She is aware of the entity/incremental dynamic and so when Danny loses, she wants to tell him it doesn’t matter. But obviously it does matter. He lost and is sad. To tell him it doesn’t matter is almost to insult his intelligence. What should she do? loc. 648

When a few moments pass, in a quiet voice, she can ask Danny if he knows what happened in the game. Hopefully the language between parent and child will already be established so Danny knows his mom is asking about psychology, not chess moves (almost all mistakes have both technical and mental components—the chess lessons should be left for after the tournament, when Danny and his teacher study the games). loc. 667

I’ll never forget walking out of the playing hall of the 1990 Elementary School National Championships after winning the title game. There were over 1,500 competitors at the event, all the strongest young players from around the country. I had just won the whole thing . . . and everything felt normal. I stood in the convention hall looking around. There was no euphoria, no opening of the heavens. The world was the same as it had been a few days before. I was Josh. I had a great mom and dad and a cute little sister Katya who was fun to play with. I loved chess and sports and girls and fishing. When I would go back to school on Monday, my friends would say “Awright!” like they did after hitting a jump shot, and then it would be in the past and we would go play football. loc. 708

The Illusion of the Mystical