To advance in any enterprise, not only in the arena of chess, it is useful to be imitative. We must look at the strategy and tactics of those who have succeeded and see in what ways we can adopt the measures they have employed. In chess, of course, this largely means a close study of the games of the masters, learning from them in a constant quest for improvement.
But eventually there comes a time when imitation can take us so far and no further. There is a ceiling to the advancement we can make by the imitation of others. And the only way for us to break through that barrier is to switch from being imitators and become innovators ourselves. The process, of course, involves the synthesis of all that we have learned from the masters and using this combined knowledge to develop and create our own ideas, initiatives and style of play.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov makes the point: “Even the most successful imitators eventually become innovators if they want to expand their territory and become more successful. “Those who fail to make this transition are usually supplanted by other imitators. As risky as innovation can be (one of my favourite sayings is “Pioneers get filled full of arrows), failing to innovate is riskier still.”
In chess, he adds, a young player can advance by imitating the top grandmasters, but to challenge them he must produce his own ideas and techniques. Indeed, the transition from imitator to innovator is seen in almost every aspect of civilised life. Great authors, for example, are not the products of a process of instant prestidigitation. They emerge out of a long period of apprenticeship in which the gathering of experience combines with encyclopaedic reading to produce a mind especially equipped for turning out original works of literature.
In the field of trade and industry we have also witnessed dramatic transitions from imitator to innovator. The Japanese story is particularly striking. For many years the goods of this eastern country, ravaged in the last World War, were regarded as cheap and poorly made imitations of American and European products. Starting virtually from scratch and using all their economic assets of cheap labour, low value currency and their determination to survive and prosper by imitating the productive capacity of the victorious West, the Japanese eventually made the transition from being imitators to innovators.
The Japanese economy is now one of the world’s strongest, turning out a range of superior best-selling goods, including electronic and automotive products. In their own way, countries such as Korea, Taiwan, China and India have also become economic giants via the transition from being imitators to innovators. The process, then, is a key to success in every field of endeavour. But every process of aspiration needs the dedicated application of inherent personal attributes, perhaps more so in the sport of chess where the action is competitively mental.
By Carl Jacob
Source: www.guardian.co.tt