Belleville Township High School - Bellevinois Yearbook (Belleville, IL)

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Success in life and victory in the game of chess are comparable in many respects. Both achievements require extensive planning and careful thinking on the part of the partici¬ pants. One of the first steps in planning is to select a goal for which to strive. It is neces¬ sary to choose a goal that is challenging and not entirely impossible and then work toward its fulfillment. Without definite goals, we flounder in indecision and accomplish noth¬ ing. In chess there is really onlv one goal that we can select — to win. In both the game of living and the game of chess there are obstacles that keep us from immediately attaining the goal, some arising from our own shortcomings and others that we meet in the environment. In chess the obstacles to overcome are the limitations of our own knowledge and the ability of the person sitting across the board. Once we have picked a goal we must con¬ centrate our efforts upon it. We need to realize our abilities and limitations and to

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BELLEVILLE TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL Belleville, Illinois Volume XLIV Published by the Bellevinois Stall

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recognize the influences which the environ¬ ment brings to hear upon us. Then we can plan our course accordingly and he confident of success. This also holds true in playing chess. We must first have a plan of action and then lx able to put ourselves in our opponent’s situation so that we can try to imagine his moves. This is not a fool-proof formula for victor)’, hut without planning and thinking through one’s moves it would he virtually impossible to win. This is the analgv between life and chess. All great men, in their individual ways, have followed the rules of playing the game. Such a one was a tall lanky farm bov on the Illinois prairie. He planned his moves carefully to become the man that he was. To read a book he would walk miles. On a tree stump he practiced public speaking. I le had in mind one purpose — to better himself. He was Abraham Lincoln — to become, through his own efforts and in spite of obstacles, the sixteenth president of the United States.