Chess Scotland Noticeboard

GN · King Joined: 30 Mar 2007 Posts: 415

Everyone should read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/dec/15/london-chess-classic-sport-magnus-carlsen

I think he's got it about right! Read the comments to the article too, I think they are also quite interesting. I have long been of the view that we are all just wasting our lives away on this entirely pointless game. (I am not giving it up though Wink

)

I also recommend The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse to anyone who wishes to ponder further on the more existential questions around why we do it.

Paul Denham · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:41 pm Post subject:

GN,

I think its a great article.

If nothing else for someone commenting on the Barry Davies commentary of the staring contest on Sketch Show Big Train which I have always thought Chess to be like. Could never remember the name of that show and now I've got it Very Happy

I think there is no point chessplayers being surly about what he wrote.

If you like something then do more of it.

The guy even conceded chess was a sport - what more do we want.

Chess isn't for everyone, just as football or fishing isn't for everyone.

For me I would encourage anyone young or old, male or female to have a hobby or pass-time and if chess is one of them great!!!

In terms of wasting our lives away on an entirely pointless game.... I am not 100% clear on what the point of life is anyway (it is what you make of it,... to be happy, to be rich, to be holy to enjoy it, to moan about it, to regret it... whatever). So given that, I find it a highly enjoyable way to pass some free time. Though it's interesting as I have long posted on personally being happy to waste away an evening at the club or in the house on-line, but I very much feel a hot gym hall on a nice summer's day is no place for me personally to be cooped up in hunched over a board all weekend.... so I know what you are getting at with feeling time is passing... I often feel with reading or learning about the game... "well it ain't paying any of my bills or making be a better husband or better father" ... but hey ho if I enjoy it and have the time to do it, then that's fine.

I once read an article about unemployed guys from East Berlin who played in the basement of a tower block day after day after day... one described the game to the person writing the piece as " Chess is a very efficient reality suppressor".... I have always liked that phrase.

Lunch-time over

PD

PS will look into that Hesse reference you have given us... sounds interesting.

Paul Denham · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:47 pm Post subject:

GN

Meant to say, you are in good company thinking it's a waste of time.

Didn't Chigorin hurl his pieces in the fire near the end of his life? Mind you those Russian winters are very very cold. Wink

And Petrosian felt he wasted his life on a game wistfully wishing he had been something he felt as being more noble or worthy, like a scientist or academician. When he won the World Championship he wrote to a friend of his from his youth a dedication on a book or photo or something which went along the lines of "To my great friend, from someone who took the wrong path but ended up alright".

PD

Paul Denham · Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:51 pm Post subject:

If chess is a waste of time how about a game of this instead;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rithmomachy

John Blake · Pawn Joined: 22 Feb 2007 Posts: 9

The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel) is reckoned to be Hesse's best. I liked Siddhartha a lot, too. It leaves you feeling very mellow.

John_Dempsey · Queen Joined: 14 Feb 2007 Posts: 113

Chess, is not pointless. Or at least no more so than any other board game. For me, the whole point about this game is one of combat. Not the kind of game for those of a pacifist persuasion, yet surprisingly (to me) it attracts those who abhor war, or any kind of formalised violence. They are not wrong, but are they right?

Many 'won' games have been lost in time trouble, so was Stalingrad! Time is a factor. Many won games have been lost by just one mistake, check out the Battle of Britain from the German point of view!

I enjoy the cut and thrust of the game, I enjoy the chance to go over my games and try and determine my flaws. I cannot do that with Monopoly or Ludo! Chess does NOT reflect life for me, it does however reflect my view of life.What's the difference? That is for you to decide, of course, but as your experience is different from mine, then I expect we may arrive at different answers, different understandings. Yet, are they so very different? I wonder?

Merry Christmas from the every hot, very sunny Carribean! The same celebration, but somehow, so very different!

John

Paul Denham · Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject:

John,

Good weather in the Carribean?

Its positively tropical here in Glasgow tonight. The brass monkey's have their sunglasses and factor 30 on Wink

Hope you are having a great time.

PD

Paul Denham · Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 9:35 pm Post subject:

In between watching Strictly Come Dancing final I found this interesting article;

http://www.chessville.com/Editorials/RosesRants/HelloAgainAndGoodbye.htm

I found Roses Rant's interesting and this article neither offers anything conclusive to the "is chess worth/not worth it" debate.... but credit to the guy for switching horse to something which made him happier.

I found his comments

" In chess I was after status and adulation as much as enjoying the game itself. And I very much more enjoyed the fact of winning a game, and showing off a fine game or a nice idea after I had played it than I enjoyed the actual playing of it."

... very very interesting.

I am much more in the Fischer "destroy the guy's ego" camp than the Bronstein "my opponent is my possible collaborator in a masterpiece (at my level that would be very much downgraded to collaborator in an exciting game with no major blunders)".

Two people sit opposite the board and "the winner takes it all". One stands and one falls. It can be really tough after a loss due to a bad blunder after the guts of 2.5hrs play.

I always feel chess has an element similar to boxing or fencing and is much more roman warrior/gladiator than concert hall. Unless I am up against way way stronger opposition and full of kamikaze pilot fatalism and calmness then I am putting my ego along with some of my grading points on the line. That can make for nerves, exhilaration, vindication and relief when it goes well and feeling might silly when it goes bad.

Right back to the last few mins of Strictly.

PD

Paul Denham · Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 9:38 pm Post subject:

Here is that Stare out contest from Big Train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWgg20IqibM

Could have been the World Cup final in Siberia but for the crowd.

S. Spatsky??? now who does that sound like? B. Spassky perhaps?

PD