Humility and the Game of Chess

September 17, 2010
Tags: Learning Chess Articles

Written by guest author Greg Delaney for Wholesale Chess.

The word “humility,” according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, means “the quality or state of being humble.” It is difficult to think of another human endeavor besides parenting children that has the power to humble us as thoroughly as the game of chess. So many times I have read in popular culture quips like, “chess: easy to learn, but impossible to master.” We who play this game know how extremely difficult chess is and how it challenges our minds and our spirits beyond most anything else in life. How many times have we approached a game against our opponent with plenty of confidence, only to end up tipping our king in dismay?

By using the word “humility,” I do not mean “pathetic and abject defeat” or “lacking in self-confidence.” My use of “humility” in this brief article is meant to convey a state of being in which we realistically and accurately evaluate both out strengths and limitations, realizing how imperfect we really are. There is no shame in feeling humble – rather, the opposite is true. If we as chess players have a clear and honest view of our capabilities and problem areas, we have a key with which we can open the door to significant improvement.

Learning Humility: Anatoly Karpov

Some readers might be familiar with a game played in the Wijk aan Zee tournament in 1993 between American Grandmaster Larry Christiansen and former World Champion Anatoly Karpov. The result was shocking: Karpov blundered a piece on move eleven and resigned! How can something like this happen? The simple answer is, of course, that even the great Karpov is human. He failed to recognize a fairly simple (once you see it!) retreat of his opponent’s queen that simultaneously attacked two of his pieces. Karpov was, I think it safe to say, humbled by the experience. Such is the unforgiving nature of the game of chess. However lofty our view of ourselves and our skills is, eventually we will be returned to the reality of how vast and complex the game really is and how fallible and imperfect we are.

I believe that it is essential to our improvement at chess that we possess a true sense of humility about ourselves and our understanding of the game. No human being has ever played a perfect game of chess. Everyone who plays the game, even World Champions, loses games. We all make mistakes during play – but this means simply that we all have room to grow and to learn. It is said that confidence is crucial to success at the chess board, as it is to all the efforts we make in life. Confidence, however, without humility becomes arrogance. And I know from experience that it is very difficult to teach someone caught up in their own imagined brilliance.

I think that humility in chess means an honest and accurate appraisal of what we can do as chess players, and an acceptance of what we have yet to learn. The balance I am describing allows us to feel confident to a reasonable extent, and permits us to accept errors and losses with dignity. My own chess coach has told me repeatedly that I cannot expect myself to play successfully all the time if I am lacking in fundamental knowledge and experience. If I am able to set aside my easily-bruised ego so that I can admit that I don’t know all there is to know, I become teachable. I don’t beat up on myself for losing games, I don’t set myself up for failure by expecting perfection, and I can look at my deficits in chess with the excitement of new learning opportunities. This, I think, is genuine humility, and it is very much preferable to self-depreciation or to cockiness with nothing behind it.

Greg Delaney is Life Member of USCF who returned to chess in 2005 after a three decade hiatus from the game he loves. He is an educator, club player, and student of IM Yelena Dembo. For fun, he blogs about chess and his work to improve as a player.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of Wholesale Chess. We welcome open discussion on all aspects of chess on the Wholesale Chess Blog. If you would like to be a guest author on our blog, please contact us at marketing@wholesalechess.com.