Life is a chess game

"Avoid the crowd.
Do your own thinking independently.
Be the chess player, not the chess piece.”
- Ralph Charell”

It’s your turn to move Ross.” I overheard my father’s long forgotten words amidst the bustling traffic of Manila. Same usual reminder when we were playing chess before his death. Can he still sense my indecisiveness, my predicament on my life now?

Chess"

Chess Quotes

“By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
First: Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...
And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by
present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping
for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources”
(Benjamin Franklin)"

When in France, Benjamin Franklin used to play chess with the elderly Duchess of Bourbon.

In one game Franklin captured her king.

"We do not take kings so," the duchess objected.

"We do in America," Franklin said.

Nabokov challenge

Vladimir Nabokov composed chess problems. Here's a clever one from 1932: "White retracts its last move and mates in one."

This is an instance of retrograde analysis: Of the many legal moves that White might just have made, only one can be revised to yield an immediate mate. Can you find it?

Click here to find the answer on Futlity closet