Grandmaster Shorman: Raising the Bar

“I don’t believe it!” “That is why you fail.”

-Luke and Yoda, Star Wars

Growing up, an enigmatic teacher taught me Buddhism and chess. He was the first teacher I respected.

Grandmaster Shorman

Grandmaster Shorman’s idiosyncrasies were innumerable— he never asked for compensation, didn’t have a phone, drove a pale blue punch buggy, and would show up places with no warning. He was secretive about his backstory and said to be careful who we listen to, including him. He trolled us and joked around in a dry manner. 

My father met Grandmaster Shorman at a chess tournament where my brothers and I won our age groups. Grandmaster Shorman was reviewing all the top children’s games.

His past students see him as a mentor who shaped their minds and shaped their purpose. Students describe him as a Yoda-like figure for his wisdom, scarcity of words, and peculiar cadence of speech. He was a teacher who treated his precocious students like adults when they were children.

He pushed us.

4-minute mile

The 4-minute mile stood as a barrier for all runners since the mile run became a sport in 1912. The 4-minute mile barrier was broken for the first time in 1954. It was then broken by two other runners 46 days after, and broken by three more runners within a year. From no one can do it, to “If they can do it, so can I.” Six people broke the four-minute mile within a year of it being thought impossible.

Knowing something is possible gives one the ability to overcome hurdles.

A Simple Assignment

We were told to memorize 43 games of chess. Who played who, where, and when, e.g., Louis Paulsen, White, Paul Morphy, Black, 1857, New York, NY: e4, e5, Nf3, Nc6, Nc3, etc.

The first cohort of Mission San Jose Elementary School students trained by Grandmaster Shorman was in the 3rd grade. Kevin, one of the students, was the first to memorize all forty games. After accomplishing the feat, Grandmaster Shorman told Kevin, “Good, now do 80.”

Everyone else memorized the 43 games in the months that followed. It became expected. All the top players in both my older brothers’ years did it and so did mine. It wasn’t seen as a big deal when I did it with friends my year. It was a right of passage.

When I talked to Grandmaster Shorman a few years ago, he told me he’d been teaching chess for decades, and Kevin was his first elementary student to memorize all 43 games.

His response of “Good, now do 80” was deliberate. Kevin memorized 80 games. If Grandmaster Shorman instead gave his full approval and told Kevin, “Wow! You’re the first person ever to do this. You’re so amazing!” then maybe a few other students would have achieved 43, and Kevin wouldn’t have done 80. 

Grandmaster Shorman explained, “You can be their friend or teacher. Once you give your full approval, you can no longer be their teacher.”

The placebo effect is powerful. Runners broke the 4-minute mile when they saw it was possible, but more runners would have broken the 4-minute mile if it was simply expected.

Teaching

What I respected most about Grandmaster Shorman’s teaching was how deliberately he acted. The world is massively complex with infinite nuance. We can be overwhelmed by it all, or we can try to understand it in consumable bites. A teacher’s job is to pass those lessons and frameworks on, to provide the building blocks to comprehend the world.

One of those frameworks is to set a high bar. When we set the bar high, and expect people to hit it, they do. Showing others something is possible is helpful, but expecting others to live up to high standards is best. Raise the bar.