Any Benefit to Chess?

[caspex]

I saw Leo's blog post.

Is there a benefit to getting good at chess? Whether it's Standard or Fischer Random.

My point is, chess requires you to look at it from the point of view of trying to learn some wisdom from it, to be able to learn some wisdom from it. If that's the case, you could do that by observing chimps or birds in your free time. You could find wisdom in the way a leaf falls if you're looking for it. So of course you could find some nice wisdom from Chess too.

It's evident to me that it doesn't automatically carry through. Look at Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen, yeah, not the wisest people, in fact they are as average as it can get.

Some argue it improves memory, but does it really? Or does one just get used to the 64 squares.
I do Vedic Astrology as a hobby and after looking at natal charts so much, I can look at someone's chart for a few seconds and remember the position, sign and relationships between the 9 planets around those 12 houses. That's because I am used to that, it hasn't improved my memory.

As for the development of strategic thinking, yeah chess can help but to what extent? I could view the various aspects of my life as chess games and play various tactical moves with many ideas behind them, and even though that could be a step up from your average way of thinking, it's still boxing yourself in a structure of thinking about your interactions in life. However I still feel there is some benefit in this particular point that I am oblivious to.

When it comes to improving  concentration and focus, just stare at a candle for 30 mins, that's gonna improve it much faster than any amount of chess games in those 30 mins.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it and play it often as a pastime. The idea of getting better at it strokes my ego too. I just want to know if I should actually aim for a certain elo like 2000 or a title like FM or it'll be just a massive waste of time.

[NoSelfSelf]

Not really only thing its giving you the analogy of life.Calculating moves same in life,strategy/tactics to tacle the situation etc.

I just love how deep and insanely crazy to grasp,since every position is like you are playing for the first time in your life it seems.

Im currently 2000+ online but my aim is Cm 2200 elo,Fm is crazy far as it seems.

Edited December 14 by NoSelfSelf

[RightHand]

1 hour ago, caspex said:

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it and play it often as a pastime. The idea of getting better at it strokes my ego too. I just want to know if I should actually aim for a certain elo like 2000 or a title like FM or it'll be just a massive waste of time.

Why would your hobby be a waste of time? If you enjoy the competitiveness, then do it! 

 

[hyruga]

Needs Magnus to come back next year to challenge Gukesh, Ding or others for the world title.

This will bring more viewership and money into the chess industry.

[trenton]

@caspex there were many grandmaster players who made analogies to life and took life lessons from chess. I used to do this myself.

One thing chess can teach you is emotional mastery in a competitive environment. Masters don't just look at the board, they look at your body language to evaluate your confidence. This helps them to predict mistakes when they can tell you don't know what to do. This is part of the reason why I prefer playing over the board. This is why I also visualize myself becoming a grandmaster before playing the tournament games. I review my best winning games to build a confident mindset. That's how I defeated a national master in a tournament. I could tell he was likely to make a mistake because of how he hesitated when choosing between Qa5 and Qb6. Don't touch a piece until you know what your move is. Building confident body language helps cause your opponent doubts. You can tell by the fear in their eyes.

Sometimes I get a lot of anxiety from tournaments. It gives me stomach problems and I start having irregular bowel movements. It might get harder to eat when I don't feel hungry. I'm trying to learn how to control my anxiety in these situations. I think I need to play in so many tournaments constantly that I don't feel so threatened. My play also worsens in the last day of the tournament.

Although I used to love chess so much I created life philosophies around it, I know longer believe in these life lessons. There are Chinese generals who argue that in America we play chess but in China they play go. Chess is one way of thinking but a different board game will lead to a different life philosophy if you create an identity out of it. In reality life is too complicated for how chess teaches people to think. Most life lessons come from deep self reflection and questioning everything. You can become insightful in many ways.

My favorite thing about chess is teaching enthusiastic students. There are some students who cry tears of joy because all their life they believed they were stupid, but then they beat the smart kid at chess. He then thinks I can't be stupid. Of course this is based on the stereotype that chess is for smart people. In reality anyone enthusiastic to learn can become a decent player. You can have an average iq and be a decent player.

