How did I make playing chess with my IIM friend more equitable?

An IIM Friend of mine invited me to play chess. He regularly played chess on his phone and I on the other hand had played chess fifteen years before. I knew I was going to lose. To make the game fairer, I suggested modifying a rule i.e for every move on the chess board the person has to do 5 push-ups. Guess, who won the game?

What are the rules in real life?

In real life, people studying at top colleges such as IIT and IIM are considered more intelligent.  They are! However, intelligence for them is only true within certain rules. For example, their ability to solve quantitative problems and do reading comprehension under a pressure situation is definitely remarkable.

However, the problem starts when we start generalizing their intelligence in every aspect of our lives. It is a problem because it leads to people not only overestimating them but also beating themselves down. An example of this would be someone saying that I cannot write a book because I have not graduated from a top college. Negative self-talk like this can have a major setback on someone’s own success. 

Social Experiment

If you are aware of the racial history of the United States, it is generally, perceived that African American people are less intelligent than White people. So, when a social experiment was conducted where Black participants were told that the test was conducted to test their intelligence, they did not do well compared to when Black people were just given the test and not told anything.

In the case of my friend, he himself never tried to use his degree to build credibility towards his work, but the people around him overestimated his work and underestimated theirs.

Quick Tip

I will admit that definitely it is not something that can be easily done. Of course, we are greatly influenced by our surroundings.  But the thumb rule that I have started to use for myself is to never praise or be critical of a person, but instead to look at the process and the environment from where that person is coming.

Play knowing the rules of the game whether it serves to your advantage!

About Monkey Sports

Through our work with Monkey Sports, we constantly modify the games to make them more equitable for all children. Different genders have different strengths!

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