Paolo Vallesi
La forza della vita

PREAMBLE: (which will be very brief, I don't like preambles at all but oh well) Spurred on by the beautiful review on Saturday afternoon, and having consulted my lawyer on the matter, and despite his opinion, I've decided to publish (so to speak) the TRILOGY OF SHIT. Of which this review is the first chapter. I already know the second, for the third I'm waiting for news from my lawyer.) Now, let it be known that my lawyer heard it - this review, in advance - read by a voice actor, and said he liked it, yet I am sure to receive discordant comments. Which, you know, annoys me terribly! Oh well. I thank you in advance.

Chapter One: THE STRENGTH OF LIFE - PAOLO VALLESI.

I don't know how you see it. I see it this way. There's the Lord, in heaven. And He gives you things. Only, often it's hard for you to understand what He has given you. No, that sounds too difficult. Let's say there are lucky people and unlucky people. The first ones are those who manage to understand why they were born. The others spend a useless life doing something else.

You know, there are those who insist on playing the guitar. But... no... It wasn't meant for them. And they don't convince themselves otherwise. They have fun, maybe, they even meet some girls, things like that. But it wasn't their calling. I, who didn't know how to play the guitar, found out right away. The girls too.

Even when we throw ourselves away
Out of anger or cowardice
For an inconsolable love
Even when home is more unlivable

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.O-O O-O

Because - you know - the Lord is strange. And to everyone, He gives something. He doesn't play favorites. However, sometimes, you have to struggle to discover what that something is. You know, there are those who are luckier. Like: you’re named Maradona. Eh... the Lord didn't make it hard for you, did He? You figure out quickly what you're best at. But - just to say - if someone was born Sergei Bubka, number one in pole vaulting, it would have taken him a few years to realize it, right? You don’t just get born, not even in Russia, and they say hey! here’s a pole! No. You have to work on it. Think it over. Kind of what I've always done. Waiting for someone to give me a pole.

So, as I see it, it happens that the Lord gives you a gift. One for each, generally (He doesn't play favorites). Then it happens that someone discovers it immediately. Another one has to spend their life figuring it out. But in the end, if you have patience, you find that gift. And you become number one. Of that thing there. Whether it be playing the tambourine, pole vaulting, whatever it is. But if you have patience, if you work on it, you find that thing.

7.Re1 c6 8.a4 b6 9.d5 Bb7 10.dxc6 Bxc6 11.Nd5 Nxd5 12.Bxd5 Bxd5 13.Qxd5 Nf6 14.Qd2 Qc7

Even when home is more unlivable
And you cry and don't know what you want
Believe
There is a strength in us my love
Stronger than the glimmer
Of this crazy and useless world
It's stronger than an incomprehensible death

15.b3 Qc6 16.Qd3 Rac8 17.c4 Nd7 18.Ba3 Rfd8 19.Nd2 Nf8 20.Nb1 Ne6 21.Nc3 Nf4 22.Qf1 Qd7 23.Rad1 Ne6

Boh, what can I tell you, I found mine. It really took me a long time, you know. It wasn’t as easy as for Maradona. No, imagine, I never even managed three juggles in a row. And if you have a physique like mine, you have to start, since you're little, understanding that people better look at something else about you.

How did I discover it? Honestly, I don't remember. But, frankly, I don't care much. As long as I discovered it. In the end, you get there. It's what you were born for. It's the gift the Lord gave you. This for you, that for Maradona, another for Bubka. And each of us must have struggled to discover it. But then he discovered it. And so he became Maradona, or Bubka, or...

24.Nd5 Qb7 25.g3 Bf8 26.f4 exf4 27.gxf4 Nc5 28.Qf3 Re8 29.Re2 Kh8 30.f5 Nd7 31.Qg3 g6

Even when you eat out of pain
And in the silence, you feel the heart
Like an unbearable noise
And you don't want to get up anymore
And the world is unreachable
And even when hope
By now will not be enough
There is a will
That challenges this death
It’s our dignity
The strength of life

Here it is, my gift, the thing the Lord gave me is really strange. But, as they say, when you're given something... And then, it's not like it was given to you by the first passerby...

Let's recap, because I think I've been talking too much and you’re lost.

