12/13/2024

Yesterday, Gukesh Dommaraju defeated Ding Liren becoming the youngest world chess champion of all time. An awe inspiring feat that undoubtedly took extreme dedication and hard work.

What is it about this damn game though? For thousands of years people have been captivated by chess, spending countless hours wasting away their lives sitting across the board (myself included).

Simply put, chess is beautiful. It’s an entire world compressed into 64 squares: violent, poetic, and profound all at once. Its brutal honesty is what drew me in—perhaps because that kind of honesty is something I struggle with personally. There’s no thrill quite like discovering a brilliant move, and no fury quite like the rage of a careless blunder.

However when you take a look at it from afar, what is really the point of it? As a kid when my father used to see me playing chess he would say this is a game for ਵੇਲੇ, (people who have nothing to do with their time) suggesting it was a waste of time. As much as I hate to admit it, there was some truth to his words

The reason for this is, there is a level of degeneracy involved in chess especially now in the 21st century. Chess is viewed as this intellectual endeavour, but often I find myself playing 100s of blitz games completely mindlessly. This mindlessness is the enemy!

Gukesh spent his life mastering the game, and whether or not he became world champion I could never say he was wasting his life regardless of its utility in the real world. The intangible qualities such as discipline, resilience and humility that you pick up along the way is what it is all about. Devoting yourself to excellence in any pursuit is prayer and you become closer to God by doing so!

-PRABH