Life is Chess..

“Give me six hours to chop a tree & I will spend the first four sharpening my axe”. This famous line was being said by the sixteenth US President Abraham Lincoln. What actually he had in mind while speaking those lines? While thinking of this I made my very own version of his quote. Yaa you got it right, I am a bit lazy kind of a person who always look for shortcuts. I actually found it very difficult to remember those 15 words so I divided them with my lucky number 5 to cut them into three magical words – “Plan Before Move”.

Okay I will explain the concept to you with a short story. In school days, there used to be a friend of mine. He was orphan from birth & he lived next to my house. We used to go to school in the same bus & that’s where our friendship started. How exactly we met that’s a different story which I won’t tell you now as it will consume 3-4 pages of this post. His name was Chintu (please don’t laugh on his name, as it was being kept by his mother when he was five & he couldn’t do anything about it). So Chintu was very fond of, in fact I will use the word ‘addicted’ to playing chess. He was unbeatable. But despite of this talent of his, I always used to frown at him, as I considered playing chess a waste of time. I preferred outdoor games which seek to build one physically. One day when even after my multiple requests he declined to come to play cricket, I shouted at him “You are such a fool Chintu. Even a donkey would be more intelligent than you to understand that playing chess is the most useless thing in this world.” I expected to pierce his rhinoceros skin with my comment, but as usual he maintained his poker face. Then after a couple of minutes he replied to me with a challenge “You come defeat me in chess & I will play cricket with you for a full month.” I decided to take up the chance as in no way I was at the loss.

What? I mean what? What are you thinking? Are you curious to know that who won? Just scroll up a bit & read the fourth line of second para again. I have used the word ‘unbeatable’ for Chintu. Yaa, you got it right. I lost. But I won too. I lost in game but won in learning. Upon losing the game I looked up at Chintu, being an emotional person I was expecting some sympathy from him. He looked up at me, held my hand & said “You know Dhruv why donkeys don’t play chess? Because they can’t.” It took me almost five minutes to realize that it wasn’t sympathy but backslapping my comment on me. Then he broke his poker face & we laughed together for quarter of an hour (I fake laughed because I was hurt on losing). After our cheek bones got tired of laughing he suddenly bombed me with a question “Why did you lose?” In midst of gathering my senses I replied “Because you are too good”. He asked “Why am I good?” I said “Because you practice it daily.” He said “Practice maybe a reason, but there’s something bigger. You know why people generally lose? Because they don’t know their last move. And more than that they don’t know their opponent’s moves.” I was listening to him with my highest concentration, because no matter how much I disliked his habits, one thing I knew that he is intelligent. Whatever he says would be of value. He continued “Dhruv, there is one rule with chess. And that is – You should know your last move, even before making the first one. It need not to be a stiff hardcore structure, it maybe modifiable & even completely changeable with the opponent’s moves. But atleast there should be a structure. A Plan. You just can’t build house in a night without a map, without a plan. You know how to plan?” I replied “No. But I am curious to know.”

He looked at his table & took a paper from it, then wrote 3 on it. He said “Look there are 3 aspects of planning. First of all ‘know your opponent’. Think what he might be thinking, what plan he may have, what moves he may make. Try to be as accurate as you can. More accurate your prediction about him is, better your own plan will be. After the first step make the second one. Build your own plan. Begin with the end in mind. Think what last step you might take & then come back in reverse order. Step by step plan your every move in reverse order. Now you have a structure. But will it be enough? What if the situations change? What if your opponent makes different moves? So come down to third aspect of planning. Produce alternatives. Make plan B, plan C & go on till plan G; combine these plans to produce more different alternatives. The more structures you have, better prepared you will be.” During this whole conversation I was looking at his face & wondering how knowledgeable he is, even though he failed twice in sixth class.

Then after a long pause he said “You know Dhruv, the same goes with life. While dealing with people, the first thing you need to think is – what they are? What their plan is? How will they react? Better you predict them, the better. Never attend a meeting without thinking what might their proposal be; or what might their reaction be to your proposal? This is what Chanakya too said in Arthashastra regarding a king - 'Reflecting over the discussions and reply expected from the enemy he should proceed. Backup plans & alternatives should be made too'. Make your own plan, by beginning with the end. Use step by step approach. In the last, produce alternatives. More the series of events you visualize, the less surprised you will be. No matter what the situation is, if you have had seen it before, you will handle it. Because if you had seen it you definitely would have prepared for it, & if you had prepared for it you can’t be outwitted in it.” Then gazing at the chessboard he said “you know you had actually lost in your seventh move, long before the checkmate. You made a wrong move. It was unplanned. You tried to cover for it in your next moves, but they too were not deliberately thought of. I would say that instead of waiting for a chance to correct your mistakes rather don’t make mistakes. Always make efforts trying not to be careless. Sometimes one single wrong move becomes big wrong enough to ruin the success of all your previous right moves. That is Chess & that is Life.”

On that day I learnt a lesson of life. I learned the secret of all successful men. Why they win most of the times? Why they are always able to get their work done? Because they are careful. Because they always plan. They always make efforts to predict.

And you know what is the most interesting aspect of this story? Some of you may have noticed, while some of you may not have. I initially said that Chintu was orphan by birth; then how come his name ‘Chintu’ was being kept by his mother when he was five years old? Isn’t it contradictory? Chintu is actually a fictional character, a production of my imagination. I made this story up to teach you the concept of planning. Now before you all plan to beat me up, I think I gotta go. Bubbye..