IT DON'T MEAN A THING, IF IT AIN'T GOT THAT SWING

摘要

My wife, Jana, and I had just finished a two-weekend blitz watching the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, a compelling tale of a young female Cold-War-era chess prodigy. The star's life bears a remarkable resemblance to America's most famous real-life chess star, the first and (so far) only home-grown world champion, the late Bobby Fischer. When I was growing up, Bobby Fischer was constantly in the news, achieving hero status both as a chess player and cultural icon, at a level difficult to imagine today. I played chess a bit during my youth, especially when stuck on the early bus, which put me at school 35 minutes before class. To get a game in, you had to play fast. To win, you couldn't waste moves. When the chess concept of "tempo" was mentioned in a Queen's Gambit episode, it really struck me. And it occurred to me that the principle of tempo, in conjunction with rhythm, is so much of what separates the merely good from the truly great players in home building.