Junta’s Reviews > The Moves That Matter: A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life > Status Update

Most of us are blessed with around 30,000 days, which should be enough to live well. But somehow those days go by, filled with meals, moments and meetings, and we rarely capture what exactly we did with them, or why. We judge the quality of our lives by our personal relationships, our social contribution or our achievements, but as the poet Annie Dillard reminds us, 'How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.'

For about half of my childhood chess was central to my idea of who I was, and what the world was about. I loved the game with all the pain, need and longing that is wrapped up in love. I have loved chess as a child loves a guardian who keeps them safe, as a teenage boy loves a girl who represents love itself, as a young adult loves his newfound autonomy and his place in the community, as a student loves his teacher,