Ask HN: Do you play Chess?

If you're asking this as a hardcore chess player interested in getting into programming, then you should just jump in and give it a try. If you are trying to play chess to increase your "programmer's IQ" then I would recommend passing.

I think the honest way to think of this is that: Playing chess is a really good way of figuring out who is good at playing chess.

But, the abilities and aptitudes that often help aid being good at chess can be valuable assets in becoming a good programmer. Strong sense of logic. Able to think multiple steps in advance and the consequences. A strong memory can be useful.

Where it might frustrate a chess player, is that chess lacks an element of imperfect information. Real world programming isn't a perfect self-contained world where everything is known. It is impossible to know every aspect of programming as well as the rules of chess. You'll write bugs, and bugs in other software will create unpredictable problems. Users will add a random element into how your software breaks. Malicious attackers will find holes in what you've written. Things will just break.

I do play, though not as much in the past year or so.

I think there's intersection between chess and programming skill sets, but not significantly more or less than anything else using logic and attention to detail.

I play Go a lot, and chess occasionally.

I think it's about mindset not skillset - games like these are about solving local problems ('tactics') to achieve a greater aim ('strategy'); people who are attracted to them are generally people who like the sort of problem solving that comes up in programming, hence the cross-over.

Your question, however was whether or not the skills translate - I don't think that solving daily chess problems or tsumego will do as much for your programming than solving programming puzzles (e.g. codewars), but the discipline of thinking through all possible paths ('reading') definitely helps.

I second that. I never had much interest in learning to play chess well. In my case I guess it's about when programming I work towards a specific outcome I find interesting for some reason. Winning/losing isn't an interesting outcome for me.

> chess lacks an element of imperfect information

To airframeng: if you are interested in games with imperfect information, consider:

* bridge

* poker

* Twilight Struggle board game

These games hide competitor's positions and force you to reason about what your opponent's position could be, and not just what it is.