The Unity of A Checkered Board
Imagine, for a moment, we’re back in the Middle Ages, with feudalism, lords and ladies, cold stone courts, and merry minstrel bands. Except, chances are, we aren’t part of noble culture. Chances are, we’re part of the general rabble that made up the majority of the people living in those times. And that means that certain things are off-limits to us. Some of these are definitely more important than others, but one of the opportunities that we would be cut off from is something that everyone in the modern worlds knows so well and enjoys easily: chess. Chess was a game for nobles to play, used originally to teach strategy and tactics to young lords. With nobles being the minority, we would’ve been restricted from playing the game.
Fortunately, we live in a world without such strictures. Moreover, we live in a world with a tremendous amount of freedom allowed to us, simply by the presence of such technologies as the Internet. We live in a world where you can play free chess, any time you want, simply by loading up a website.
Chess, then, is more integrated than ever before into the nature of our world, and it is only for the better that it is. Easy access to free chess games leads to individuals being easily able to practice and grow their skills at the game, which will improve their tactical thinking and forethought in all their endeavors. But even more so, the tremendous availability of free chess games on the Internet actually serves an important function which is made only more apparent when looking at the role of chess throughout history. Chess is inherently a game of equals, of one opponent versus another. True, one player might be significantly better than the other at chess, and therefore this “equality” seems problematic. But the game strips down so many of the other factors that might lead to an uneven starting ground for the two players, putting them on as even footing as any competition possibly can.
The equality of chess games is represented well in the presence of so many free chess resources all throughout the Internet. Gone are the days when only the noble caste could play this game. Gone are the times when it was reserved only for the supposedly “best” and “brightest”. We now live in a world in which anyone can have access to free chess, this game of kings, and can improve him or herself both specifically in the game, and in general, by playing. Great chess players can come from anywhere, from the USA to Egypt, from China to Russia, from Jamaica to New Zealand and Chile. As the Internet becomes more present throughout the world, and the free chess resources it offers become similarly available to more and more people, we can expect to see great chess players popping up in even more varied places, from even more varied backgrounds. Free chess and its prevalence throughout the planet is a uniting, equalizing game, something that binds together different people and puts them on common ground, so that we can all truly see that we are not so different, after all.
It’s easy to feel a connection to someone with whom you can play a game, and no game is easier to play with someone than a free chess game on the Internet. For all that it is just a great game, free chess games can lead to a type of kinship and bond that this world sorely needs. We are all just chess players, waiting to find our games.