I have been a chess teacher for some years and I was always interested to see
what learning the game could apply to my daily life.
The greatest teaching I had is related
with how you get to the outcome of a game.
And that teaching is that, I do not lose the game at the moment when
they give me checkmate, I do not lose the game at the moment when the other
player takes the tower, takes it to the last row and gives me mate,
I lost the game long before that,
when my opponent forces me to choose between two bad moves.
Surely during the course of the game, 15 or 20 moves before this
my rival forces me to decide whether to eat the tower or the horse.
Today, in many neighborhoods, boys dream
with being footballers or soldiers of the drug.
I mean it, at break times, in the yard, they stand at the door of the room
or the bathroom and when you ask them what they are doing, they say “bell”.
And the others, those who want to be soccer players talk about arriving,
to be able to be saved.
We’ve all heard it,
We even hear the parents of the boys say:
“Bue, I’m seeing if I saved myself with the kid.”
Many moves after we have to talk to people who say:
“He steals because he wants, that, that he chose to be a drug addict.”
Yes, it’s fine, it’s true, he chose it, but could it be that 15 or 20 moves before
in his game, we forced him to move between two bad moves that took him today
What is with the lost game?
Of those who are here, for example, all chose to come, beyond some
boyfriend or girlfriend, is forgiven, the rest came because he wanted.
Okay, now I’m going to ask a question for the audience.
Let the adults raise their hands,
those who could finish high school for those who are here.
Well, if we see, I see that most, well, thank you.
And now I’m going to ask,
of those who raised their hands recently,
Who had the opportunity to start studying something?
They have finished it or not.
Well, I see we have a common feature, right?
In addition to being very nice and everyone.
(Laughter)
Do you really think that it is chance that we are here?
It will not be that our games 10 or 15 moved before we choose a play that
He started driving us to this day?
I have a friend, Ismael, with whom he makes many moves back, we were playing
a life, a similar departure, we lived in a neighborhood far from the center
and it goes without saying that we wanted to be great
soccer players, yes.
The bunkers and soldiers were not yet fashionable,
so we wanted to be soccer players.
When I decided that I was going to name Ismael in the talk, I went to his house
to tell him and ask for permission.
First he asked me what the TED talks were, then he congratulated me and, finally,
he apologized for not being able to come, that he would have loved it,
but Ismael has been imprisoned for a while;
he was already in jail the time he had to be
and he is fulfilling what he has left in his house.
He had to choose between two bad plays.
Today I am 24 years old, and as you will see I am not a soccer player,
Hey, but I’m not a little soldier either.
So, what happened?
A few moves ago and years ago in my game,
I was starting high school and I had stopped playing soccer
because they did not give me the schedules to be able to train,
To top it off, at school I was not doing so well,
although my notes were acceptable,
But the lady, every so often I called my mom to tell her that my behavior
it was not according to what the institution professed.
Am I telling the truth? I was bored and annoyed, a lot.
So any excuse to get out of the room, I accepted it.
I remember the day I was invited to participate in the mathematics Olympiad
if I went I could go and do nothing, fantastic,
and also safaba of the hour of biology, that of biology the most beautiful was Bianca,
the daughter of the teacher
Hey, but hey,
in biology we talked about prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
what about her
So I accepted, I wrote down, and what happens today, so many moves later?
I have the possibility of being a chess teacher and mathematics Olympiad,
to be the president of a sports association, the one of handball,
and to preside over a cultural association.
And how much happened?
And the most important,
What did I have that Ishmael did not have?
I was not smarter than him at all,
We lived in the same context,
and the two of us would grab any little work so we could make some pesos
to leave the weekend.
When I think about it, I realize that what I had was Edith,
My prof school math olympiad.
She invited me to her house in the afternoon at snack time
to be able to lend me some training books,
I did not have access to computers, the Internet,
and much less to math books.
So when I think about it
I think I had Edith, who gave me more options to move.
I mean, I had the bad moves – I had them –
but also some that were good.
And I say it today with the result set with the advanced starting,
At no time would I have imagined that moving a pawn back then
it was going to take me to this situation of privilege,
where I can do what makes me happy and I’m proud of that,
That is my definition of privilege.
And now I think
every day if there is anything we can do
so that all the boys and girls can choose
between more options in each move.
Or was it the responsibility of the State, politicians, Ministry of Social Development
that Edith uses her only free hour of the week to give a free workshop
of mathematics Olympians?
Do not.
I think there’s a lot to do,
that’s why I can stand the usual criticisms and criticisms;
for example,
Are you going to be in a cultural activity all afternoon?
Are you going to spend Mother’s Day in a handball tournament?
Why do you organize that chess tournament if they do not pay you?
As usual.
The other teaching that chess left me
is that the one with the most pieces does not necessarily win,
but whoever makes those who work for a plan work wins,
of a strategy.
If all of us here, we think there is something to do
and all those outside who think the same as us
we do not get together, the game is lost.
I think we are many, but we are guided by the usual comments,
that this has no arrangement, that Argentines are like that,
that we Latin Americans are like that,
and the most classic and the one that hurts me the most, that youth is lost.
I’m not talking about doing math, handball or chess,
those were the moves that I had,
the options that I had, and among those that I chose.
I’m talking about making a crochet workshop, fabrics, yoga, circus,
to donate funds and see that they are well used,
to join the board of directors of a club to help raise it,
everything adds up, everything adds up, but in tune with the other,
It’s no use having a radio teacher who wants to give a workshop
if we do not have the popular library that gets the elements,
and if we do not have the parents of the neighborhood boys
that are convinced that it is important that they learn to relate
and to say what they think.
We have to organize ourselves,
because those who come working organized
They are the ones that hire our guys
as little soldiers of the drug,
they are less, but they work like a piece of watchmaking.
We can do something, or we can do nothing,
but beware,
because not doing anything, it’s also doing something,
only in that case,
We do not know what interests we favor.
A chess player, when a game ends, analyzes it;
try to see where he was wrong, when, and if he could do something to fix it,
to avoid it,
And why does it?
because it may be that in another game
come to a similar position and can make a better decision,
and that’s the good thing about chess,
It does not matter if they make me choose between two bad moves, if they give me mate,
or even if I get tired and do not want to play that game anymore.
Total, I can go, I grab the pieces again
I take them and I put them in their initial position and I start again.
Now, the question I leave to you is:
You, all of you, the kids,
Do they have another game to try again?
Thank you.
(Applause)
”
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