I love(d) Chess dearly and one of the things that helped my strength rise exponentially was playing with stronger players. I had faith in my ability to learn how my opponents were playing and changes to make in order to adjust and fare better. What do you gain from strong players? It depends. They may be strong because they have played the game for a long time and they just “know” what to do to win. By playing with them frequently, you have the advantage of seeing “things” that they keep doing. Sound opening, eyes darting all over the board looking for opportunities to create something or see weak areas to attack, taking a second to see an opponent’s move etc. That is just one of the reasons an opponent may be strong. That is not my reason for writing these thoughts. I think the weaker player benefits from the net (positive) difference between him and his opponent. This net difference reminded me of another important factor when playing chess for a living and for living to play chess. The former, you play chess to be able to pay your bills. The latter you work somewhere to be able to pay your expenses including Chess. Anyway, can you create a net positive difference in the way you spend the money you make either way? Personal financial advisers recommend that you spend less than you make. (I said, make more than you spend… it is not quite the same thing, but you end up with the net positive difference either way.) That is the way to improve your life, at least financially.
Some of the things that are obvious to us on the Chessboard are not that obvious in life.
How did you learn to manage your finances better? What was your route to improving at Chess? What do you agree/disagree with in this piece?
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