{"id":1868,"date":"2026-05-29T00:59:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:04:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T18:04:00","slug":"one-move-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/one-move-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"One Move at a Time: Lessons From My Chess Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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“I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.”<\/p>\n\u2013Magnus Carlsen<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Chess is a wonderful game. If you don’t believe me, try playing for a week. There is no GUI or a pop up congratulating you when you do the right move, it’s just a board with 8×8 tiles and some funny looking pieces. Deceptively simple! Yet that feeling when you beat your opponent after multiple tiresome chain of thoughts . Just wow. Pure satisfaction. There would be an inner monologue affirming your genius like you’re the next Tesla or something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason I started at all was because my father was a club player in his younger days and I just thought that I had to surpass him in everything. He taught me the basics when I was 4, but I didn’t continue the training until 2020 when COVID lockdown bored me to death. I played seriously from 2020 to 2024 and I played competitively as my uni club player throughout 2022 to 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being an adult sucks as you need to prioritize certain things and throw away the rest. But being an adult and an engineering student at the same time means I didn’t get much time to practice. Chess tournaments in Indonesia are usually held on weekends and where was I on the weekends? It’s either lab or church. Adding to that, I also experienced a weird social dynamic inside my chess club. The competition was toxic and cumbersome. I guess that’s just the way chess is because it’s such an individualistic game. Ironically the motto of FIDE (the International Chess Federation) is “Gens Una Sumus” which\u00a0is a Latin phrase that translates to\u00a0“We are one family.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed my time in the club too, there were amazing people I met there. But no one actually takes you seriously as a friend if you’re not the strongest player. Sadly, I was only serious in my early years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
My First Tournament as a Club Player (2022)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A Neat Sacrifice I Played in The Same Game in The Above Picture<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Playing Sicilian Defense at Petra Christian University, Surabaya (2023)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My coach told me that only my nerves were stopping me from reaching the first class club player. He was disappointed in me for my performance and preparation in my last tournament in 2024. I asked him to help me prepare for a month before the tournament and he said “You play so poorly now. Your peak was that time in our first class drafting.” It was so heartbreaking for me to hear that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yeah, that series of events and conditions led me to stop attending the club weekly training and I decided to stop any competitive effort altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, I’m so grateful of this experience. Someone asked me if I ever regret to not push harder to compete. No. I think I did enough to gain the benefits I needed from chess and I’d like to share lessons I learned from my short career in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Do What You Can with What You Have. Now.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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“Help your pieces so they can help you.”<\/p>\n\u2013Paul Morphy<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The chess clock is always ticking. You should know how to manage the economy of the resources you have on the board, which are the pieces and the position but also keep the clock in mind. You couldn’t spend time overthinking for too long without making a move if you don’t want to lose on time. Even when you’re in a slight disadvantage, there is always a luck factor involved too. So it’s always good to keep going with what you have. Don’t wait for the perfect scenario to arise. See what you got right now and if it’s not possible to definitively win right now, use them to improve. Be patient with action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“So many of us are waiting for the exact right time to attack. We wait for the stars to align before we make our move in life… it is more often the case that it will never happen for you!”<\/p>\n\u2013David Goggins<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

2. Always Be Ready<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”<\/p>\n\u2013Benjamin Franklin<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Preparation is key. There is no way we could know the exact decisions our opponents would make, but it’s always good to prepare. Preparing always gives you a subtle peace of mind and confidence. If you are already good at something, proper preparation would elevate your performance even more. I remember holding the chess pieces and move them around before playing in a small tournament. The simple motoric preparation helped me tremendously that day to be more confident in my moves and even defeat an opponent stronger than me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Always Be Vigilant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Constantly trying to read our opponent’s mind needs empathy and also constant vigilance. Sometimes there is a moment of carelessness where we could slip and lose all the advantage. It’s important to always be adaptive with our condition. Most of the time there is no one fits all solution. Also always keep our focus intact throughout the entire game (of life).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Take Responsibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The solitary nature of chess taught me to be responsible and fruitful with what I have. Losing means I am the one to blame. Because I’m the one making decisions for my pieces. We may have our family and friends and random circumstances in our lives, but we are the one who are responsible for our thoughts and actions right now. We are the one to choose to do good or bad with what we have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Knowing When to Stop<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In chess we constantly change plans. Sometimes we find a cool sacrificial tactic to win but in the next move we find a better plan but less spectacular. I also see that there will always be times in our lives when we need to abandon something we desire for things that truly matter to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my case, I needed to throw away chess in order to pursue my education and career, improve my fitness, and study violin. Nothing to regret here. I need to cut down a certain potential if I want to materialize the dreams that truly matter to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Paul Morphy, arguably the most talented chess player of all time, regretted his chess pursuit, saying: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations.”<\/em><\/p>\n\u2013Paul Morphy<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Objectively speaking, yes, I wasted a lot of hours for competitive chess by not being a pro chess player right now. But the wisdom I gained from those tedious wasted hours made who I am today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s keep moving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move confidently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move scared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Move unprepared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most importantly let’s move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One move at a time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I spend hours playing chess because I find it so much fun. The day it stops being fun is the day I give up.” \u2013Magnus Carlsen Chess is a wonderful game. If you don’t believe me, try playing for a week. There is no GUI or a pop up congratulating you when you do the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notes-on-things"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/My-Chess-Opening-Training.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1898,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/1898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}