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Miyamoto Musashi
It seems to me to be simplistic in the extreme to quote only one rule from Musashi’s ‘Book of Five Rings’ (Go Rin No Sho). Of the number of translations I have read, the soft cover edition from Overlook Press is the only one worthy of study (the French one is absurdly bad!)
A frequent quote I’ve seen on ChessTalk is : “Do nothing which is of no use.”
Now that quote is simplistic because it loses meaning when separated from the two that go with it. The three make a triangle, the point of which is your chosen goal (rule 5): “Distinguish between gain and loss” (with respect to your goal). And the base points of the triangle are the oft-quoted (rule 9) and rule #1 : “Do not think dishonestly”.
If you diligently follow the three rules, you will achieve excellence. But the thee must be accompanied by practice of rules 2, 3 and 4 which deal with technique and also 6, 7, 8 which deal with developing intuition.
Following the nine rules of Musashi, you can achieve excellence in your chosen field (chess?). In the case of Musashi they were developed in the study of mortal combat. As a samurai, he was involved in 59 fights to the death before the age of 30 when he retired and lived to the age of 64 when he died in 1645.
It seems to me to be simplistic in the extreme to quote only one rule from Musashi’s ‘Book of Five Rings’ (Go Rin No Sho). Of the number of translations I have read, the soft cover edition from Overlook Press is the only one worthy of study (the French one is absurdly bad!)
A frequent quote I’ve seen on ChessTalk is : “Do nothing which is of no use.”
Now that quote is simplistic because it loses meaning when separated from the two that go with it. The three make a triangle, the point of which is your chosen goal (rule 5): “Distinguish between gain and loss” (with respect to your goal). And the base points of the triangle are the oft-quoted (rule 9) and rule #1 : “Do not think dishonestly”.
If you diligently follow the three rules, you will achieve excellence. But the thee must be accompanied by practice of rules 2, 3 and 4 which deal with technique and also 6, 7, 8 which deal with developing intuition.
Following the nine rules of Musashi, you can achieve excellence in your chosen field (chess?). In the case of Musashi they were developed in the study of mortal combat. As a samurai, he was involved in 59 fights to the death before the age of 30 when he retired and lived to the age of 64 when he died in 1645.
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