Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.
I first tried picking up chess as a child, but revisited it again in late November. While it still strikes me as weird and complicated, I’ve come to appreciate its many aspects that offer valuable lessons in decision-making.
When deciding to pick it up again, I was reeled in by various factors, but primarily by how puzzling the game is and the occasional Magnus Carlsen edit I would see on social media that made me think chess was the coolest thing to exist.
But beyond that, it also struck me as something that could aid my decision making in life. In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries and the job market grows more competitive daily, every choice — from what we study to who we surround ourselves with — carries weight.
The years between ages 14 and 24 aren’t just “formative” in the abstract. They can be the difference between building a fulfilling life and ending up in a career that feels obsolete, a bitter marriage and a friend group you wouldn’t trust going on vacation with on international waters.
Given that decisions are so important at this stage of our lives and college students are considerably bad at making decisions, the University of Maryland should implement general education chess classes to help students develop careful planning, strategic action and pattern recognition to build a toolkit of skills that students direly need.
The idea is that it would be a course for beginners, although always open to intermediate or expert players if they’re interested, allowing for non-experts such as current professors who have experience playing chess to teach it. It should teach students about the history of chess, but the fundamental focus should always be on how to play.
Despite being a game, the course requires academic rigor, achieved by enforcing exams that focus on the memorization aspect of chess, including questions pertaining to openings, general terms and strategies of the game. The incentive for students to actively engage in the class should be through mandatory attendance, and developing a competitive spirit amongst students.
Tracking students’ chess scores and maintaining progress reports on how students are improving throughout the semester will keep students motivated. But chess courses would have to do more than just teach for the sake of getting good at chess, assuring that it maintains at its core the life lessons it has to offer.
This gap can be breached by teaching students about the lives of grandmasters. Learning about adversaries and triumphs they achieved through their lives will take chess from being just a game to something more than that. Coupled with breaking down how to think in a chess game and how that could translate to important decisions we make in life, would successfully help create a parallel between life and chess.
Being humbled in the ways I have — you can see for yourself — has taught me to be more careful and to practice mindfulness. Having intentionality behind every move goes a long way. This university should implement chess as a general education course — not to create grandmasters, but to cultivate foresight, patience and self-awareness. These skills go far beyond the board and directly shape the way we make decisions in our lives, both now and in the future. By implementing chess into the curriculum we can create a community of students who can better confront the abundance of choices they are presented with today.
Unlike some general education courses that emphasize rote memorization for the sake of passing a test, chess teaches you how to think, not just what to remember. It’s not about cramming facts — it’s about processing, being patient and adapting.
You’re not learning for a grade in chess: you’re learning to overcome challenges. And that shift — from passive absorption to active engagement — is exactly the kind of mindset college should help us build.
In the months I’ve been playing chess, I’ve learned it’s a lot like life. If you’re not patient enough, you miss an opportunity, or worse, you impulsively make a move that puts you in an avoidable position.
More importantly, it will humble you, which is something a lot of college students could use. Chess has helped me realize I don’t always know what to do in a situation, which becomes obvious in the proceeding moves where my pieces slowly get obliterated.
It’s the uncertainty that produces doubt, and a big part of chess and life is being okay with confronting doubt. It’s about making the best move you can with the information you have, even if you’re unsure of the outcome. Sometimes you’ll miscalculate, other times you’ll surprise yourself — but either way, you grow.
Embracing uncertainty doesn’t mean abandoning strategy; it means trusting that clarity often comes through action, not before it. And in both life and chess, progress often begins with the courage to move forward, even when you’re not entirely sure where the board is headed.
Anderson Lemus-Del Cid is a senior government and politics and philosophy major. He can be reached at alemus02@terpmail.umd.edu.
