The Only Girl

I am going to ask you to do something in just a moment here. Imagine you sitting in a room, playing a somewhat stressful game which you have a time limit on that wrings your brain out, against a scary looking opponent on an early Saturday morning. Pretty bad, huh?  Now imagine that you are feeling like your life depends on winning this game. While you sink this in, imagine you are the only one of your gender type in the entire room, playing that game.

Chess. An art, science, game, and sport. From what I described above, it may seem like there is an impression that I dislike chess. But that is simply untrue. Sure, sometimes I do feel about chess that way, but most of the times, I adore it. Playing chess is not a chore, or something I have to do, but I choose to anyway. However, there is no avoiding  that dreaded feeling of when you think you will lose, or when you are scared to play against that big adult man whose rating is greater than yours. And those feelings are when I lose the game, before I even sit down at the board.

Over the years I have played chess, the one thing I have learned beside strategies, tactics, and different plays, is that you need to play the position. NOT the opponent. All those years of me being afraid to lose have mostly passed over. Losing and winning. There will always be one or the other. And when I win? Great! Moving on. When I lose? Not so great- but the amount I learn from analyzing my losses is tremendous, and it teaches me more than I can ever learn from another book. After all-

"If you are not strong enough to lose, you are not strong enough to win."

So there are ups and downs in chess- let's talk about what I LOVE about it.

Chess is a mental game of strategy, tactics, and thinking. It is probably the most beautiful, unique game in the world I come from. Beautiful in the way that each game has its own twists and characteristics. Each position has its own... personality. And each and every single game is completely different, with countless different positions, which makes sense because there are countless types of people in the world. Chess has many deeper meanings and ideas. One basic strategy is to get all the pieces into play. You cannot win by only using one or two of the 16 pieces you have. You need defenders, attackers, and protecters. Sometimes, its the little things that cost you the game. The way the chess pieces move around the board, how they can come together so beautifully, how each piece is important and significant on the board in its own way, and how sometimes, there are pieces that obstruct your plan, displaced, until you need to move them in a better place. Sometimes pieces need to be sacrificed, or removed. Chess really models how todays world works, or should work. Does it not?

"Life is a game of chess. Chess is a game of the brain."

There are countless other lessons that chess can teach. Patience. Strategy. Time management. Simplicity. Being able to see 3-5 steps ahead. Learn from your losses. Not to be afraid of a loss. Forethought wins. There is always a better move. Its okay to be independent and move in silence- only to speak to say Checkmate.

Now, I'm going to talk about another aspect of Chess. Being the only 7th grade girl to be at tournaments. And even if there IS another girl, the ratio of boys to girls is drastically bigger. All the chess books I have are written by males, and all the games inside the books are played by 2 male grandmasters. Its never a girl. Ever.

I have always wondered why not many girls play chess. Are they all ashamed? Nervous? Think that Chess will never be a "girl" sport? Uninterested? Why is it that at every tournament there are so many more boys than girls??! I mean seriously- search up chess grandmasters and ALL of them are male. Let me tell you that Chess is a game for everybody of every race, gender, status, and age. If any girl wants to play, they should feel free to love it, and participate without any judgments from anybody else. They should be proud of what they are passionate about, and let no one else effect that. There are only 12-14 woman grandmasters out there, out of the other 500, who are males. Does that not strike anyone else as crazy? Unacceptable? Well it does to me. And I hope, one day, I will become one of the 12 best female chess players in the world, and that others will be inspired by reading this post and seeing what any girl can do.

Every chess Grandmaster was once a beginner- and every pawn has the potential to become a                                                                             QUEEN.