Searching For Bobby Fischer Essay

Growing up under the roof of Asian parents is extremely hard. Though Josh Waitzkin and I might be of completely different ethnicities, both he and my parents have a lot in common. Having your parents always expect the best from you forms layers of pressure that slowly becomes hard to ignore. Being hard on your children might only push them further away from something instead of drawing them closer. As time went by, the more my dad expected from me, the more I stopped playing only for the love of the game of soccer. Like Waitzkin, I was initially encouraged about playing for fun, cared deeply about not disappointing my father, and struggled with the pride that my parents exhibited towards the title that I have achieved in my sporting career.

When Waitzkin’s dad first found out about his amazing chess abilities, his instinctive thought was to get him a teacher. He saw that his child was a prodigy, and wasted no time in trying to improve Waitzkin’s skills. Similarly, when I was first accepted into the Hong Kong National Team, my parents were ecstatic and excited for me. Unlike Waitzkin, even though my parents knew that I had a gift in soccer, they left it up to me to decide if I wanted to further my skills. It was safe to say that at that point, they only cared that I found something that I enjoyed and could invest my time in. But as time went on, that changed. 

As Waitzkin’s skills improved substantially, he started to lose his love for the sport. Both his teacher, Bruce Pandolfini, and his father only cared about the number of trophies and medals that he was able to win. This made Waitzkin develop a terrifying fear of losing, and ultimately change his mindset of playing for fun, to playing not to lose. I was stuck in a similar situation when started dreading to go to national team training. I didn’t enjoy playing in that team anymore, but I couldn’t appear weak to my father. I knew that if I seemed like I wasn’t good at soccer, then in his eyes, I’m wouldn’t be good at anything else either. Both Waitzkin and I placed our fathers on a pedestal so high that it just started to become exhausting.

Despite the motivation of Waitzkin’s father to go watch his son’s game was wrong, I still admire the lengths that he went to do so. His father was able to hold so much pride in his heart in a way that it seemed cocky to the other parents. Even though my parents constantly bragged to our family members and friends about the national team title that I sustained, they never actually came to a single game of mine. I was starting to feel like they were just so caught up in the glory that they no longer cared about whether or not I even enjoyed playing soccer anymore. Surprisingly, both Waitzkin’s and my father was able to move past their thirst for winning and started to emotionally support our morals as well.

Chess and soccer are two very different sports, but when you have tiger parents pushing you to do the best that you can do, the attitude that you develop towards it will start to look very similar. Once you can look past the condescending opinions of your parents and learn to play for yourself, then I guarantee that you will learn to love whatever it is that you have an interest in.

Writing Process and Rough Draft

Reflection: If I were being completely honest, I thought that this movie was going to be boring, and that I was just going to sleep through it, but boy was I wrong. The beginning instantly hooked me into the fascinating world of this young prodigy, and the film was truly breathtaking and touching. I was really able to relate to young Josh, because of the many similarities that we share. Seeing this movie really made me feel nostalgia for my hardcore soccer days, and is essentially, what inspired me to write this reflective essay. There were a lot to things to learn from young Josh, and reflecting on the movie while writing, sure was helpful.