Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform • Hacker News Board

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#41

Post by bobsled » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 1:48 AM UTC

radicalcentrist wrote: post #38

> "I was so happy because it was the first time where we could see chess as a positive factor," he said. "We had so many years with chess being seen as potential destruction and something that could push kids to the dark area of psychological instability." This surprises me, could someone expand a bit on this? I've only ever heard chess referred to positively in popular culture. I would assume most non chess players'…

This is something that has been over-hyped for the sake of dramatization. Paul Morphy[1] and Bobby Fischer[2] are great examples of people who most likely were already psychologically 'at risk', and 'went over the edge' because of their obsessive chess playing. Certain potentially self destructive traits, largely obsessiveness and paranoia, can be of great use when playing chess if they are moderated. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Morphy#Abandonment_of_che... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer#Speculation_on_p...

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#42

Post by indigochill » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 1:52 AM UTC

radicalcentrist wrote: post #38

> "I was so happy because it was the first time where we could see chess as a positive factor," he said. "We had so many years with chess being seen as potential destruction and something that could push kids to the dark area of psychological instability." This surprises me, could someone expand a bit on this? I've only ever heard chess referred to positively in popular culture. I would assume most non chess players'…

In the west, at least, Bobby Fischer went down what some might consider a pretty dark path. Fugitive status from the US for violating cold war sanctions, choice words about 9/11, and remaining on the run from the US for the rest of his life in Iceland.

That said, I grew up as a chess nerd and although I knew vaguely that Bobby Fischer was a tragic figure (largely thanks to "In Search of Bobby Fischer", despite the movie having almost nothing to do with the titular character), I'd never heard of that association with chess in general.

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#43

Post by koolba » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 1:55 AM UTC

Grakel wrote: post #15

I had a "Gary Kasparov" "computer" chess board when I was a kid, maybe 1995. On one hand it was cool in that you hard pressed your move into the board with the piece, and it would tell you where to move it's piece. On the other hand it had 64 difficulty levels which were all either extremely easy or impossible to defeat. He's been putting his name on stuff for years.

What was the cut off difficulty level at which point it became impossible?

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#44

Post by jointpdf » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 2:14 AM UTC

francisofascii wrote: post #33

beforeolives wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the revival attributed mostly to The Queen's Gambit being released on Netflix?

Not just that. Chess.com also saw a huge surge when Covid began.

Since the Lichess database is open, you can see the effect of both covid and QG on the number of games played. But the growth has been exponential for years. Check out the first two plots on this page (notice the log scale):

https://github.com/Paul566/chessOpeningStats

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#45

Post by aoeusnth1 » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 2:21 AM UTC

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #2

The community first chess platform is lichess, which doesn't even get a mention because it is non-profit. This thing sounds like some botched together platform with Kasparov's name attached to add legitimacy. It will 100% fail.

I have nothing against Kasparov’s efforts, and I’m sure there’s plenty of valuable content on his new site.

But I have to agree that Lichess is an absolute jewel of the chess community, and I’m a happy supporter of it. We don’t need another chess matchmaking site, but it doesn’t sound like Kasparov is trying to compete in that space.

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#46

Post by greedo » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 2:31 AM UTC

indigochill wrote: post #42

radicalcentrist wrote: post #38

> "I was so happy because it was the first time where we could see chess as a positive factor," he said. "We had so many years with chess being seen as potential destruction and something that could push kids to the dark area of psychological instability." This surprises me, could someone expand a bit on this? I've only ever heard chess referred to positively in popular culture. I would assume most non chess players'…

In the west, at least, Bobby Fischer went down what some might consider a pretty dark path. Fugitive status from the US for violating cold war sanctions, choice words about 9/11, and remaining on the run from the US for the rest of his life in Iceland. That said, I grew up as a chess nerd and although I knew vaguely that Bobby Fischer was a tragic figure (largely thanks to "In Search of Bobby Fischer", despite the mo…

His anti-semitism was pretty ugly as well.

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#47

Post by jmarcher » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:00 AM UTC

lasfter wrote: post #3

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #2

The community first chess platform is lichess, which doesn't even get a mention because it is non-profit. This thing sounds like some botched together platform with Kasparov's name attached to add legitimacy. It will 100% fail.

100%. Lichess is an astounding achievement of FOSS and I wish it got more love in general. I can't think of any other open-source website with as much traffic and with as much complex functionality.

Presentation from the original author about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#48

Post by alfiedotwtf » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:17 AM UTC

beforeolives wrote: post #8

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #2

The community first chess platform is lichess, which doesn't even get a mention because it is non-profit. This thing sounds like some botched together platform with Kasparov's name attached to add legitimacy. It will 100% fail.

Yes, lichess is by far the best platform and a great example of an open source project. The founder had an AMA on reddit a few days ago, it was a very wholesome read - https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mpasyl/i_started_lic...

I've always just used the chess.com app, and have never thought to look for alternatives. Apart from using Open Source, is there any other reason for me to consider switching to lichess?

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#49

Post by axaxs » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 3:19 AM UTC

lasfter wrote: post #3

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #2

The community first chess platform is lichess, which doesn't even get a mention because it is non-profit. This thing sounds like some botched together platform with Kasparov's name attached to add legitimacy. It will 100% fail.

100%. Lichess is an astounding achievement of FOSS and I wish it got more love in general. I can't think of any other open-source website with as much traffic and with as much complex functionality.

I'll vouch for that. I hadn't even heard of lichess, just went looking for an Android chess game to play to pass the time. The app is stellar, and not full of garbage like the others.

My only complaint is how it's pronounced. Can't help but think of leeches.

Re: Garry Kasparov launches a community-first chess platform

#50

Post by nickysielicki » Sat, Apr 17, 2021, 4:05 AM UTC

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #48

beforeolives wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, lichess is by far the best platform and a great example of an open source project. The founder had an AMA on reddit a few days ago, it was a very wholesome read - https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mpasyl/i_started_lic...

I've always just used the chess.com app, and have never thought to look for alternatives. Apart from using Open Source, is there any other reason for me to consider switching to lichess?

It's just better made all around. The site is sleek. The game renders well, doesn't lag at all even on very old and underpowered devices. The analysis on lichess with wasm stockfish was stolen by chess.com -- there are no premium features and no ads. There is simply no good reason to use any other site.