One of my beloveds, Andrea, shared this above picture on her Facebook timeline. There are a lot of GREAT metaphors in chess for what is going on right now in our world and this meme sparked all sorts of chess trivia in my brain, that I had forgotten I knew…
*The King is the tallest piece on the board, but it is weak, can only move one space in any direction and when captured, the game ends. He also cannot park anywhere that he can be captured.
*The Queen is rumored to be the most powerful piece because she can move any number of squares that are unobstructed in any one direction, giving her access to 42% of the board, but she cannot jump blocks. She is perceived as being too powerful to casually risk, but genius players do it all the time because they know a secret…
*Chess geniuses say that the Pawns are truly the most valuable, most powerful, and most important pieces on the board because they *seem* so invaluable, weak, and unimportant. Pawns are plentiful: there are eight Pawns on the board at the beginning of the game, which is why they are viewed as expendable. Pawns only move one square at a time, straight ahead, but attack at a forward angle. Even though the Pawns get frequently sacrificed in the process of the game, they can eventually be crowned and develop the abilities of a Queen. Additionally, a game CAN be won by a Pawn putting the King in Checkmate and that Pawn can even be a “lowly” Pawn without the crowned abilities.
You can choose to view yourself as a “lowly” Pawn that has no value, no importance, no say, no power, and no strength, but you will be lying to yourself. Even in chess, the Pawns CAN – and often do – rule the board!
Let us be our most beneficial version of ourselves right now in this most important game we are playing!
