulating game or sport and now you know, why an Indian or a Chinese parent will never discourage any activity that can give the brain some exercise, instead they would organize chess parties. Research has proven that ones who excel at chess have also been stellar in Math and Problem Solving. Chess has always had a calming influence on people. Chess taught me patience (people who know me would laugh saying you are not patient, but this is after chess so think about the original me). Chess prepares you to think from multiple sides while not rushing into the decision unless you are playing rapid chess and if you are qualified to play that, you have demonstrated the traits already.
Chess boards are collectibles and some of the classic affluent chess boards available which adorn the family rooms or the game rooms. Chess sets have long been amongst the preferred gifts. Chess pieces typically in two contrasting colors in a set of 16 each could be a connoisseur’s item. Chess boards and pieces range from a few dollars (or whatever the currency) to thousands of dollars and literally, it could stake a claim as a piece of art. Chess could even be played by a single person where he can play for both sides and improve his punches and counter punches while smoothening your kinks and popularity has created an entire ecosystem where players now buy timers and chess subscriptions to further hone their skills.
Chess also has a strong connection with the industry I call it a career, and this has been one of my favorite questions to see how well chess compares to cybersecurity, my profession. Chess is most analogous to cybersecurity and would love to highlight some of the differences here. Cybersecurity talks about protecting your crown jewels, which is your most precious asset and in chess, that role is played by the King. In terms of moves, King is not the most potent but in terms of leverage, it is all about the king, so much so that more powerful queen at times will have to sacrifice to protect the king. Real world is where if your crown jewel gets compromised, you could be out of business, likewise, if your king gets captured, the game is over in chess. Another area where cybersecurity talks about is the layered defense otherwise known as Defense in Depth and Chess beautifully depicts the model where there is the first line of defense, the pawns and then the others with increased points, knights, bishops, rooks, queen which form the layers of defense to protect the king. Like Cybersecurity, Chess teaches you to be resilient and allows you to recover from setbacks provided you stay calm.
Classic chess is made of alternating white and black squares and cybersecurity talks about white hat and black hat or red team and blue team as similar analogies. They are the two sides going at each other and it is a game of one upmanship. Chess and Cybersecurity both teach you to anticipate your next moves ahead of time, but you are always in a counter intuitive mode and your moves are driven by your opponent’s next move. Both teach you to anticipate but you cannot commit till you see the other move. Chess and Cybersecurity both have their roots in the binary world with the base of 2 – there is one king, one queen, two knights, bishops, rooks, eight pawns, total sixteen pieces on each side, which means thirty-two pieces on a sixty-four square board, power of two at work. White or Black pieces have the ability to work in unison as well-oiled orchestra. Both Chess and Cybersecurity need an opening to turn the game on its head, one weak move can let the opponent in or one flaw in defense and hacker can get in. Chess and Cybersecurity pay on two basics – keep your crown jewel protected and leverage the layers of defense.
Interestingly, as I mentioned, Chess has been the most powerful sport at the university I teach and during the last couple of decades, our Chess teams at UTD have been scaling peaks and reaching Final Fours continuously. Chess has been a center stage in some of the famous movies, OTT series as well and Queen’s Gambit, named after a famous chess opening, was a highly popular show. Chess Olympiad featured very large number of countries and yes, the game/sport has been gaining ground again.
Chess is on the upswing again and maybe an opportunity for parents to teach their kids patience, strategy, problem solving and most importantly, keep them off the dreaded devices, all this from the comfort of your home. Parents and kids, are you ready? Time for Chess to be back on the center stage.
