Chess and golf are two of the most iconic sports in international competition. Both are intellectually challenging and, in their own ways, physically demanding. Both are highly regarded as sports for the best and most capable of us, as they challenge human abilities as few other sports do.
Chess is the quintessential game of strategic and analytical thinking. The best chess players can think several moves ahead of their opponents and have a deep, multi-layered, complex understanding of the chessboard and the moves of the chess pieces across it. Chess is, however, a sedentary game for the most part and invariably requires long, deep thought before every move. It is primarily a left-brained, analytical game — a strategic game of power moves and power play.
Furthermore, chess reinforces a hierarchical societal structure, as seen in the design of the chess pieces. Chess presumes an opposition, a duality, of competing monarchical regimes engaged in incessant conflict — the black regime against the white one. Chess pieces are themselves divided into a group of patricians, headed by the king and queen, and a large cohort of pawns, which represent the “disposable masses.”
The chessboard is one of the most striking aspects of the game. It is a grid of checkered black-and-white squares that enforces premises such as hierarchy, polarity/duality, strategy, conflict, and competition, and a never-ending struggle for dominance and power. It is not by chance that the chessboard design features prominently as the floor tiling of government buildings, Masonic lodges, etc.
Golf is remarkably different in several noteworthy respects. First and foremost, golf is an outdoor sport that demands physical endurance and skill in addition to mental agility. The golf course is remarkable for its deep connection to and harmony with nature. Some of the world’s most spectacular, picturesque locations are, in fact, golf courses, such as at Pebble Beach in Monterey, California.
Being on a golf course immediately puts you in a state of direct connection with nature and, I would suggest, with the Divine. One of the earliest and most profound spiritual experiences I have had was listening to the wind rustle through the leaves of the trees while I was on a golf course — one of many such experiences.
Golf requires considerable physical fitness and athletic ability. Playing 18 holes of golf involves a 4-5-hour hike over varied terrain. Even using a golf cart still requires one to move and walk a great deal.
The golf swing is the most challenging aspect of the game because it requires grace and agility, along with a sense of flow, involving an almost indescribable spiritual connection with nature. One cannot power one’s way through a game of golf. The toughest bodybuilders and athletes fail at the golf swing because they lack a deep understanding of the skill involved and, especially, the sense of flow required to get it right.
Golf is a game where right-brained thinking — instinct and intuition — is deeply in play, alongside strategic, analytical thinking. The golf swing is typically led by the left arm (if one is right-handed), which is, notably, connected to the right cerebral hemisphere, the seat of intuition, aesthetic appreciation, and spiritual connection. The greatest golfers are like Zen mystics in their ability to clear their minds when attempting a golf swing.
Furthermore, golf is one of those most annoyingly frustrating sports that does not appear to reward effort, at least superficially. The harder one tries at golf, the harder the game seems to get! Success in golf requires persistence and long-term thinking, as well as the ability to relax and let go while playing. One has to play with an expanded awareness, as it were. The best golfers, as I mentioned previously, are Zen-like in their approach to the sport. Indeed, it is a sport highly suited to yoga practitioners and meditators!
In popular culture, both sports are prominently featured in two of the most iconic adventure-thriller films of all time — the James Bond films From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.
In the film From Russia with Love, one of the primary antagonists is a Russian chess grandmaster who works for the secret organization Spectre (in Ian Fleming’s novel, he works for the Soviet Cold War counter-espionage unit SMERSH). Kronsteen, the chess champion, is depicted as a ruthless, cold-blooded strategist who orchestrates an elaborate scheme to attempt to lure and entrap James Bond. However, in the film, he is defeated thanks to Bond’s quick-witted resourcefulness and skillful action on the field. One of the tongue-in-cheek moments in the film occurs when the chess-playing villain utters the words, “Who is James Bond compared to Kronsteen?” — words that unwittingly spell the villain’s own ignominious failure and demise.
In the other noteworthy, iconic Bond film, Goldfinger, golf is the sport in the limelight. In the film, the villain, named Auric Goldfinger, “the man with a Midas touch,” is depicted as a despicable cheat, both at the card table and on the golf course. However, he is outsmarted by James Bond, who proves to be the cleverer golfer and is also sharp enough to uncover and exploit the villain’s cheating habits against him. The iconic line from the film, spoken by James Bond, is “Here’s my Penfold Hearts,” as he refers to the brand of his golf ball. Bond then informs the beleaguered Goldfinger that he has lost the hole as well as the match under the strict rules of the game.
The striking contrast in the way these sports are represented on screen in these iconic films speaks for itself. It partially explains why I prefer to be a golfer, following a tradition I inherited from my father, an avid golfer himself, who introduced me to the sport.
It’s not that I have anything against the game of chess in particular. It’s just that I personally find golf to be a lot more appealing — an outdoor sport that encourages out-of-the-box, intuitive thinking and communion with nature, as opposed to a famously indoor parlor game of strategy and power-play that is literally played on a square-shaped game board of a grid of checkered squares — a game rooted in hierarchy, duality and conflict and entrenched in left-brained analytical thinking.
For me, playing golf has always been the closest thing to a spiritual experience, whereas playing chess has invariably been the farthest thing from it!
