Are you special like Sammy?
The story of Samuel "Sammy" Herman Reshevsky
Each child is special • Each one of us is unique. Like snowflakes we are all different! • There is no one exactly like you – even twins are different from each other.
Everyone has special talents • What are you good at?
How do you find out what you will excel at? You need to ‘try it out’ – see if you like it! How will you ever know whether you would be good at something if you never try?
Child prodigy A child prodigy is someone who is exceptionally good at something – even better than adults who have been doing it for a long time. Sammy Reshevsky learned to play chess at the age of four, and was soon acclaimed as a child prodigy.
Simultaneous Exhibitions At the age of eight he was giving simultaneous exhibitions playing lots of older chess players at the same time – and winning!
• When he was nine his parents moved to the United States and Sammy played thousands of games in exhibitions all over the U.S. • He met many famous people. The photo shows him playing a game with a film star – Charlie Chaplin.
Sammy said of Chess: “Chess was, for me, a natural function, like breathing. It required no conscious effort. The correct moves in a game occurred to me as spontaneously as I drew breath.�
…but he would never have known he was good at it, if he had never learnt how to play. This year make up your mind to try something new … perhaps Chess – who knows, you may be a prodigy!
Key ideas • Each one of us is
UNIQUE.
• We all have talents that make us
SPECIAL.
• Don’t be afraid to try something
NEW.
• You may become a
STAR.