Teamwork makes the dream work

Chess is not a team sport, but we do have one or two team tournaments in a year. As a part of sports coaching, we are usually not taught teamwork qualities. When you have been playing only for yourself throughout your career and then you have to play being a team member, it is certainly eccentric. It does not sound very difficult but somewhere there is insecurity related to your individual score. Now, there are three types of people – the first ones do not let that thought capitalize itself and let things go smoothly. The second one cannot let that go but they do not let it become a hindrance and the third one lets it become their priority. As shown in the movie Chak de India, we know what the consequences would look like in each case. When we are taught life skills in school, we tend to take them lightly because it looks pretty much obvious to us, but they are only considered to have been learned if we imply them in real life. If I have learned anything through these years, it is that one should always trust their team members as much as they believe in themselves. If you are the captain, then play your role and don’t set *examples of partiality* and if you are a team member, just play along. There can be many roads to one common destination. As Casey Stengel quotes, “It’s easy to get good players. Getting them to play together, that’s the hard part.” We need to remember that collaborative enthusiasm is contagious.

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