Anya’s Starvation by Alex Liong (Original Drawing)

While they may not seem like it, a chess player isn’t much different from any other artist. Like the Artist’s brush, a chess player glides their hand across a canvas (the chess board) to express a level of intelligence and worth that an audience can appreciate. And just like any artist, a chess player can look down at their work and feel disgusted with what they’ve made.

During moments like this, our “starving artist” shadow manifests itself in a way that tries to pull us away from our work. It persuade us that our art is worthless, that there’s no point in trying. As a result, we begin to starve—not exactly in the physical sense but in a way where we crave grandiosity and we don’t even attempt to obtain it.

But like the artist, the chess player doesn’t realize what potential lies before them. They can take hours looking at their current position and resign from their work, not realizing that they are playing a winning game. They just need to regain their confidence and patience and soon enough, their stroke of genius will eventually come through.

**Named after Anya Taylor-Joy, the actress who played Beth Harmon in Queen’s Gambit.

**The position of chess pieces shown in the work are actually based off of a documented game: Edward Lasker vs. George Alan Thomas 1911.

**Considered to be Lasker’s Immortal Game, Lasker (who plays white) wins by sacrificing his queen.