Every true strength is gained through struggle

Game is engine of empowerment
Saturday, October 16, 2010 02:55 AM
The Columbus Dispatch

Recent physical therapy has, curiously, reminded me that there is a more potent physical self lurking within.

Yes, decades of sedentary graduate studies, board games and chess writings have taken their toll.

On the walls of a business I visit are several printed slogans. Among them: “Every true strength is gained through struggle” and “We empower others.”

I got excited when I first saw them. Did they not sum up the chess experience for me? Struggle and empowerment: Are these not what the game is all about?

World champion Emanuel Lasker – also a mathematician and philosopher – wrote a treatise on struggle. The concept was, not surprisingly, at the center of his chess play.

And the notion of empowerment through disciplined and self-motivated effort is the basis for many scholastic chess programs. It is expressed in the much-repeated idea that “chess makes kids smarter.”

The Greek notion of “a sound mind in a sound body” is difficult to achieve.

But it is healthful to be reminded that both mind and body depend on struggle for their full realization.

And empowerment is indeed the name of the game of life itself.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com