A Lesson from Chess

Although it’s been many years since I played chess, I still cannot think of the game without remembering my attempts to learn it in middle school. Looking back, I am sure my father must have struggled to remain patient while trying to teach me. As a game of endless contingencies, chess opened my eyes to just how complicated games could be.

While the limitations on moving each piece introduce difficulties, the real complexity comes when trying to speculate on your opponent’s strategy. Some pieces get sacrificed to throw off the other player’s suspicions as part of a grander plan. Players find themselves asking, “Did they simply not see that move, or are they up to something?” When our GPS navigation tells us “recalculating…” after making a wrong turn, players must similarly reevaluate their plans after every move with the pieces remaining on the board. Not just based on what the opponent has done, but also according to what they could be doing multiple moves in advance.

While learning to play one day, I was stuck in strategy mode. About halfway into our game, I thought I had the perfect plan to win until dad suddenly did something I had never dreamed of. With a smug grin, he carefully rotated the chessboard 180 degrees. For the rest of the game, we each had to play with what had formerly been our opponent’s pieces. All the planning and past victories up to that point in the game were now meaningless. If anything, I regretted capturing so many pieces because I now had fewer with which to play. What I had been scheming to do to my enemy had basically just been done to me.

The book of Esther is a story of dramatic reversals. God (the “chess master”) orchestrated Esther’s promotion from pawn to queen by the Persian king. Queen Esther then risked her life by engaging the authority of King Ahasuerus to “turn the tables” against Haman (a “black knight”, if you will). Esther 8:3 says she “implored him to avert the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite and his plot which he had devised against the Jews.” Before Haman’s execution, “white knight” Mordecai was honored while riding the king’s horse (Est 6:9). The story concludes with the king allowing pawns to evade capture.

In the New Testament, God’s people are to do what is in the best interest of one another. The “tables have been turned” on resentment and jealousy; instead, we are to show honor to one another while practicing encouragement (Rom 12:9-19). May our conduct cause outsiders to make the same accusation that Thessalonian Christians received. Acts 17:6 says they had “turned the world upside down”. Matthew 7:12 reminds us, “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Think carefully about your next “move”!