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For me, on a personal level, it was inspiring to know that we were all
commanders practicing the very art that the legendary generals of
ancient China had practiced before the epic battles we all know and
love. Peter Ireland
As all the Wahnam courses, they are full of philosophy, advices and
strategies to apply on real life too. I made a list with the ones that
impressed me most:
- Situations can always be turned around.
In just one
move, one can change from an adverse to a favorable situation. The ones
in the course had the opportunity to experience that when playing with
Chun Yian Siheng. In my case, in one of the games, I was in a favorable
position and Chun Yian Siheng gave three advices to my opponent and I
lost the game. That taught me a lot. If one knows how, almost any
situation can be changed.
- Don't waste unnecessary movements.
Like in Zen, it is better to be simple, direct and effective.
Again, playing with Chun Yian Siheng, I learned this valuable lesson. I
was making a short movement and then, I moved the same chess piece
again. Chun Yian Siheng told me: "You did two movements to arrive here.
That could be done in only one move. You wasted one movement and you
gave that advantage to the adversary."
- Have a whole picture of what is happening.
Like in
life, one tends to focus only on one perspective or view. It is easy to
forget that many other facts can affect the game. One chess piece
placed on the back can change everything in only a couple of moves.
Again, Chun Yian Siheng demonstrated me this precious advice within the
game. Once, I was so focused on my attack that I forgot about the rest
of the chess pieces. In a couple of movements, I lost the game. I
didn't pay too much attention of what Chun Yian Siheng was doing with
the other pieces.
- Safety first.
Many people on the course was attacking
without paying attention to defense. What Chun Yian Siheng told us
about that was: "one cannot think about an attack when defense is weak.
First defense, then attack."
- Reduce your mistakes.
I am very sure that everybody
within the course remember this advice. The more mistakes we were
committing, the less opportunities we had for winning the game.
- Don't lock yourself.
That is another extraordinary
advice from Chun Yian Siheng. Within the game, we were locking our chess
pieces in order to accomplish one strategy. But, what we forgot, is
that we couldn't use those pieces for the rest of the game because they
were locked. Then, most of our resources were wasted and, then,
limited. Again, playing with Chun Yian Siheng, he demonstrated me how
important this advice was. He killed 4 pieces of mine with only one
piece of him. My other pieces where locked doing something else so, I
could not do anything about it.
- Sometimes, you have to choose the lost
. That is another
excellent advice. Chun Yian Siheng was teaching me that lesson as
following: He was facing his chess pieces in the way that always two
pieces of mine where in danger. One of them always had to die and I was
the one choosing which one of them I was going to sacrifice. Then, I
remember in exact words what Chun Yian Siheng told me: "Sometimes, you
have to decide what do you want to lose in order to get something else."
- It is better to lose a game but win a friend than to win a game but also win an enemy.
Chun Yian Siheng finished the course with this excellent advice and quote mentioned by Sifu, his father. Santiago Ireland
Something I think that will always stay with me was the advise from Chun
Yian Sipak on having balance in your game being you must work on your
defence as well as your attack and applying this in your business life
by looking after the customers you have now as well as looking for new
customers. Dominic Ireland
It was a superb weekend. The
three-thousand year-old art of Chinese Chess (older than Kung Fu!) is a
wonderful game which trains strategy, awareness, discipline, respect
for an opponent and many other traits which we train through our other
more established Shaolin Arts. The art of being able to play it, and
play it well, was given to us over the weekend. More importantly, the
essence of the game, and how we can use it in our daily life, was
transmitted and this will bear us many fruit in the months ahead. Sidai
Santi has done an excellent job in detailing some of the skills in his
excellent post above.
Kevin Ireland
I was amazed by Chun Yian Sipak’s ability to describe aspects of my
personality simply by watching me play!! He highlighted that I don’t pay
attention to the big picture, and he is absolutely right, because I am
very detailed focus. However, I am heartened to learn that practicing
Chinese Chess will improve my ability to look at the big picture, as
well as the details. J I also believe it will improve my application of Zen in daily life.
One other aspect that will be useful for daily life is from the Art of
War. When planning a battle/war there are five criteria that should be
considered. They are (and I hope I have recorded correctly):
- Aim/objective of the war
- Conditions of the sky/the weather
- Conditions of the area/terrain
- People
- Military Law
Finally I shall heed the advice to always be confident of my decisions
(in case my opponent misses my mistake) because in any case the
situation can be turned around again quickly; and to play (and deal with
people) in good faith. Matt UK
