Move by move : life lessons on and off the chessboard

Move by move Life lessons on and off the chessboard

Maurice Ashley

Book - 2024

"A little book of life advice drawing on the timeless wisdom of chess from Maurice Ashley, the first African American Chess Grandmaster. At age thirty-three, Maurice Ashley became the first African American to attain the rank of International Grand Master of Chess. Since that historic moment, he has brought his love of the game to a wide audience as an educator, innovator, and motivational speaker. In Move by Move, Ashley guides readers through the essential lessons that chess has taught him about life, using both personal examples from his rise from an immigrant kid playing matches in Brooklyn parks to the most rarefied levels of competition, as well as insights and anecdotes from fellow notable chess players. In short chapters with p...ractical takeaways, this book reaches from the fundamental to the counterintuitive on subjects ranging from self-knowledge to strategic thinking to the importance of failure. This little book of wisdom is the perfect gift for graduates, chess enthusiasts, and anyone interested in understanding how lessons from the most famous and long-lasting game of strategy can help you reach your personal and professional goals."-- Provided by Amazon.com.

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Subjects
Ashley, Maurice.
Chess players > United States > Biography.
Chess > Psychological aspects.
Conduct of life.
Self-help publications.
Anecdotes.
Genres
Self-help publications
Anecdotes
Published
San Francisco, California : Chronicle Prism [2024]
Language
English
Main Author
Maurice Ashley (author)
Physical Description
175 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-174).
ISBN
9781797223650
  • Introduction
  • Become Like A Child
  • It's A Complex Universe
  • Levels of Endless Learning
  • Improve Every Day
  • Disaggregated Learning
  • Winning and the Illusion of Momentum
  • Losing (Because You Will Lose)
  • The Power of Mistakes
  • The Joys of Imperfection
  • The View From the Other Side of the Board
  • Outrun the Bear
  • Sacrifice and Risk
  • Focus is a Full-Time Job
  • Start at the End
  • To Become, Be
  • Endgame
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • About the Author
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Ashley (The Most Valuable Skills in Chess), the first Black chess grandmaster, mines his career for lucid advice on success, problem-solving, and risk-taking. Framing loss as a teaching tool, Ashley describes how repeated losses to "tactical wizard" Ronnie Simpson motivated him to zero in on his opponent's weaknesses, devise a winning counterattack, and develop the skills that helped him achieve grandmaster status in 1999. Elsewhere, Ashley notes how some champions observe beginners at play in order to open their own minds to a "higher level of awareness"; debunks the importance of momentum for success, citing instances when players became overconfident after a strong opener and were subsequently defeated; and pushes back on the notion that there exists a single optimal move at any given point in a match--after only four moves per player, "more than 288 billion different possible positions can arise," he notes. Ashley's pedagogic expertise makes for elegant and accessible insights, including how to sacrifice valuable pieces to make way for ultimate triumph. Readers need not be chess players to benefit from Ashley's solid wisdom and inspiring dedication to the game. (Apr.)

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