HD Chess
- Chess Friends Books
- Oct 30
- 6 min read
Howdy! It’s the Chess Friends!
Chess is a mental game. When we play it, we play not only our opponents or the position in front of us. We also play ourselves, particularly our mental states. We are all different, with unique minds that can help or hinder different aspects of the game. If we are not in the right frame of mind, our game experience can be very frustrating!
October is ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) Awareness month, and we would like to talk about our experiences and some great books that feature chess players with ADHD! Just like HD (High Definition) paired with a TV offers crisp and focused image, the back half of ADHD paired with chess helps think and perform with much more clarity, when hyperactive minds are focused on chess!
ADHD presents itself in many ways, but the three broad categories are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. For some, the mind is always racing, switching gears super-fast, while for others it makes the mind slow down, particularly when faced with complex tasks. It could be a struggle, but activities like chess and music can help channel these struggles into strengths.
Inattention includes troubles with organization, forgetting daily tasks, and generally struggling to stay focused. It’s a double-edged sword because sometimes you work very hard to focus on one thing then forget to do all the other ones! What helps in such situations is making weekly checklists and having accountability buddies to check-in with, to make sure everything is getting done.
Hyperactivity includes lots of movement, fidgeting, not being able to sit still, etc. When I play chess, it’s really tough for me to sit at a board too long, so I get up and walk around to mentally reset every few moves. I also fidget a ton and those fidget spinner thingies are amazing! Singing in choir helps me a lot as well, because I am focused on my voice and harmonizing with the group, so any fidgets or stims I may have don’t really impact the performance.
Impulsivity includes being impatient, frequently interrupting people, and, broadly speaking, acting before thinking. Choir requires so much active listening that I’ve trained myself not to interrupt others. Chess is the best for forcing me to think before acting because as the old saying goes: "when you move before you think, then your move is going to stink!"
Many of us with ADHD tend to be intuitive creative thinkers who can process many things at the same time and, with practice, can get into a hyper focus on what we’re doing, which is huge in chess.
One of the rules is to find your passion and believe in yourself, as the characters of these books learned on their chess journeys!
Meet Clea, a 7th grader who loves chess! She plays it every day in her school chess club! To her, the chessboard is like a home, where she feels comfortable and more focused. All other schoolwork is a bit overwhelming for her. Actually, a lot overwhelming. Even though Clea tries her best, her grades are slipping! If she cannot fix them, she gets kicked out from the chess club! As she learns how to manage her newly diagnosed ADHD, she discovers her superpower: the strength of persistence and hyperfocus when you do something you really love: chess! My favorite quote from the book is:
“…your brain changes and grows in response to challenge,
so if everything is easy and you never face anything difficult,
you don’t have the chance to get stronger or better.”
This book is a great read to understand what it’s like for someone with ADHD, and how life can be stressful for them. I was happy for Clea because she had a very supportive home, school, and friends, who help her to start believing in herself!
Meet Felix from England. He lives with his busy parents in a house across from his reclusive grandpa, whose curtains are always closed. And who might even be a spy, at least according to Felix’s best friend Jake. Felix struggles at school, thinking out loud in class and getting in trouble for it. One weekend, Felix’s parents send him to spend some time with his grandpa. This disappoints Felix very much, because he would much rather hang out with his friend. Even worse, his grandpa makes a list of “Ten things I want to teach Felix,” and one of them is chess! Could this weekend get any worse?! Since Felix would rather do anything but chess, his grandpa makes him mow the lawn, clean the patio slabs, a bunch of other random stuff, or was that all random or chess-related?
When chess time comes, Felix thinks he would hate it, but he’s hooked immediately. Chess helps him do better in class, and he starts winning against everyone at school. The problem is, Jake is pugnacious about chess, and he still thinks that Felix’s grandpa is a spy. What will Felix do now, continue hiding in his room or compete in his first chess tournament? And most importantly: is Jake right and his grandpa is really hiding a secret from him?
This book has many layers where we not only learn about Felix and his chess journey, we also learn about grandpa’s past in the Cold War era.
An interesting detail is that the author came up with an opening variation name based on the Yugoslav Attack.
The Yugoslav Attack is a tricky option against the Sicilian Dragon. After the typical Dragon setup: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Be3 Bg7, White pushes the pawn 7. f3, which marks the start of the Yugoslav. Here is a GIF showing what it looks like:
White’s plan is to castle on the queenside and storm on the kingside! The origin of the name is a bit murky, but probably the opening was played in Yugoslavia, a former Balkan country, during its annual Yugoslav Chess Championship in the 1950s.
The Yugoslav Attack is considered a very troublesome to face as a Sicilian player. Check out this GM game, between Anatoly Karpov vs Viktor Korchnoi, played in the 1974 candidates! You can find the game here!
Isn’t it nice when you get to read a book for pleasure while learning something new too?
Yay for books!
Books are “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors,” as an educator Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop (what a cool chess name!) once famously said back in 1990. What does it mean? This is how I understand this phrase.
“A book is a mirror” is when the characters remind you of yourself. They experience what you’ve experienced. They feel what you feel. It’s almost like the author wrote your story!
“A book is a window” is when you read it, you get to see what life is like for another person, and you get to understand them better.
“A book is a sliding door,” is when it invites you to step into its world. The writing is so good it captures you, and you get to befriend all the characters and participate alongside with them on their adventures!
The “Books are Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” quote by Dr. Bishop reminds us that you don’t have to always relate to a story or a character. Sometimes you can pick up a book to learn and empathize. This is one of the biggest gifts that books can give us.
Once in a while, you come across a book that feels like it all: Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors! A good example of such a book is… drumroll… please!......
Q & A Chess Tournament Edition!
If you haven’t done it yet, order your copy now and immerse yourself in the world of tournament chess with us, The Chess Friends, as your guides!
Now… the moment we all have been waiting for! Knee-slappers, HD edition!
What do the Chess Friends say when they want to get a new car?
Audi! It’s the Chess Friends!
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Why was the chess book confused?
It had too many puzzles.
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Why should you never promote to six knights?
You don’t want to go back to The Dark Ages, do you?
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Why did the Knight lose focus?
It kept horsing around!
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Why did I flag in a King-Pawn endgame?
I pawndered too long!
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What happened when the fire alarm went off at the chess tournament?
Total pawndemonium!
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Three Cheers, Fellow Future Master Chess Friends!
The Man Benji, The Myth Sarang, The Legend Vivi
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