Poor Peter the Chess Boy... His comment after placing sixty-something out of ninety-something brought it all together for me:
"Do you think I will win it if I work hard?"
This tells me that he knew that he really didn't prepare as diligently as he should have... hoping to coast through as he's (probably) done so often in other areas of his life.
I think that Peter experienced what many gifted kids encounter their first time out of their comfort zone -- total shock at how ill-prepared they are for "real life" and real challenges.
The Russian coach at the start of Part 5 further highlighted Peter's problem when comparing the amount of effort and degree of professionalism that went into the Russian training.
Around these parts, I know a certain little gifted kid who took his school and county-level spelling championships without ever once looking at a word list.
He then decided to take this same lackadaisical approach to the state level and was extremely upset that he didn't win there.
He made a respectable showing -- especially considering the absence of practice -- but like Peter, he had no chance against those who took the competition seriously and prepared accordingly.
I consider both situations to be excellent examples of what can happen to these kids who are not properly challenged beginning while they are young.
