I can beat you in chess. Easily. Even if you study for a long time.
According to Susan Polgar, famed femme fatale chess master, 45 million people in the United States know how to play chess. I am better than 99% of them. This doesn’t matter.
My senior year of high school, I beat about everyone. I was 22-1. I never exerted myself. The game I lost, I lost because I was posturing.
Even though I beat veryone, I was a fraud. I was taking praise that wasn’t mine. For being a “chess genius.”
I Was Just Two Chapters Ahead In The Chess Book
To a kindergartner, the third grader has a sophisticated and nuanced mind. I got to “third grade” in chess. Everyone else on the chess team was a kindergartner. Even the instructor.
Any little computer – and remember, we’re talking about the early 90′s – could whip me. The rest of the kids that played had learned how the pieces went, and read a few books on opening play. I was better than that. Just.
I’ve put about 1500 hours of somewhat study into chess, all as a young teenager. I don’t fully grasp the nuances of the Sicilian . After learning the game, it’s tactics application and mental endurance. Nothing more. It’s probably more difficult to master any foreign language than it is to play chess at a world-class level.
Because there’s no financial (or social) benefit to get past the learning curve, we don’t, and we revere as genius those who choose to deal with that boredom. Because someone that was motivated to do that is rare, people say they must be a genius. Nope.
People are Fooled By Baseline Competence
There’s a classic piece: Unksilled and Unaware [PDF]. The gist is, when you aren’t any good at something, you can’t tell that anyone else isn’t any good, either. I was fooling people who had no clue. West Central Ohio wasn’t a fertile crescent of chess activity.
I fooled loads of people into believing I was good at chess. ”Are you going to take this nationally?” Sure I will.
Search and social media consultants do the same thing today. They have acquired a very basic amount of easily-acquired information. They use this skill as a lever to extract fees out of clients who aren’t qualified to tell if something is working. Many industries are like this. Basic competence is rare.
Don’t Be Seduced By Other People’s Praise
I’m no smarter than you. I’m better than you at chess. Being a class player or even an Expert doesn’t require anything more than study. Chess doesn’t require a giant brain or a lot of what Richard Restak calls cognition.
When other people–who are lousy mediocrities–praise you, what does that mean? Does the praise matter? Does that praise foster complacency?
I let myself believe -for a moment -that I was naturally gifted or good at chess. The truth was I read Logical Chess, Move By Move (a fantastic book on strategy). I read a couple others and practiced endgames. One of the books I read on tactics suggested endgame study as a way to improve. That’s true. A simplified board reveals options, so study chess endgames. Everyone else studies openings.
Have you ever seen a chess simul? It’s where a chess master will line up against 20 or 30 people and play them all. Generally, he looks at the board for three seconds and makes his move. Generally, he beats the entire field without encountering resistance . When you have mastery, the correct move (or a correct move) is obvious. There’s no need to pause. I was able to beat the rest of my chess team in this fashion. Imagine having a spelling bee with kindergarteners. It’s not particularly impressive.
That a neat parlor trick. Many things are like this. Competence is attainable. Mastery is acquired. As Lazlo Polgar – daughter of the top 4 women in the world of chess- said, “Geniuses are made, not born.”
What are you making yourself into?
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