Touch Play

We’ve been watching The Queen’s Gambit and it’s reminded me of the “touch move” rule: if you touch a piece you’re obligated to use your turn to move it. It discourages a lot of fiddling around with the pieces, trying out moves before committing to one. The game is perhaps more elegant and disciplined as a result.

What I think is most interesting is the effect that even just touching a piece can have. A player might have visualized—incompletely or inaccurately—a set of consequences and side-effects, but the act of simply reaching and grasping a piece can lead to a sudden realization of how the intended move actually impacts the rest of the board. And how the game could play out differently as a result.

Writing feels like this over and over again. I certainly don’t see the words on the page before I write them. I might hear some of them in my head, but it’s not the same as seeing and feeling them play out onto the page or bubble up onto the screen. Often, even if I have a particular outcome in mind, it simply changes as I write it. Sometimes I’m surprised at what ends up on the page after a “move”.

I’m not sure that chess and writing actually have that much in common. But both require touch in order to discover the outcome and the entire game can change after the first move.