Money.
Parents, what does that word mean to you?
Put $5,000 in the hands of two different men and tell them to do whatever they want with it. If one of them is wise, he will invest it, either in himself or into an asset that produces more money.
Actually, the wise one will have already done that many times over, and will simply donate the $5,000 to others in need.
Someone else may buy a really fun gadget or put a down payment on a car — something that will be gone in a decade either way.
Maybe you’d use it to pay off debt.
Chess has its own system of economics. Pawns are considered the basic unit, represented as $1.00 in financial terms.
Much like monetary value, chess values are also not absolute. In the hands of a wise player, an investment that may look foolish to some can turn the game in that player’s favor.
Simply put, any piece — even the lowly pawn — can become more important than anything else on the board in the hands of a master.
And many times they will have invested their queen ($9.00) by sacrificing it for a pawn, and often will need to invest more in order to achieve victory through checkmate.
A lesser player, however, will struggle to win even when given advantages.
Kind of like someone squandering an inheritance of nearly $17K at the age of 18 and having nothing to show for it less than a year after acquiring it.
Not that I know from experience, of course. 😉
That advantage I was given could be an empire right now had I not squandered it.
In the hands of a money master, it surely would be one.
I’ve educated myself thoroughly on money management since that time and I continue to do so, but the most important fact I’ve recently discovered is that:
Like chess values, money is also relative.
I’ll never have that opportunity back to do over again, but I believe all of my best opportunities are still to come.
Now I’m ready!