[PurpleTree]

I only play that 1 minute chess.

[Rigel]

I think you are overlooking the obvious. It’s a game. It’s fun. People play games for fun. 

[Bobby_2021]

I just can't get myself to play Fischer random.

[Jannes]

You shouldn't do it in times where you have much important shit to do. It requires a lot of brain power that you then cant put into something else. 

[Leo Gura]

It's just a game. The biggest mistake it taking skill in chess as proof of anything serious.

Play it if you enjoy it, otherwise do something else that you enjoy more. Don't do things just because others are doing it. Don't do things because you think it will make you look smart or good. Do what you genuinely value and enjoy.

Edited Tuesday at 10:04 AM by Leo Gura

[LastThursday]

@caspex I think you can pick out nuggets of truth from nearly anything, but I wouldn't rely solely on Chess to give you everything. Some things Chess has highlighted for me and it's relation to living life:

• Positional blindness. Many times you feel stuck and can't see a way out. But actually you're not seeing the bigger picture and looking at ALL the pieces. There is nearly always a move that can be made - as in life.
• Being pinned. Whatever you do you will lose a piece. In some life situations, whatever you do, things will get worse.
• You have a great move, your opponent finds a better counter move. No matter how good you are, there will always be someone better, cleverer, more skilled.
• The grind of mastery. You play and play and make progress, then slide back all the way and it's soul destroying, yet you go on.
• You can only really get better by studying chess hard. Yes you can just play and improve, but it'll be a slow slog and you may cap out at a certain rating. As in life, sometimes study and being instructed will supercharge you.

That's it.

[caspex]

I was watching a conversation between Alex O'Conner and Jordan Peterson and that made me realize conversations like that which are heavy on being intellectual and outsmarting the other, it's basically just chess but as a conversation. Or rather, Chess is the physical manifestation of what debate looks like.

[El Zapato]

One big downside...losing.

There are correlations between intelligence and the ability to improve.  And that really worries me.  Kidding, I've been playing online on a team for the last 10 years and have gotten much better than when I played in high school.  I learned from a stepbrother that beat me 2 or 3 times when teaching me and didn't again for 20 years.  I learned at 13 and a year later won a city championship for ages 16 and under.  I lost it after high school though, too much partying.

 

[El Zapato]

3 minutes ago, caspex said:

I was watching a conversation between Alex O'Conner and Jordan Peterson and that made me realize conversations like that which are heavy on being intellectual and outsmarting the other, it's basically just chess but as a conversation. Or rather, Chess is the physical manifestation of what debate looks like.

Peterson is a word salad moron... 🤣

[caspex]

@El Zapato I wouldn't say that, but I do feel like he sometimes intentionally plays dumb to the real meaning behind a person's question. That's strange since you'd expect the listener to try to match your wavelength in order to understand you, rather than expect the you to match theirs. That makes things unnecessarily complicated, as a lot of the things he said, at least in that particular conversation, could have been said in much simpler words. But I do get it, he has to dodge a lot of misunderstandings and conflicts so he must have evolved that mechanism, it seems to be working quite well for him.

[AION]

Kasparov wrote an amazing book called how life imitates chess. I think he answers this question amazingly. For me chess is an amazing way to practice mastery. And being a student of mastery means you aren’t following your bliss. If you are following your bliss you will jump from one craze to another craze and never get good at anything. And the thing is if you get good at one thing very well you can transfer it to another skill. For example I play chess but I use that strategic mind in boxing too. Being a good thinker is a meta skill and I think chess is the best way to practice it. 

[Fadl]

The greatest benefit for me was discovering some of the weaknesses in my ego.

My ego doesn't take losing well

[Letho]

@caspex there's benefit to everything, chess is fantastic I got amazing insights from it, one those being deepening my understanding of abstraction. You're only limited by your creativity or character with respect to what you can learn from something. Lots of folk struggle with out of the box thinking so they give inside the box rationalizations on subjects. You should be asking yourself the question and then forming your own independent opinion based on accurate critical thought.

Merry Christmas, sincerely.

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:14 AM by Letho