Getting Bent?

Bent Larson was once asked, “How do you get better at chess?” He responded, “First you learn one thing really well. Then you learn something else really well. Then you go on to something else. Pretty soon you know a lot.”

There is more good advice out there regarding chess than I can follow in my lifetime. Some writers say, "Play all sorts of openings. Don't stunt your development by staying with a narrow repertoire." Others say, "Specialization is the key to Chess success. Pick one opening and stick with it." "Between the Opening and the ending the gods have placed the middlegame." "Chess is 99% tactics." "Tactics do not emerge from thin air but are the fruit of positional play." "The difference between chess players is most evident in the endgame." "Study the endgame if you really want to understand the powers of the pieces."

Chess is good because it is difficult. Tic-Tac-Toe is solved, and after elementary school there is no more point to it. But chess for me even after years of study, play, and enjoyment, has more secrets to offer than I have time to learn. Yet every lesson seems to give some incremental advancement, and they add up. That is Caissa's charm.

To sum it up, I say, "A chess player only has to be good at one thing, and that is everything."