what is the value of chess

[Walter]

Since we are all chess players we appreciate that chess transcends past the board. I am interested to learn from you what those areas are.

[Will]

Silence, apparently.

[Bob]

Will - LOL!

I'll make a stab at it:
1) The ability to formulate a coherent plan
2) The ability to think ahead multiple steps
3) The ability to visualize something that is not in front of you as you follow a variation in your head (blindfold chess still astounds me).
4) The ability to learn from your mistakes.
5) The value of study (openings, mating attacks, etc. that make you a better player)
6) The ability to trick/bamboozle your opponent.
One of my favorite books in my personal library is Chess Traps: Pitfalls And Swindles

Finally, see-> http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatel...

[Will]

All good stuff. I would add a few more:

1. learning how to share the company of other men (mostly) - some with dubious standards of personal hygiene - and hardly say anything to each other over the course of three hours.

2. spending a lifetime learning the game only to get beaten by a little monster who can barely see over the board and who is closer to nappies than puberty.

3. struggling with a chess puzzle (I recommend chessgames.com) for ages, and upon being shown the solution see that it was really easy all along.

4. marvel at the sheer beauty of the games of Morphy, Tal, Capablanca, Kasparov ... and realise that there is no way on this earth that you will be able to play as well as that.

5. discover the inherent tyranny and oppression of the ratings system, which means that eventually you will find your level and henceforth be destined to lose as many games as you win. Until old age sets in and your rating falls, when you will lose more games than you win until you find your new level.

6. hear your beloved spouse say "that's nice dear" when you tell her about the club game you won that evening, and realise that she doesn't have the first clue about what you've just done. Just as you don't have the first clue about what she sees in Mr Darcy.

7. learn how to win and lose gracefully, even when you throw away a "won" position that you spent the best part of two hours patiently building up. Chess players ought to take up ventriloquism to take advantage of the their ability to say "well played" through gritted teeth.

Damn, but I love this game!

If you do wander over to chessgames.com, remember to say hi to a very nice chap called "Once".

[Bob]

Great comments, but oh my goodness - chessgames.com. More things to follow!

The worst thing I found that really hit home how much I've changed as I got older, and the only chess book I never finished, was Test Your Chess IQ

All it contains is a series of real life positional 'tests'. There are 56 tests. Each test has 8 boards and a theme and a time limit (usually 40-50 minutes to complete a test of 8 boards). You are to physically set up a board and sit and think it through and write up your solution and variations, then set up the next board. At the end of the test, you look at the solutions. It's a bit complex scoring but very real life. Each board in the test is worth 5 points for total starting value of 40 points per test. Then, fail to find the correct initial move - deduct 5 points. Find it but fail to find the best defense deduct 3 points. Etc. Every 5 minutes +- the overall time limit, you lose or add a point.

I only got through 5 tests doing one or two a week before giving up as it was too exhausting. What did I learn? I had lost the patience to just sit and think! After looking at a position for 2 minutes and the variations were swimming in my head, I wanted to go on to another position.

I attribute it to the bang-bang of modern society where we hop from one thing to another. TV, movies, instant messaging/texts, etc. all constantly forcing us to jump around.

The book still sits on my shelf haunting me to go back to it! I actually had a pretty good ELO rating going according to the tests, and dread seeing how it might have declined in a few years.

[Bob]

[I forgot to mention, you are not allowed to 'go back' during a test. You have to finish a board before moving to the next of 8. There is a tremendous urge to skip and hope to find the next board easier when you're stuck and don't want to think any more. You're not allowed to move the pieces, just like when you are sitting across an opponent. The book says it is designed for club players with an ELO rating of 1550-1900.]

[Will]

I've got the same book. I'm not surprised that you haven't finished it. I didn't either. If you take an average of 45 minutes to do each of the 56 tests, that would be a total of 42 hours. And that's a pretty big investment to make in a book that has very little text.

That's why I tend to do the daily tactical puzzles on chessgames.com. Not only do you get to solve the puzzle, but there are also real people to talk to about it afterwards.

[Bob]

Will wrote: "I've got the same book. I'm not surprised that you haven't finished it. I didn't either. If you take an average of 45 minutes to do each of the 56 tests, that would be a total of 42 hours. And that..."

Thanks, Will. I'll check it out. My newspaper here gives 1 lousy chess puzzle on Sunday and you have to wait until the following Sunday to get the answer!

[Bob]

BTW..I signed up at chessgames as 'Lighthorse' - since it can be viewed as a chess reference, but actually I use the name sometimes as a historical reference to my actual name. [Revolutionary War reference]

[Will]

In that case, welcome to chessgames.com! A word of warning - the daily puzzles start out as very easy on a Monday then get steadily harder until Saturday and Sunday when they become fiendishly difficult. You might find that the next few puzzles are particularly difficult until Monday comes around again.

[Vincent]

getting punished on the board for not paying attention is a great incentive to be aware to be think actively.

[Bob]

Last night was an interesting one on the SyFy channel on TV -- showcasing the value of chess in totally different arenas.

On "FaceOff" during the "Judges Match" they created fantasy chess pieces out of humans. Here are some of the makeups, although they don't really do them justice showing just the heads-> http://www.syfy.com/videos/Face%20Off...

On "Wizard Wars" in the final challenge the magicians needed to use chess boards and pieces (along with some other props) to do magic tricks. One team used slight of hand to change the pieces into salt/pepper shakers and then had all the pieces appear inside them, and the other team 'predicted' on which square someone would place a random piece (with a drawer in the board containing the answer).

[Will]

Thanks - I'll look out for that one. The syfy channel seems to have a lot of repeats so there's a chance that it will be shown again.

[John]

What is the value of chess?, How about the ability to interact with people of different cultures, race, religions, intellect and share ideals, views, thoughts, Just playing some people or watching some people play or analyzing a position or game is amazing sometimes.
All in all life is better for knowing Chess.
And then there's the joy of checkmating someone.

[Donald]

Chess presents a challenge, a puzzle, not just in the sense of how to win each game you play, but also what kinds of things you should be doing to improve your skills. You need planning, self-discipline, study skills, knowledge of yourself and your strength and weaknesses.

Chess provides an escape to a world of romance, knights and castles, thrilling king hunts, traps and sacrifices.

Also there is beauty, a feeling of real satisfaction when you come up with a combination which secures the win after a long hard-fought struggle.