He who would accomplish little must sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much; he who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.
-James Allen, author, 1864-1912, who illustrated the power of thought to increase personal capabilities.
A little before the National Chess Championships began in November, I started playing some serious chess with Loris Nathoo. Neither of us was preparing for anything. We just felt that we should play deeply creative chess for pleasure and our individual satisfaction.
At the nationals, we both performed creditably, placing second and third in the tournament. Quickly, I realized that if we should look higher, work harder, and dig deeper, we would move beyond the basics of the game, and become successful in its practice.
So, what makes someone a better chess player, or a better writer, a better manager, a better anything? I believe the answer lies in dedication to a cause, and hard work. “Genius,” Thomas Edison said, “is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” He should know because his true genius lay in his capacity for endless experimentation.
In creating the electric light bulb, Edison tested thousands of substances to find a filament that wouldn’t burn out. “Opportunity,” he argued, “is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” This was an echo of another great thinker and worker, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote, “I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”
Garry Kasparov was impressed by the prowess of Michael Jordan who was famous for his athleticism and high-flying dunks. The man had talent. Yet he was the first to arrive at practice and the last to leave. In interviews, Jordan’s teammates and coaches all talk about his extreme discipline, not his leaping ability. One veteran NBA manager described Jordan’s talent in this way: “Without the ceaseless work ethic, Jordan is merely another talented athlete gliding through an admirable career, but nothing historic.”
Hard work develops talent and brings it to the fore. Jordan’s discipline and capacity for work were intrinsic parts of his talent. Like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear, talent undiscovered may as well not exist.
Kasparov writes that everyone, at any age, has talents that are not fully developed; even those who reach the top of their profession. He tells us over and over again that hard work in chess allowed him to reach the top of the top of his game. He was inspired by men like Michael Jordan, Winston Churchill and Alexander Alekhine.
Why did Kasparov so admire Dr Alekhine and become so inspired by him? We have to go back to the early 1900s to the time of Cuba’s chess machine, Jos
