Chess Pt 2: The Middle Game of Learning

Chess Part 2: The Middle Game of Learning

Delving deeply into chess has made me familiar with new terminology, and the English teacher in me will always love learning new words and phrases. The Queen’s Gambit, for example, is not only a mediocre Netflix show but it is also an actual move in chess. To be more specific, it is an opening–a move or series of moves to begin the game. There’s the Queen’s Gambit Accepted and the Queen’s Gambit Declined, depending on whether the gambit is, well, accepted or declined (I have learned so much, I know).

Really, though, a gambit is a move whereby a player sacrifices a piece in order to gain a broader advantage. The opposing player can accept it, or take the piece, or decline and ignore it. The middle game is where the action takes place, where all the fun moves of capturing and moving back and forth and strategy manifests into fun moves. The end game is when there are a few pieces left and checkmate is on the horizon. The point is, in addition to challenging some spatial reasoning and iterative thinking, I am also learning new words. I dig that.

I also dig that there is some observable growth to accompany my frustration at seemingly impossible to observe growth. When my father taught me chess, there weren’t bots and chess engines and algorithms to measure how skilled you were. Now, though, I can see some objective measure of my skill through different numerical measurements. That objective lens is extremely important to me. It’s important to see that I am getting better at more challenging chess puzzles. It’s important to me to know that I am not making the same mistakes I was making two weeks ago, if only because I feel like sometimes I am; knowing that I am not is reassuring and compels me to keep chessing because without it, I would feel like I’m stuck in chess purgatory.

So it goes with learning. In the moment, it can be frustrating. Over the course of time, it can continue to be frustrating, but we all need some proof that it is getting better, that I am getting better.

That, for me, is the middle game of learning. It is iterative. Once you get the hang of a concept, you are introduced to an aspect of it in order to make it more challenging, to move your pieces further up the board of knowledge. It is not stagnant and not meant to be; it is meant to be continuously challenging but not impossible. The checkmate of one concept only begets a new one and the opening starts over again.

As I spend more time on a chess board, I am feeling pieces of my mind get called into action (developed, in chess terminology) that I did not previously know were there. I don’t always know what to do with those pieces, with that mode of thinking, and though that can be extremely frustrating and disheartening, persistence is allowing me to see that I am learning, I am growing. That is the middle game of learning. Two weeks ago I wouldn't know to call it that, and that in and of itself makes it worth it.