A Bunch of Squares

People say time is money. They spend time, they waste time, they save time. But a buck’s a buck and a minute in 2026 has the same length as it did a million years ago. The time we have is fixed, like having a certain unchanging amount of money in a bank account. We go to the cash machine each day and pull some out until one day we get the terrifying message “insufficient funds.”

Everyone hopes to get as much as they can for each hard-earned dollar, or for each precious minute that’s allotted to them. How should we spend our time to get as much as possible? Malcolm Forbes said, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” Perhaps. The Catholic faith teaches we are here to find salvation through Christ and save our souls. This seems more meaningful as a life goal, but to each his own.

Except for teenagers for whom mere existence with its implied potential is enough to fill the day, everyone else must actively seek to employ their time. The consciousness of wasted time can be disturbing, like a mirror of one’s worth. We want to do something constructive, but there’s an impediment. The plane is late, the meeting’s postponed, or the store’s closed. we pass the time as best we can. One may follow a sport, another reads, another goes shopping or goes to the bar, and each has a good reason.

I’ve played computer chess for a few years. I’ve wondered if it’s a constructive behavior, something that develops the mind, or a time-erasing addiction, like the mindless internet scroll. Playing chess, one has at least three adversaries. To a degree, the least important of these is the opponent. Within the economics of the game, he or she has no reality as a human being, they exist only to move the pieces. More important is the board itself. “You don’t play your opponent; you play the board.” This is true.

I think that the main adversary in chess is oneself.  The best advice I’ve ever been given is “sit on your hands,” meaning, fight against your desire to move a piece or continue to follow the strategy you think you’ve developed until you’ve clearly understood the implications of your opponent’s last move. Though difficult, if you follow this rule, your game will quickly improve.

But immediately enters the nemesis again, time. In addition to other adversaries, you’re also playing against the clock. If you think too much, you’ll lose on time even with a superior strategy.

Chess reveals a lot about human nature. Though the personal character of one’s opponent isn’t important, particularly in computer chess where you aren’t face-to-face, some players still try to psych out their opponents via “chat” messages. When I first played online, I made the mistake of trying to be civil and polite. Someone would ask to “chat” and I’d respond. Often these messages would be aggressive, like “prepare to die” immediately after the first move when one can no longer abort the game; or if the game was in progress, “heating up for you?” or after a bad move, “why’d you do that!” I stopped responding long ago. Winning against someone like that is very pleasant.

Though in my opinion it renders the game boring, many players study chess opening tricks which they hope will secure a fast win. When this fails, their position usually falls apart and they quit. I’ve won many games which looked impossible simply by not giving up. This may be easier to understand if I explain that at my intermediate level making glaring errors is the norm, the technical term is inattentional blindness. It’s not uncommon to put a piece on an unprotected square, miss a simple capture or any other number of instances which are seen when later calmly looking at the replay.

Then there are those who even in the most hopeless circumstances, for example, having only a King against a battery of opposing pieces, will keep on to the bitter end rather than resign, hoping your clock will run out. This isn’t noble, but at times, it works.

There are also players who, when they start to lose, ask for a draw. I’d agree until I learned that when I in turn asked for one, it was never granted. You quickly learn that each game is a fight, no quarter asked, and none given.