THE EMPTY SPACES ON THE BOARD SYMBOLIZE OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES, AND SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

“Be a spot of land where nothing is growing, where something might be planted…”  Rumi   

John Herron, in his book “Total Chess”, explains that beginning players focus mostly on their own pieces, intermediate players focus also on the opponent’s pieces, while advanced players consider the empty spaces on a deeper level.  In chess, the pieces can only move into empty spaces—they can not be stacked on the top of each other like in some other board games. At the beginning of the game, there are 32 occupied spaces and 32 empty spaces on the board.  As the game progresses, the number of empty spaces increases as different pieces get traded or taken.  The great chess coach and activist Malola Prasath likens the empty spaces to going through different life experiences with the potential of transforming our lives.  In the early years of life, we are self-centered and concrete, but as we grow beyond ourselves, our capacity for deeper experiences increases.  As we grow older, the importance of possessions and corporeal entities decreases, just as the number of pieces on the board decreases as the game progresses.  At the same time the importance of memories, experiences, and visions for the future--concerns for legacy and generativity, increases.

The empty spaces in chess then can be interpreted to symbolize emptiness and openness in life, loneliness and selflessness, a mysterious state of affairs in which something springs forth out of apparent nothingness.  Rumi states that every craftsman is looking for emptiness, for a need, on which to practice his craft, to show what he is capable of.  This allegory refers to God, and the emptiness, the need, is the human’s constant search for the Absolute.     

The Absolute works with nothing.

The workshop, the materials

Are what does not exist.

Try and be a sheet of paper with nothing on it.

Be a spot of ground where nothing is growing,

Where something might be planted,

A seed, possibly, from the Absolute. 

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

Most cultures and sacred traditions point to the importance of emptiness in one way or another for a spiritual connectedness on a dimension that is beyond the cognitive and that can serve to inform the cognitive.  Maybe that is why modern man, who is immersed in the cognitive dimension, is uncomfortable with emptiness.  When Frankl talks about the two major forms of leisure (emptiness in time) in his book “The Will to Meaning”, he distinguishes between centripetal leisure and centrifugal leisure: 

Today centrifugal leisure is predominant.  Flight from the self allows for avoiding a confrontation with the void in the self.  Centripetal leisure would allow for solving problems—and to begin with, facing them.  People vacillating between professional overactivity and centrifugal leisure have no time to finish their thoughts…  We need new types of leisure which allow for contemplation and meditation.  To this end, man needs the courage to be lonely. (p. 97-98). 

Centripetal leisure is that centeredness, which is still, comfortable alone, and from which emanates strength.  Centrifugal leisure is an escape from the existential vacuum, as Frankl called it, not knowing what to do with our free time and going busily from one activity into another to escape from the emptiness we feel.  The only difference is our attitude toward the emptiness, how we conceptualize it, what we make of it.  We should be careful not to become nihilists through pessimistic interpretations.     

Sacred spaces (temples or places of personal or communal spiritual significance, physical or psychological) provide the emptiness in which Divine inspiration can be manifested and relived.  Joseph Campbell says:  “Sacred space is where you find yourself, again and again.”  That is, where you find your enduring, eternal spiritual essence, unspoiled by the storms and tides of this transient life.  You need emptiness and time for yourself to be able to do that.  In some traditions the emptiness also refers to being empty of yourself, to be so still that your own selfishness is minimized and your perception of reality comes closer to being as objective as humanly possible.  Rumi puts it this way:  “When the water in a puddle is muddied, you are not able to see your reflection in it, but if left still, the mud would settle and the water would become clear and reflective.”  And this is one way that emptiness aids and clarifies our cognitive and emotional dimensions as well.       

Introduction

My intention with the current book is to add some new perspectives on the usefulness of chess for young people. Namely, in addition to the various academic benefits of teaching and playing chess, the game and its individual pieces can be interpreted to symbolize certain important aspects of life; we can use chess as a platform to have conversations and discussions with our children about those aspects. What can be extracted from chess are not only analytical, logical and creative skills, but also clarification of values, a personal philosophy of life, and spirituality. The elusive concept of being, covered with mystery and often ignored in a world of action and achievement, seems to come a bit closer in chess to remind us of its primacy as symbolized by the King.

