Unlucky Chess: Why it is Important that Chance Does Not Factor Into Chess Games
Chess has been with us for centuries, for any number of reasons. It is a game that has been lodged in our culture for quite some time. It is a game that is both entertaining and rigorous, forcing us to think and examine our moves, while also providing that sense of enjoyable conflict that comes from sports and other games. There are any number of elements of chess that give it its staying power, but one stands out above the rest, a simple, yet essential aspect that is so clearly lacking in many other games: the absence of chance.
Chess is not a game in which one can blame luck. It’s as simple as that. Chess games require thought and consideration for specifically that reason. One cannot make a choice, and depend upon the winds of fate to carry him or her through the chess game. Instead, the only element in a chess game upon which the player can place blame is himself. And the only one who deserves credit for a good move is also the player himself.
Modern sports games are still very enjoyable to watch. They are entertaining struggles between men, battles of skill and talent and training, yes, much like chess games, but also they have that element of luck, chance, randomness. It simultaneously makes these games more thrilling, while also making them somehow less absolute. In any number of football games, for instance, the winner of the game might have been the loser on a different day. While parts of this are still true for chess games, as most games of chess involve at least one player who is human, the chance is thoroughly reduced. In a chess game, there will never be a sudden gust of wind that pushes the ball just off course. In a chess game, there are only the choices you make, and the consequences of those choices.
Many would argue that a good sports game is one in which it comes down to that skill, talent, and training previously mentioned. A good sports game is one in which chance plays as little a role as possible, and it all comes down to the players. But if this is the case, then every chess game is a good chess game, as the elements of chance in chess are already reduced to their lowest possible level.
This is one of the primary reasons that chess has existed for as long as it has. Chess games appeal to a fundamental desire for a leveled, equal playing field, on which the whimsy of chance is absent. Chess games are simply competitions of a player pitted against another player, with only the skill of each available to take him or her to victory. This is the trait which simultaneously most detaches chess from the real world, undeniably affected by luck, and most transforms chess games into small, simplified, ideal worlds. So if you ever find yourself pushed under by circumstances completely random and beyond your control, you can always temporarily escape to world of rules and choices with a quick chess game.