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The world is becoming ever more complex. Satellites orbiting our atmosphere and fiber optic cables swirling through the earth underneath our feet have changed the way people connect and make decisions. As it turns out, chess is a great tool to help us analyze and understand real world problems. Its complexity is best demonstrated by the number of possible positions in a game, 10 to the power of 120, which happens to be larger than the number of atoms in the universe. The controlled environment in which a chess game is played (an 8×8 board), allows for some great exploration of these almost infinite possibilities.
What we do at FS Chess
At FS Chess, we try to improve by analyzing chess puzzles, working on tactic problems, discovering openings and studying middle game and endgame positions. While we do that, we enjoy a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere, in which some hard-fought blitz battles take place every Monday evening.Every semester we gather for a big FS Chess tournament, where our members get the chance to put their skills into practice and fight for interesting prices. We try to make every tournament special by choosing different kind of game modes and time controls.
The most recent tournament was played tandem style, where the players attend as teams. The rules say, that captured pieces of the opponent can be placed on the ally’s board as friendly pieces, usually leading to great confusion and difficult position making this game mode very amusing and interesting. After every team played each other we ended up in a tie: Both “Team Snek” and “Los del Rio” had earned 4 points each. In the grand final “Team Snek” stayed calm and took home the victory. Let’s see who challenges them in next semester’s tournament.
What you can learn from Chess
Chess is some much more than a game you play just to pass some time. It can teach you important lessons. In Chess there is no luck, so first you learn how to cope with your defeats, since there is no one to blame. Most important, try to learn from those losses and come back a better player. Just as in life, we need to get back up when confronted with failure and come back stronger and wiser.
Known as a purely rational game there is still a highly psychological factor included in Chess. “The hardest game to win is a won game” says Emanuel Lasker, a German World Chess Champion. It is very tempting to get carried away by the feeling of close success in a good position and I will therefore promise you that during a Chess game you will go through all kinds of mental war. Chess is one of the oldest games in the world dating back over 1500 years. The game of chess has evolved as it spread around the globe to the game we play today. As a result, this journey has brought people together from different cultures, ages, and backgrounds over a common bond and passion for the game. And still today thousands of people play it on a regular basis.
We meet regularly on Mondays to chat and enjoy some interesting games. So, feel free to join us and get infected by the love for Chess yourself.
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