In mental health terms, the ideas in this book can be viewed as a method of Logotherapy, which is a meaning-centered psychotherapy originally developed by Viktor Frankl—one of the greatest psychologists of the 20th century. He taught that there is potential meaning to be fulfilled in every situation in life, no matter how painful and difficult it may be. During World War II Viktor Frankl and his family were imprisoned in the Nazi death camps; his pregnant wife was murdered in the gas chambers and his parents died of starvation and illness. Frankl miraculously survived and after the war wrote about his experiences and conclusions about human nature in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

I am presenting this method to be used not only by therapists, but also by parents, teachers and all others in a position to help young people discover the meaning in their lives. There are certain achievements that have the potential to greatly impact all of humanity; I believe that Viktor Frankl’s ideas represent such an achievement and should not be limited to the realm of psychotherapy. They were tested during the darkest hour of human history and provide inspiring insights and observations. They are indeed facts about human nature, facts that we all need to consider as we face the challenges of our times and in our personal lives.

My ideas of chess therapy gradually evolved during my work as a Psychology Associate for the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Initially, I started to use chess as an ice-breaker and rapport building tool with resistant clients. I saw some success as these delinquent youth with a certain degree of mistrust toward adults and authority figures began to open up and talk more about authentic issues during our chess games. It served very well to disarm them and allow them to drop their “tough” masks and just be kids, playing a board game. I also had the privilege of participating in clinical supervision with Dr. Glenn Tanita, who created a very stimulating environment in which we were able to clarify our roles as therapists, refine our skills, and discuss our approaches, receiving invaluable feedback, support, and guidance. The therapeutic symbolism of chess started to take shape as I reflected on what was discussed in supervision and tried to put it into practice during the chess sessions with my clients.

Chess is seen by most as a war game. The great Yugoslav chess master and historian Pavle Bidev, in his article “Chess—A Mathematic Model of the Cosmos”, was among the first to challenge that common assumption, pointing toward allegorical interpretations of chess “in the light of Indian ideas of religious and philosophical symbolism.” He explains that, according to the Indian philosophy of nature, there are three fundamental factors that determine the life of matter in the universe: light, darkness, and movement. The chess board and the movement of the pieces symbolize those factors, while the pieces themselves symbolize the four elements: earth (the castle), water (the horse), air (the bishop), and fire (the queen). He points out that the King symbolizes ether—“a divine, celestial element.” Bidev states: “The King means that which is first and chief. That is why chess is called a royal game, because it, like a King, stands above all other games and not because the principal pieces in it are Kings.” He theorizes that playing chess was not just a game, but a religious ritual for the initiated.

In this vein, the idea is not new that chess can be applied as a rite of passage for our children as we welcome them to the world. Religions and traditions have official rites of passage which are quite necessary for young people as they seek acceptance, acknowledgement, and guidance from their families and community. In modern times, when such rites of passage are more likely to be absent, we see adolescents create their own rituals to make themselves noticed in a world that is almost indifferent to their coming of age. In this sense, playing chess and connecting it to life can be seen as an unofficial ritual.

This book is an invitation to use chess more in families and schools, to foster quality time, cohesiveness and discovery in those settings, and to help us all slow down, think, and observe. I need to emphasize here that people should not feel intimidated by chess and they do not need to be good chess players in order to be helpful to young people. The rules of the game are very easy to learn and the rest is all about the process and the conversations that spring from it. Fernando Moreno advises that it is important to acknowledge if you are not sure what to do at a particular point and ask for ideas. This way you are showing kids that in reality we all have situations in which we do not know what to do and you are modeling how to ask for guidance. No matter whether you are new to chess or not, it is a great tool to prepare ourselves and our children for an authentic, meaningful, and purposeful life.
(to read more, this book is available on Amazon, Kindle (you do not need a Kindle device to read Kindle--Kindle for PC software is available for free): http://www.amazon.com/Character-Education-with-Chess-ebook/dp/B005AVUPNQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327442074&sr=8-1