When you are playing chess, you have to play every, single one little thing just right. Not too much, not too little. You have to make each move fit perfectly for that position. Meaning that in chess, there is no such thing as raw memorization.
That means that when I am attacking, I can’t attack too much, because otherwise, I will end up giving my opponent one little opening. In that one move that I’m not checking him in, he might have the opportunity to check me once, then he can check me again, and again, and yet again, until he has the winning position and I’m totally lost.
On the other hand, if I am defending too much, I will not be able to attack, and then my opponent just builds up his attack while I build up my defense, and eventually the pressure is released and I get checkmated.
Another example is when studying, if I don’t study enough, then I won’t have enough preparation for my tournaments, and I will likely lose many of my games. Oh, and of course after that my parents would be mad at me, which honestly isn’t that much fun.
If I study too much, then I might be trying to burn things into my brain, until I am not actually learning them and thinking about them, I’m just memorizing them. This does not mean that I am permitting you to go home and not do your homework. What I am saying is that when you are just memorizing, memorizing, memorizing, you are not actually comprehending the material you are trying to burn into your head.
Having to play ‘just right’ is what makes many people find chess so hard. It is because you have to play a strategy that is just perfect, and nobody in the whole world is perfect. ‘Just right’ is what makes chess masters what they are.