“Chess is a war over the board”—people endlessly cite this saying by a former World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer. People see chess as a zero-sum game, a competition, and a symbolic warfare, and the attempt to parallel chess with war had been never-ending in its history. In 1972, the analogy of war was most brutal when Fischer, an American chess player, competed against a Soviet chess player Boris Spassky in the World Chess Championship in the middle of the Cold War.
“It seemed the Cold War was being played out in Iceland on a chessboard,” wrote Vincent Dowd in a BBC news article.
The attention surged as the public recognized chess as a battleground between the two nations, and the prize fund went as far as doubling the previous year.
Nonetheless, it irritates me when the events in the past are still used to describe chess today. It is true that chess was once heated by geopolitical tension during the Cold War, and it is also true that chess was originally developed from a similar board game called chaturanga, which is known to represent warfare. Yet the analogy between chess and war ignores the vital modern development of chess in the contemporary era, where chess has developed progressively away from violence, but rather toward friendship, diversity, and world peace. It is often unrecognized, and it is perhaps the opposite from its origin, but chess today is the complete opposite from war, and instead a game of love and peace.
It is beyond doubt that chess creates emotional connection between the players. I am not the only one to feel a bond with my opponent after playing in a local tournament. The room was quiet with no other sound but the energizing tone of pieces tapping on the board, and the players were pleasantly spaced just to focus on the pieces, the squares, and the invisible human brain of my opponent right across the table. Chess is a game where you have to think like your opponent. You have to be aware of the other player’s mind as much as yours, and through the process of seeing through the mind you slowly get to understand them after hours of focusing on essentially the same thing: the chess board you share with the other player. The mind of you and the player are filled identically for a long period of time, which is a rare, valuable experience that is unique to chess. This is where you would feel connected to your fellow player. In the tournament that I played, I chatted with my fellow player after losing a game in the most enjoyable fashion. We were strangers. Yet just for playing chess together, I could feel as if we were two friends who had known each other forever. This is far from the common saying that chess is a war. As it is seen by my experience, and experience of many other chess enthusiasts, chess instead creates a social connection between players to make the game just more enjoyable and beautiful.
The stereotype of relating chess and war despite its friendly nature was largely influenced by the media in the past, especially the World Chess Championship in 1972 as mentioned above. Many people remember Fischer and Spassky as rivals with intense enmity, which is a product of the irresponsible, and misleading misportrayal of chess by the media. The antagonism of players across the borders is largely a myth. In fact, the exaggerated tension plummeted as soon as the media stopped portraying them as enemies.
When the U.S. pursued the arrest of Fischer in 1992 for playing a rematch with Spassky in Yugoslavia, Spassky expressed amity with Fischer by writing to former U.S. President George Bush with a hope to be jailed together with Bobby Fischer with a chess set.
Fischer also showed genuine care for Spassky by advising him to refuse a surgery for appendicitis with a concern that the doctors were conspiring against him, according to an interview of Spassky by Sports-Express newspaper in 2016. While Spassky received the surgery regardless, this shows the personal care of Fischer to help his friend. It may be strange advice, but it was natural for Fischer who had little trust of doctors, especially as he himself died from a kidney disease, which Spassky said could have been avoided if Fischer just trusted the doctors and accepted two simple operations.
Fischer died in 2008 at the age of 64, and Spassky said he was one of the three only chess players to be invited to Fischer’s funeral. Behind the media, and beyond the national boundaries, chess didn’t foster conflict or a war-like enmity between the players, but it created a close friendship between the two great chess players.
In the present day, chess actively connects the global community together. The United Nations recognizes World Chess Day for the ability of chess to change prejudices, break down racial and political barriers, combat discrimination, and among many others, promote peace.
Global connection is in action today when chess players across the world are competing in 87th edition of the annual event Tata Steel Chess Tournaments through Jan. 18 to Feb. 2 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. Not just Tata Steel Chess Tournaments, but other major tournaments such as the World Chess Championship, Candidates Tournament, and Chess World Cup welcome players from all genders and national backgrounds.
The global chess community showed even further support for world peace in April 2022, when 44 top Russian chess players published an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that they understand the pain of their Ukrainian colleagues and that they appeal to preserve the peace. Moreover, the World Chess Federation stated that it stands against any use of military means to resolve political conflict.
The game of chess has been compared to war for a long time, and indeed it was once associated with geopolitical conflict. However, the analogy between chess and war is no longer accurate. Now a connection with a fellow player is more integral than a victory, and the global community is at the heart of its culture. In chess, it doesn’t matter what country, or what background you are from; if you are sitting across the table, or playing over the same board, then you are my friend. Chess has evolved into something more beautiful than origin. Now, in the 21st century, chess shines as a bright symbol of peace.