Maradona: soccer. Best in the world. His gift.
Bubka: pole vault. Best in the world. His gift.
Me: well, I'm almost ashamed to say it. Unbeatable in chess if I listen to the strength of life. Mine.

Now, someone might wonder if, by chance, it is allowed to listen to popular tunes while playing chess. Answer: no. But it's not that it really needs to be heard. You hear it in your head. And that's enough.

I have only one thing in mind. That if I hear that song I am unbeatable. It happens like that. How I discovered it I don't know. Maybe in many evenings playing here with the radio. Or the songs I've always sung in my head. I don’t know.

The year 2006. We are in Vedano, in the House of Pain. I have two pieces down. Well, it happens. You've lost, shake hands. But you don’t play alone. You don't play for yourself. You play for a team. So you carry on. And - at a certain point - in your head, starts the strength of life.

So your opponent, super experienced, someone who has seen it all, makes a mistake. Clamorously. And you win. And your team too. And they ask you how it's possible.

Bergamo, 2009. Always in teams. I catch a tactical blow. Me? But really one of those things you say listen, I shake your hand, it ends here. Next to me my mate asks for a draw. I look at him as if to say are you crazy? My position is one of those to ask: how long have you been playing? Some time later my companion will tell me - he heard a song. Yes, I hear it too. Everyone has a gift. I - in the end - understood. It wasn't easy. But now I know. That game I win. How don't ask me. But I heard a song.

Even when you cry out of pain, those things there. I don't know why. But - internet magic - every time I hear that song I become unbeatable. When, the year after, with the team, we play for the most important thing in life, is that that song doesn’t start. It never starts. I even carry it with me, I listen to it. But it does not start. And oh well, come on, never mind. There's another music for that thing there. But it's not the strength of life.

It doesn’t play anymore. There's no way. You hear it. But nothing. You can’t ask to play a tournament listening to music on demand, right? Generally, chess is played in silence...

Never mind, let's stop. The team ends too. That beautiful thing. The team is no more. I know it's my fault. Mine and that song that doesn’t play anymore.

I stop playing too.

Boh, what can I tell you, yesterday I was at home. The one who lives upstairs comes. Introduces me to his grandson. He's a kid. His father told him I'm good. So, he says: would you play a match?
Well, what can I tell you, it's a Philidor. My thing. Never lost. Really never. And certainly not against a kid. Even if I lose a piece nothing happens...

And then, incredibly, again, the song starts again. Yes. Even when we throw ourselves away, out of anger or cowardice...

It plays, loud, in the head. It’s beautiful. Every person has a gift. Sometimes it's hard to discover it. I discovered mine. And it’s incredible. I can’t lose - whoever you are - if I hear the strength of life. Never, for any reason. There's no way.

How do you get blood off the walls? I think I have a couple of hours...

I NEVER lose if I listen to the strength of life...

Even when we throw ourselves away
Out of anger or cowardice
For an inconsolable love
Even when home is more unlivable
And you cry and don't know what you want
Believe
There is a strength in us my love
Stronger than the glimmer
Of this crazy and useless world
It's stronger than an incomprehensible death
And of this nostalgia
That never leaves us
When you touch
The bottom with your fingers
Suddenly you will feel
The strength of life
That will drag you
With it
Love, you don’t know
You'll see there is a way out
Even when you eat out of pain
And in the silence, you feel the heart
Like an unbearable noise
And you don’t want to get up anymore
And the world is unreachable
And even when hope
By now will not be enough
There is a will
That challenges this death
It’s our dignity
The strength of life
That never asks
What eternity is
Even if there are those who offend it
Or those who sell the afterlife
When you feel it grasping your fingers
You will recognize it
The strength of life
That will drag you
With it
Don’t ever let yourself go
Don’t leave me without you
Even inside the prisons
Of our hypocrisy
Even in the depths of hospitals
Of the new disease
There is a force that looks at you
And which you will recognize
It is the most stubborn force within us
That dreams and never gives up
It is the will
Most fragile and infinite
Our dignity
(My love is)
The strength of life
That never asks
What eternity is
But that fights every day with us
Until it runs out
When you feel
The strength is within us (holding your fingers)
My love, sooner or later (you will recognize it)
You will feel it, the strength of life
That will drag you with it
That tenderly whispers
"Look, there's still so much life left!"