Playing Chess

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By Frank | September 12, 2008

Everyone has a learning story to tell but, none more-so perhaps, then those people who indulge themselves in a hobby, such as chess or fishing. One suspects that for this group of enthusiasts as with so many others there will always be more than one story to tell and not just about the ‘one that got away’. For most hobbyists the problem will never be the telling of a story but, rather which story to tell, where to begin and how long it should be. Well this brief story is about the time I beat England’s first International Chess Grandmaster, Tony Miles at chess and some other things I learned from that experience.

Please, don’t rush off to search Wikipedia you won’t see mention of this contest there nor will you find it in Geoff Lawton’s publication, ‘It’s Only Me’ ¹ or in any other publication for that matter. This is a historical first mention. The occasion was an invitation I had extended to Tony Miles to visit Galway and play a simultaneous exhibition match with locals. Fresh from winning the World Junior Chess Championship, in Manila 1974, and having become England’s first International Chess Grandmaster, Tony, was already at the peak of his career. His win in that world junior chess competition is made all the more notable by the fact that it has not been won in the interval to 2008 by any other Englishman. That world championship ² has instead been dominated by many of the world’s greatest champions including, Boris Spasky, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov to mention but a few. Tony Miles graced the City of Galway with his presence on March, 21 -- 1975. Newspaper reports of the event stated ‘Tony Miles… concluded his visit to Ireland with a visit to Galway where he played an exhibition match against 44 local players. After 4 hours play Mr Miles had defeated all of his opponents but, he sportingly accepted additional challenges from local schoolboys who were unable to obtain a board in the main exhibition. The event was attended by a large number of onlookers’. That’s it. As ‘news and reporting’ goes of course that is all that there was to it, he came he played and when the exhibition was over, he left. Sometimes it is difficult to get beyond ‘recorded news’ to sketch a broader canvas. Educationalists will be familiar with the concept of ‘learning how to learn’ but, it is a feature of our learning that human barriers to it comes from an excessive focus on what we do know, so much so, that we tend to learn the precise as opposed to the general. To sketch a broader canvas a journalist may need at times to rely on the keen eye of a reflective insider. But it is a fact of life that journalistic demands may preclude this happening. In respect of the Tony Miles event to get beyond the raw data of games played, results, time spent playing and perhaps a recording of the coded moves of a sample game one needed to be a bit more than a ‘chess enthusiast’ to actually ask the right questions. The qualitative data regarding the experience, the individual physical and mental preparation of each of the 44 participants, the schoolboys together with the effect on the ‘large number’ of onlookers is missed. A recounting of the experience surrounding the final game of that evening may serve to illustrate one additional perspective. The final game on that evening took place in a private room between Tony Miles using the black pieces and the author playing white. The specific moves do not require recording here because that is not important. What is important is that the author was assisted by a bevy of close friends offering assistive deeper analysis than would otherwise be available in real competition. The game really took place in the early hours of the morning and the winning was not due that bevy of assistants, or to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed by all those present. Neither was it won by the fact that Tony was totally exhausted and wanted to call it a day. No, it was simply won because Tony coached me and my friends to a victory against himself by contributing even deeper insights to the analysis. But a win is a win is a win and one treasured by all to this day. We were all the richer for having met Tony Miles and I still have his ‘soul shard’ the board and pieces we used to play with. That was an evening where the hours of verbal exchanges were exhilarating, the stories about his competing in Manila were as funny as they were awe inspiring; lessons on problem solving, and learning styles were casually incorporated into the process. The experience of integrating a ‘natural high’ into the learning process was achieved by his openness and generosity of spirit as part of the process of play. And if that wasn’t enough, the epiphany that in life, loosing is no disaster followed by the possibility of being able to see the beauty in patterns repeating themselves on the board was inspiring. In this instant it was possible to see other possibilities, of seeing ever so briefly the human soul, represented only by events on a chess board and seeing as it were the interiority of I, the one making the moves. The thinking process made visible. All of these qualities, feelings and insights I had experienced before, in different circumstances but, to have them affirmed by Tony that day was stunning. All of the joys experienced and lessons learned that evening not only about the game of chess itself but, about learning and life in general are so numerate that it would be impossible to pen them all here. However, what is important to emphasise here is that this event is little different in many ways from so many other learning events one may identify with and be exposed to in the course of a lifetime. The question then becomes how we get the most out of such events for the participants and spectators alike. How do we access the data, both, quantitative and qualitative sufficiently so that this can happen? Without this kind of feedback the outcomes, planned or unplanned will go un-noticed. Not surprisingly then, the effect on the individual enthusiast, and the wider community alike becomes one of ambivalence toward such events. This arises in part because the perceived ‘news value’ is limited to a recording of the facts. We ought to learn though that we do not instinctively learn how to learn and that so much turns on the structure of our minds so much so indeed that we tend not to learn rules, or generalities, just facts and in consequence we scorn the abstract with a passion. As Tony prepared to leave that evening he noted that as human beings we tend to do much less thinking than we believe we do, he thought too that too much thinking was a waste of energy when so often what was required was the instincts of ‘the tiger’. Anyone reading all of the commentary and analysis of his now famous …a6 winning opening response ³ is reminded of how hard he tried to live the ‘learning life’. The overall too is a reminder that spending time in the presence of someone of the stature of Tony Miles coming to know him as a mentor is not at all the same as interacting with a piece of IT software and this is true whether your hobby is playing chess or fishing.