My brain has to keep up with my many, many hobbies. I love dancing, singing, playing several instruments, crafting things from low cost materials (for example, that's a basket I made out of pine needles in the blog picture), sewing, drawing, crocheting, cooking, and of course, playing chess. Most of the activities I enjoy have a strong element of creative expression. Obviously, when dancing, I can express my feelings through movement to the music; similarly, when playing or singing a song, emotion is important to connect to the lyrics or mood of the music. Crafting is an art form that is completely within my control because, many times, I am creating decorations from my own mind. In sewing or drawing, or crocheting, I can make one-of-a kind pieces of art to wear or hang on my wall, or cover my furniture. But what about chess?
Does chess have a creative element?
I want to answer "yes." I really, really do, but the more I play, the more confused I become about this question. When I first began studying chess, I started with the endgame. Having already gained some rudimentary knowledge of how the pieces moved, I had to understand how to win the game, or it was rather pointless to me. I started practicing the 2 rook checkmates, 1 rook and king mates, queen and king mate, 2 bishop and king mates (knight, bishop, and king mate still wears me out), and all the different pawn king scenarios. It seems to me that once you have memorized all the sequences for each situation, you can just run through the steps by rote. After this, I learned a few openings. These were definitely memorized. I do this, my opponent does that, and I respond in this way or that way. I spent quite a lot of time memorizing different lines of the same opening. There's no real creativity there. So that leaves us with the middle game. I keep thinking this is the place where creativity can shine. Inevitably, I deal with some players when I play over the board who insist that I play only the BEST move in a situation or that it is wrong. That can be really frustrating because I want to do something different and be less predictable. Lucky for me, I am stubborn, so I do my own thing anyway to keep from getting bored with my moves. Sometimes I lose this way, but it feels oh so glorious when a player has scolded me for a wrong move and ends up losing... That, my friend, is a great day!
I will keep this post brief because I am more interested in your thoughts on creative play. Hit me up in the comments' section, and we can chat about your most creative moments in the game.
