Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Russell Jurgensen
Thursday, July 2, 2026
You may have heard comparisons of the game of chess to the game of life. I can see how useful it could be to apply the logic of the game to the logic we employ every day. In chess, a player tries to carefully consider all possible moves for their turn. If possible, they might consider their opponent’s next move and even try to think about several moves ahead. Similarly, in life, we might try to consider the ramifications of choices we make and try to find the moves that advance us to our future goals.
I’d like to focus on the concept of fun while playing chess. To many people, chess is not fun. It might even be a battle. It is probably healthy to avoid too much tension while playing. One thing that definitely would not be fun is if we did not play by the rules. If our opponent moved their pawns sideways and backwards, that would entirely ruin the game. We would not have a foundation to work with.
As we go through life, we are kind of learning the rules. Some people might find they can get ahead temporarily by breaking civil rules. We might also break God’s rules to love our neighbors. But we might question if it is fun. It may seem like it at the time.
Perhaps the way to really have fun is to play by the rules. After all, a chess board has a simple eight rows by eight columns but could have a whopping 10^120 (1 with 120 zeros after it) possible different chess games played with legal moves. That’s more than a googol.
Our lives have many more possible options than that. So, it is entirely possible to learn the rules that count and find ways to have a terrific time doing it.