What my chess teacher never showed me
I never beat the gentleman who taught me how to play chess. It was only after I discovered Bobby Fischer that I saw my flaw.
Unfortunately, my teacher taught me to memorize moves(e4, d5 etc). He didn't teach me to consider the psychology of my opponent. For e.g novices focus only on speed & are too defensive. Pros can use 8 moves to accomplish something that requires 2 moves to hide their true intentions.
My parents even got me an electronic chess game but that only reinforced memorization and not a strategy.
Bobby Fischer may have been the best chess player in the last century.
He read voraciously. He practiced in his mind constantly and created his own moves.
The irony of my fascination with Bobby Fischer is that i can only agree with him when it comes to chess. He was woefully ignorant about most things.
This, however, didn't stop him from delivering one of my favorite quotes —
“ I object to being called a chess genius, because I consider myself to be an all around genius, who just happens to play chess, which is rather different…” Painting by Kasen Midichi
