Clerical Collars over the Chessboard
Some time ago I told my fellow-brothers that I was going on holiday to ... Radom. "Oh yes! but why to Radom? – they asked with surprise. I smiled and said Radom was a beautiful city. The real reason, however, was the Polish Clergy Chess Championship III which took place in the Radom hospitable seminary (?) in July. Ten of us gathered there from various parts of Poland, each with some chess ranking. Everything was as in a real tournament: one hour for a game per player, under the watchful eye of a state class judge.
Father Zbigniew Wądrzyk from Gdansk, who scored 100%, was unbeatable. The writer of these words managed - with a little luck in the final round - to be the vice-champion. Before the tournament I was worried that if I lost to a Dominican, I would fall into disfavour with Jesuit brothers. However, nothing like that happened because none of the Dominican chess player showed up. Almost every day local media (radio, television and press) reported on the tournament, which is understandable because it was the so-called silly season, and as for gentlemen in clerical collars at the chessboards, fanno la notizia - as the Italians say. A respectable radio station even announced that chess tournaments for priests are for the integration of the clergy. Well! Some people need to come up with a justification for everything.
Whereas the game of chess is all about position, in the game of bridge it’s all about the bidding. Janusz Korwin Mikke explained the professional superiority of men over women by saying that as students girls become study grinds while boys play bridge. Being a grind limits, and bridge develops, the intellect. Bearing this observation in mind, during my studies in Rome I tried to play bridge against skilled opponents at least once a month so as to improve my bidding. It turned out that dogmatic theology is consistent with the game of bridge.
Although chess is all about chess, surely this royal game can be regarded as a metaphor for spiritual life. There are many paintings depicting a human or an angel playing chess with a bad spirit. In Bulgakov's “The Master and Margarita” Satan Woland plays the game, for which - as noted consciously by Margarita - every chess magazine would give a lot to be able to print it. In chess, too, as in spiritual life, there is a need for strategies and techniques. We must set appropriate far-reaching goals and choose appropriate measures to accomplish them. For example, St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises first determined the purpose of human life, and then concluded that "man should use creatures to such an extent as they assisted him in the pursuit of his purpose, and he should dispose of them to such an extent as they interfere in the pursuit." It is analogous to chess: you need to use the chess pieces to a degree ... sometimes, though, - as in spiritual life – a piece is worth sacrificing to achieve the greater good in the longer term. Such a sacrifice in the initial phase of the game is called a Gambit.
No post-modern spontaneity in the search of an imaginary (subjective) truth about reality will lead us to good results. Fashionable gibberish that everyone has their own inner truth turns out to be disastrous. We must respect the obvious rules and listen to the judge. It happens that if players do not know the rules (for example, that a hit figure goes) then they nurse grudges. The same happens in spiritual life: someone makes big mistakes, because he believes he doesn’t have to listen to anybody, and then he’s surprised when, inevitably, everything falls to pieces. "And I was winning”, says a disappointed player. "And it was going so well", sighs the man whose life is slipping away, leaving a bitter taste. An old chess saying goes: "When someone says that he was winning, do not deny it, indeed - he was ...."
Both in chess and in life you have to be a consistent pilgrim. Indeed, a carefree wandering around the black and white chess board can cost a lot. In chess though, it’s just about chess, but in life it is about life.
Fr Dariusz Kowalczyk SJ