TITLE: Prepare to Appreciate the Solution AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford DATE: June 01, 2018 3:05 PM DESC: ----- BODY: This post isn't really about chess, though it might seem at first to be. In The Reviled Art, chess grandmaster Stuart Rachels says that most grandmasters don't like composed chess problems because they are too difficult. It's easy to imagine why average chessplayers find problems too difficult: they aren't all that great chess. But why grandmasters? Rachels contends that problems are hard for tournament players because they are counterintuitive: the solutions contradict the intuitions developed by players whose chess skill is developed and sharpened over the board. Rachels then says:
Most problems stump me too, so I conceive of the time I spend looking at them as time spent preparing to appreciate their solutions -- not as time spent trying to solve them.
I love this attitude. If I view time spent banging my head against a puzzle or a hard problem as "trying to solve the problem", then not solving the problem might feel like failure. If I view that time as "preparing to appreciate the solution", then I can feel as if my time was well spent even if I don't solve it -- as long as I can appreciate the beauty or depth or originality of the solution. This attitude is helpful outside of chess. Maybe I'm trying to solve a hard programming problem or trying to understand a challenging area of programming language theory that is new to me. I don't always solve the problem on my own or completely understand the new area without outside help or lots of time reading and thinking. But I often do appreciate the solution once I see it. All the time I spent working on the problem prepared me for that moment. I often wish that more of my students would adopt Rachels's attitude. I frequently pose a problem for them to work on for a few minutes before we look at a solution, or several candidates, as a group. All too often some students look at the problem, think it's too difficult, and then just sit there waiting for me to show them the answer. This approach often results in them feeling two kinds of failure: they didn't solve the problem, and they don't even appreciate the solution when they see it. They haven't put in the work thinking about it that prepares their minds to really get the solution. Maybe I can do more to help students realize that the work is worth worth the effort even if they don't think they can solve the problem. Send me your suggestions! Rachels's point about the counterintuitiveness of composed chess problems indicates another way in which trying to solve unorthodox problems can be worthwhile. Sometimes our intuitions let us down because they are too narrow, or even wrong. Trying to solve an unorthodox problem can help us broaden our thinking. My experience with chess compositions is that most of the ideas I need to solve them will not be helpful in over-the-board play; those kinds of positions simply don't occur in real games. But a few themes do apply, and practicing with them helps me learn how to play better in game situations. If nothing else, working on unorthodox problems reminds me to look outside the constraints of my intuitions sometimes when a problem in real life seems too hard. -----