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Chess is booming among teens

polygon.com

131–140 of 227 posts

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#131

Chess is having its soccer moment now. Here is why: 1- The entry cost has fallen dramatically. Before at a minimum you'd need to afford a chess set and a couple of books. Now, all you need is a parents phone. This is similar to soccer, where the entry cost is any ball you can find. 2- its egalitarian. Your size, sex, height, and even age do not matter. This has always been true but now its more pronounced with apps b…

I don't see how chess has become more social. It's always been a very social game. You go to the chessclub, meet lots of interesting people, make friends. Tournaments are very social events too.

Playing online actually feels like the least social way of enjoying the game to me. I have no interest in chatting with random people, and most of the time someone tries to write something in chat it's an insult or accusation of cheating. Or just "gg", "nice tactic", etc.

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#132
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't recommend Lichess enough. It's free (freedom & beer), it has no ads , and it's feature-complete. It even has stuff that other websites make you pay for, like post-game computer annotation. It offers a web interface where you can play without even registering an account and free (again, freedom & beer) apps for iOS and Android. The only downside when compared to chess.com is that fewer top-level professionals…

Lichess is amazing, I play there exclusively. However, I am plagued by a terrible bug: the Android app has half a second of lag when opening any screen for some reason. It doesn't matter what connection I'm on, and the website is always instant, but the Android app always takes half a second to load any screen. It's infuriating when you want to view the analysis, or just navigate around the app.

I've taken to "installing" the webapp version on my phone. It's only a little bit different, but doesn't come with the frustrating issues the android app does.

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lichess is amazing, I play there exclusively. However, I am plagued by a terrible bug: the Android app has half a second of lag when opening any screen for some reason. It doesn't matter what connection I'm on, and the website is always instant, but the Android app always takes half a second to load any screen. It's infuriating when you want to view the analysis, or just navigate around the app.

I've taken to "installing" the webapp version on my phone. It's only a little bit different, but doesn't come with the frustrating issues the android app does.

I've tried, but the analysis UI is different enough to be a bit more frustrating :(

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#134
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine when you discover Lichess!

I find it odd that all my friends & coworkers in the tech industry have ended up on chess.com instead of lichess. Even beyond the fact it's totally free (and free of ads), the architecture itself is super interesting: https://lichess.org/@/thibault/blog/starting-from-scratch/NI... It must be one of the best examples of a very large scale implementation of features that are simple and easy to understand

Its network effect. My friend was on chesscom so i went there. Now im on lichess but only because chesscom increased its basic price x3.

Also puzzles are slightly better on chesscom and (arguably) the analysis interface imo

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#136
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't recommend Lichess enough. It's free (freedom & beer), it has no ads , and it's feature-complete. It even has stuff that other websites make you pay for, like post-game computer annotation. It offers a web interface where you can play without even registering an account and free (again, freedom & beer) apps for iOS and Android. The only downside when compared to chess.com is that fewer top-level professionals…

Lichess is amazing, I play there exclusively. However, I am plagued by a terrible bug: the Android app has half a second of lag when opening any screen for some reason. It doesn't matter what connection I'm on, and the website is always instant, but the Android app always takes half a second to load any screen. It's infuriating when you want to view the analysis, or just navigate around the app.

Weird, it's always worked perfectly for me. Now that I think about it I haven't updated in a long time, and after this I probably won't.

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#137
post #54
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern sources of entertainment are dressed up in a lot of fluff. Blow all that fluff away and you're left with nothing that is any better than games and stories that have been with us since forever. The kids these days are drowning in novelties of the sort that were scarce to me as a child. It stands to reason they wouldn't be as easily impressed or fooled by such things.

None of however does not lead to liking chess. The game is massively about memorization and drill, with some patina of superior aura on it. At least on lower levels. Like you trying to make everything else sound inferior, plus fluff. It is not true, once you scratch reputation out of chess, you get mundane drills and memorization of situations.

[deleted]

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#138

I visted my relatives recently, and i was shocked. At first I though it was a new clash of clans type of trendy game, but its actually chess! The teenagers have chess.com installed everyhere and are challenging each other nonstop, sometimes with real chess boards too! There's social pyramid starting to form, with one of the younger ones conquering the game with no clear challenger, its football but for people who don…

Is it just me, or is this comment AI generated?

> and i was shocked. At first I though (...), but its actually (...)!

> The (...) installed everywhere (...) each other nonstop, sometimes with real

> There's social pyramid starting to form, with one of the younger ones conquering the game with no clear challenger, its football but for people who don't like football.

The paragraph above specifically, it sounds coherent, but makes no sense. Pyramid? Pyramid of what? Younger ones? Football what?

> Its fascinating how an old and not very hip game became a crazy trend so fast.

I think it took quite a few years actually.

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#139

I visted my relatives recently, and i was shocked. At first I though it was a new clash of clans type of trendy game, but its actually chess! The teenagers have chess.com installed everyhere and are challenging each other nonstop, sometimes with real chess boards too! There's social pyramid starting to form, with one of the younger ones conquering the game with no clear challenger, its football but for people who don…

> its football but for people who don't like football. What's football for people who don't like football or chess? :)

running

Re: Chess is booming among teens

#140
post #54
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern sources of entertainment are dressed up in a lot of fluff. Blow all that fluff away and you're left with nothing that is any better than games and stories that have been with us since forever. The kids these days are drowning in novelties of the sort that were scarce to me as a child. It stands to reason they wouldn't be as easily impressed or fooled by such things.

None of however does not lead to liking chess. The game is massively about memorization and drill, with some patina of superior aura on it. At least on lower levels. Like you trying to make everything else sound inferior, plus fluff. It is not true, once you scratch reputation out of chess, you get mundane drills and memorization of situations.

At a high level all games depend on a great deal of practice to excel. Chess is not distinct in that sense.
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