Soundscape #32: "Life Is Too Short For Chess"

Protopito. Una Partidita, 2006.

It's often been said that it takes mere hours to learn the moves of chess but a lifetime to master the game. And it's true too. Even now, years after I've been playing, I still make stupid mistakes and lose more times than I win. But I love the game; I love sitting down at some quiet cafe and just play chess. I've even played a chess marathon that lasted almost 6 hours till 2 in the morning. There's so much going on in a game that it's impossible to keep track of all your 16 chessmen. Before you know it, you're staring down directly at your opponent's queen flanked by a rook (or bishop or knight or even a pawn) on the other side and wondering where all your pieces are.

Chess is both predictable and not. Each piece can only move in predefined rules but the whole world of possibilities opens up precisely because of the rules. I love that the rules are predictable but the game is not. It is so much like life and also so much unlike it. Both need careful planning and strategising; you not only need to know where your pieces are, you need to know where your opponent's ones are as well. Often, one gets carried away in the game and start making mistakes right, left and centre.



Playlist:
1. (0:00) We Are Scientists - Can't Lose (With Love And Squalor)
2. (3:34) Pete Yorn - Black (Music For The Morning After)
3. (7:42) Elliott Smith - Bled White (XO)
4. (10:59) Centro-Matic - To Unleash The Horses Now (Distance And Clime)
5. (14:50) Tom Petty - It's Good To Be King (Wildflowers)
6. (20:03) The Decemberists - Bandit Queen (Picaresque Bsides)
7. (24:39) Beulah - You Are Only King Once (Yoko)
8. (27:49) Okkervil River - A King And A Queen (Black Sheep Boy)
9. (31:11) Death Cab For Cutie - Bend To Squares (Something About Airplanes)
10. (35:49) Delgados - Make Your Move (The Great Eastern)