The Morals of Chess

By Benjamin Franklin

“The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement.”

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions.

For life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it.

By playing at chess, then, we may learn:

1. Foresight

Which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action.

For it is continually occurring to the player:

“If I move this piece, what will be the advantages of my new situation? What use can my adversary make of it to annoy me? What other moves can I make to support it, and defend myself from his attacks?”

2. Circumspection

Which surveys the whole chess-board, or scene of action:

• the relations of the several pieces and situations,

• the dangers they are respectively exposed to,

• the several possibilities of their aiding each other,

• the probabilities that the adversary may make this or that move,

• and what different means can be used to avoid his stroke or turn its consequences against him.

3. Caution

Not to make our moves too hastily.

This habit is best acquired by observing strictly the laws of the game, such as:

• if you touch a piece, you must move it somewhere;

• if you set it down, you must let it stand.

And it is therefore best that these rules should be observed, as the game thereby becomes more the image of human life.