When I first started playing chess, I chose to play the black.
I believed that by playing black pieces that I get to see what others will do before I make my own.
A passive.
A reactive.
That's what I though I was doing.
Eventually I learned that by playing the Black, I was actually playing the part of a defender.
To anticipate.
To protect.
To retaliated.
It takes much more out of us when we are the playing a defensive game.
The attacker has all the best moves.
They are suppose to control the board.
Mainly because they had the first move.
And trust me in a game of war, the first move is often the most crucial one among the lot.
So there I was, 6 years old playing against a 13 year old.
He, of course, was not really taking me seriously.
I was after all only 6.
Plus I was playing like a bloody rookie.
But still, it took him near to an hour to kick my castle down and check mate me to hell.
It does not mean that I was a good player.
He was not that good a player himself to begin with.
But 1 hour just to beat me was an eye opener for some of the other players.
And the reason for it?
I did not play by the book.
Their books to be exact.
I was throwing moves from every angle that I could see.
Making them pay for every piece that they took.
I did not go down nicely for them.
My dad commented that it was due to the fact that I was a rookie that allowed me the ability to play like so.
I thought outside the box not because I chose to but because I did not know what the box was.
Now imagine me playing the same game again, but this time I know exactly where the box is, and still pushing from outside of it.
Thats how I play today.
I still loose most of the time.
And I still play black in most of them.
I enjoy seeing people fall into the pattern of reacting to me instead of me reacting to them.
Instead of just being defensive, I make them sweat for every offense.
My colleagues who plays chess with me does not enjoy it as much as I do.
Maybe because they kept winning and I kept loosing.
To them I was not much of a challenge.
But to me, I gained more than I lost.
Playing a game is not just about winning.
Its about using your mind.
Pushing it to do things that you have not done before.
To see where it takes you.
To take in new kinds of possibilities.
Does that mean that playing the white pieces won't give me the same satisfaction?
Not really.
No.
When you play offensive, your goal is overwhelm your opponent.
Its different when you are on the pointy end of things.
Being an offensive player does have its own sets of challenges.
They are of course things that you can do to lure your opponent out from their forts and then letting the hammer fall.
Or an overwhelming presence that forces the other party to fall apart in their minds game.
And simply a few well aimed decisive moves that picks a part the defenders game is always gratifying.
So yeah, you can still exercise your mind to concorte up new stuff.
But most of the time, its tends to stay the same.
Pawn to E4.
How would you reply?
