This beautiful painting is being shown at The Louvre, representing the final game of a man who lost against the Devil himself. The story which happened due to it might interest you.
One day a group of tourists was being shown each piece at the museum; as they stopped to stare at the painting, the guide explained that it was called “Checkmate”.
For those who don’t play Chess, “Checkmate” is that moment when any movement leads to the king’s death, it doesn’t matter what you do, you are blocked on all actions and basically lose the game.
Everyone nodded as the guide told the story and moved on to the next piece of art, as the guide started to talk, he realised someone was missing. He returned to the last piece and found a man staring deeply at the piece.
The guide asked him if there was some problem.
“Either the picture or the name has to change” — Said the man refusing to move. “I’m a world-class Chess Player, and this painting is not a Checkmate, the king still has one last move to do.”
If you have played chess, you probably know that the king, even though it moves one step at a time, can stay alive and even turn the entire game around with patience and persistence.
Life is precisely like this, in fact, our bodies quickly switch to a type of Survival Mode in situations where we feel in extreme danger, like with the Survival mode; most people reach a “Eureka Thought” in extreme situations.
You will hear of all these stories of big names who were at rock bottom before they tried one last thing, that last move of the king.
The answer to this was unknown to me until a few days ago when a good friend I met in China sent me an audio.
His words were: The story of the Chess-player and the Checkmate painting reminds me of you; you have shown the world that there is always a last move to play.
I didn’t understand until when I analysed my past in detail. Upon being injured constantly before every competition, I always pulled an extra detail or “move” that led me to win each gymnastic competition.
On every audition as a dancer, I went into the flow state and did things people would talk about for days, and I could barely remember.
Upon losing my business due to the Spanish crisis and some illegal moves from my competitors, I would always pull a last trick and flip the omelette.
When I was sold to a Gang in Asia, it took me a month to flip the script and rewrite life. When I was defeated and had no more strength to survive, with a gun pointing at my forehead, “I told them to pull the trigger.”
But then quickly pulled a last deal which I could have never thought of before. The only difference between those touching Eureka moments and those who don’t is the capacity never to give up.
The game is not finished until when the king is dead.
