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Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

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Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#31

Post by pea »

ddxxdd wrote: post #29

This reminds me of a question posed by an online user of a message board I frequent: Will the likes of Deep Blue and Alpha Zero kill competitive chess? My initial thoughts were, "No, of course not! Cars and trains didn't kill track-and-field competitions!". But now that I think about it, I really do feel a slight aversion towards getting back into chess. Although practiced concentration is a side-benefit of playing c…

I see where you're coming from, but I think the practical chances of a given chess player who hasn't played in a decade becoming GM-level are realistically similar to beating Alpha Zero. Ben Finegold tweeted about this once: https://twitter.com/ben_finegold/status/1316936206844821505?...

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#32

Post by jacquesm »

srge wrote: post #25
jacquesm wrote: post #24

I got out of chess before it consumed my life and I never regretted it. It's a game, not something to spend your life on. Doing anything well is a lesson in concentration, so from that point of view you could replace 'Playing chess' with a very large variety of other skills and it would all send the exact same message.

I understand your point. It's a very addictive game. But I feel that the point of the author is that it's a game that requires skills that are useful in life. I kind of agree. Also it's easier to concentrate on something fun, challenging and in the case of blitz or bullet, fast and intense.

In moderation, yes. As a career, definitely not.

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#33

Post by danparsonson »

ddxxdd wrote: post #29

This reminds me of a question posed by an online user of a message board I frequent: Will the likes of Deep Blue and Alpha Zero kill competitive chess? My initial thoughts were, "No, of course not! Cars and trains didn't kill track-and-field competitions!". But now that I think about it, I really do feel a slight aversion towards getting back into chess. Although practiced concentration is a side-benefit of playing c…

A more suitable analogy to me would be - did Formula 1 kill off all other motor racing series? I don't think it did.

Do you feel like, because you couldn't beat a supercomputer there's no point in playing all the humans on the way towards competing at the highest levels? Also, was there much innovation left in the game even before the AIs took over? As a casual chess player I (probably naively) thought that the game had been explored pretty exhaustively already.

No sarcasm intended, as I said I'm strictly a casual player so I enjoy the game for the intellectual challenge and the social element, but all the upper echelon stuff is a mystery to me.

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#34

Post by JCharante »

srge wrote: post #25
jacquesm wrote: post #24

I got out of chess before it consumed my life and I never regretted it. It's a game, not something to spend your life on. Doing anything well is a lesson in concentration, so from that point of view you could replace 'Playing chess' with a very large variety of other skills and it would all send the exact same message.

I understand your point. It's a very addictive game. But I feel that the point of the author is that it's a game that requires skills that are useful in life. I kind of agree. Also it's easier to concentrate on something fun, challenging and in the case of blitz or bullet, fast and intense.

But what's the difference between Chess and if they stopped updating League of Legends? Even as an esports fan I find odd how much value people place on a game.

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#35

Post by matsemann »

ddxxdd wrote: post #29

This reminds me of a question posed by an online user of a message board I frequent: Will the likes of Deep Blue and Alpha Zero kill competitive chess? My initial thoughts were, "No, of course not! Cars and trains didn't kill track-and-field competitions!". But now that I think about it, I really do feel a slight aversion towards getting back into chess. Although practiced concentration is a side-benefit of playing c…

I don't get this line of thinking at all. It seems like such a random goalpoast. Why does it matter if the computer is better? If you're an 1800 rated player, you're still so far behind the best humans that it's irrelevant. Or why care if a computer has examined some similar positions before? As an amateur the positions won't be novel in qny way anyway. No more human innovation is blatantly false. If anything, computers have led to lots of new ways to play. And humans play humans, what a computer would do in a position is irrelevant.

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#37

Post by srge »

jacquesm wrote: post #32
srge wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand your point. It's a very addictive game. But I feel that the point of the author is that it's a game that requires skills that are useful in life. I kind of agree. Also it's easier to concentrate on something fun, challenging and in the case of blitz or bullet, fast and intense.

In moderation, yes. As a career, definitely not.

agreed

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#38

Post by hellodang »

I question how much buzz about chess lately is the direct result of a certain Netflix Original.

The effects seem to cascade. Chess blog posts on HN... a flood of sales of Chinese chess sets on Amazon... game night pics featuring chess on your social media feeds.

How much of our behavior is dictated, or at least seeded, by Big Ns?

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#39

Post by adenozine »

So, as someone with ADHD-C, and someone who's been playing a lot of chess recently in the wake of its resurgence online, can I expect some important insight or self-realization from practicing the art of concentrating?

I can concentrate for hours and hours on certain things, I just don't always get to choose the things. Will chess and its nature of honing concentration force me to enhance that?

I listened to this article on the drive to work this morning, and I found it very interesting, and yet a bit hard to relate to. For neurotypical players, maybe it's a lot more rewarding to sit down and concentrate on chess. When I play, I have some good streaks and then streaks where I get tilted out of my flow, and I try and force myself to stay in the chess box, and I burn up and find something else to do. I used to be 1600-1700 in high school, and now I'm barely treading water at 1250-1350 on lichess.

I'm hoping there's someone with a brain like mine who has more experience to share.

Great link. Best I've seen in the front page in quite some time, imo.

Re: Playing chess is a life lesson in concentration

#40

Post by wirrbel »

I can only recommend Shogi (japanese Chess) for anyone considering Chess. Shogi is a bit faster AND if you have someone around who has more Chess-experience than you (like my father for whom chess was basically the only board game available) it makes playing interesting as they won't just be able to work with their memorized moves..
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