A Life Lesson From Chess

Time to read: 64 Seconds (8×8)

Naked Leader Week 1130 – Monday 30 June 2025

A great real-life story shared with me based on last week’s Naked Leader Week here.

From Sue

Hi David

I love playing 5-minute chess on chess.com – well, I love it when I win 🙂

Each player has just 300 seconds – very different from ‘slow chess’ – 90 minutes each player – Yawn.

Anyway, I am black v my first ever opponent from North Korea, and I am so distracted by the honour of playing them that I lost a rook within the first minute!

The key lesson in such blitz games – other than play extremely fast – is to keep going until you are checkmated i.e., never resign – beat the clock.

So, I kept playing with my huge disadvantage – faster – and suddenly noticed something – yes, I was down in pieces, but I had ALL of them active, whereas my opponent had several inactive and blocked in – and I won the game on time.

The ‘life lesson’ – it’s not about what you know that matters in life, it’s what you do with what you know – potential, strengths and passion are pointless – and dormant – until you apply them – that’s when you make true impact.

Best

Sue

With my thanks to Sue for sharing and my love and best wishes to you

David

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