|
Excerpt from Mr. Ross' Speech
As you all know only too well, Chess is also first and foremost a highly complex game of strategy and the many hours of study and practice are done with a view to developing and strengthening the player's strategies and his or her powers of strategic thinking. This involves making plans for short medium and long term and thinking through the consequences of your actions while anticipating the reaction of your opponent to your moves on the board. A good player must also try to discern his opponent's strategy and create responses that will neutralize that strategy while allowing him to continue to pursue his objectives.
Just as an effective strategy is key to success in the game of chess, it is also central to success in almost every sphere of life. Too often in our national life, in both the public and private sectors, we see actions taken which do not sufficiently take into account the medium to long-term implications of such actions. Indeed, a very short term focus seems to be at the heart of so many of our pressing national problems, whether it be the water supply problems of the corporate area (We haven't added a major new storage facility to the system in over 50 years) or in the inadequate resources that we devote to the education of our children.
|
|
