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How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

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Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#61

Post by hackerlight »

DeathArrow wrote: post #48
kdwikzncba wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would like to hear your reasoning as to why you think that a human is especially good at dealing with uncertainty. My experience is the opposite.

>I would like to hear your reasoning as to why you think that a human is especially good at dealing with uncertainty. We can ask any successful CEO. Fortune 500 companies would use bots if that was possible. Uncertainty doesn't equal randomness. Randomness is flipping a coin and asking you the result. Uncertainty is hiding the coin behind my back and asking you in which hand is it.

That's disanalogous to board games. We're comparing board games with uncertainty to board games without uncertainty. In either of these categories, the thing that makes AI competent is unlimited training data due to self-play.

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#62

Post by mseidl »

washmyelbows wrote: post #18

"Only about 10% of players ever gain more than 100 points, and only about 1% of players gain more than 200 rating points given years." This seems like a wild claim. On chess.com I've gone from 500 to ~1050 in a handful of months without any real study, just some light YouTube watching. 500->800 felt like all it took was learning a few openings and not blundering pieces. 800-1050 felt like it came mostly from getting…

I've been playing chess since I was 6, and I'm 7 now.

You should learn endgame and tactics, the basics of opening and maybe a few openings. endgame will teach chess. openings teaches you openings. especially when you're a beginner people will make moves that don't make sense. Plus aren't there like over 4 or 5 quadrillion possible moves just within the first 10 moves?

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#63

Post by qingdao99 »

LargeTomato wrote: post #49
ta8903 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the only bold statement in the article. >But I'm a smart guy (hi white male privilege) It's amusing to see someone go mask off and call non-whites low IQ like that.

I don't think that's what they meant.

What did they mean? Can't figure it out.

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#64

Post by lostlogin »

mseidl wrote: post #62
washmyelbows wrote: post #18

"Only about 10% of players ever gain more than 100 points, and only about 1% of players gain more than 200 rating points given years." This seems like a wild claim. On chess.com I've gone from 500 to ~1050 in a handful of months without any real study, just some light YouTube watching. 500->800 felt like all it took was learning a few openings and not blundering pieces. 800-1050 felt like it came mostly from getting…

I've been playing chess since I was 6, and I'm 7 now. You should learn endgame and tactics, the basics of opening and maybe a few openings. endgame will teach chess. openings teaches you openings. especially when you're a beginner people will make moves that don't make sense. Plus aren't there like over 4 or 5 quadrillion possible moves just within the first 10 moves?

Are you able to confirm there isn’t a typo here? You’re 7?

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#66

Post by rtpg »

ycombinete wrote: post #54
rtpg wrote: post #10

and here I was happy to get up to 1000 in Chess.com after 2 years (only to then just hover around forever). Knowledge is power etc etc but at one point nothing replaces studying. I've found that anything under 15 minute clocks just feels like brain poison to me, though. Your brain goes completely into pattern matching mode and lose out on the actual interesting tactical analysis you can do when you're taking a bit mo…

Sounds good to me! Ratings are a treadmill. As you get better so do your opponents. You'll always have a ~50% winrate. I'd rather have a stable rating over time, at a level I can maintain comfortably, than have to expend ever increasing levels of energy to maintain a higher level; and probably end up having less fun. (maybe it's more like treading water. You can get more of your body out of the water, but each inch r…

I've accepted that I'm worse at chess than other people in some innate sense, but puzzles have been nice. I really enjoy the chess.com lessons as well, and listening to someone explain stuff is always pleasant. I might not absorb much, but it's better than nothing.

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#67

Post by anonyfox »

DeathArrow wrote: post #17

Is there a well known strategy game where AI doesn't have better chances to win than a human? Is there possibly, math wise, that such games exist? I kind of dislike not having a chance when playing against bots.

There will never be anymore. AI simply outperforms humans at increasing rates. When in doubt, for a specific game a narrow AI can be trained up.

For the current 1-2 years you can have a shot at physical/sports games, since robots are lagging behind AI capabilities, quite a lot.

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#68

Post by rtpg »

DeathArrow wrote: post #17

Is there a well known strategy game where AI doesn't have better chances to win than a human? Is there possibly, math wise, that such games exist? I kind of dislike not having a chance when playing against bots.

I've found playing against weaker bots you lose on the sort of human nature of weaker players. In particular humans tend to have a bit of an internal narrative, but weaker chess bots tend to just throw in shitty moves.

It's pretty well known that bots resort to cheating to win at stuff like Civ. I'm sure there's a patch out there that removes the cheating, and you can stomp on computers there.

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#69

Post by ACow_Adonis »

DeathArrow wrote: post #17

Is there a well known strategy game where AI doesn't have better chances to win than a human? Is there possibly, math wise, that such games exist? I kind of dislike not having a chance when playing against bots.

come join us at Beyond All Reason :)

https://www.beyondallreason.info/

or if you're an AI maker come join us also and make a better bit for us to play against :)

Re: How to learn chess as an adult (2021)

#70

Post by sph »

ShoneRL wrote: post #60

A bit of an unhinged, unpopular opinion take: Chess is a very overrated game that's overglorified to the limit and it's an unhealthy addiction for a lot of people and I think modern media needs to stop flaunting Chess as something of a high-horse type of thing. To put simply, I believe Chess is good as something of a brain exercise for when you're younger or if you are a parent and want to develop your child's logica…

Sounds like you have terrible experience with being forced to explore one's talent for the game, but I dont think that deep of an history with it can provide an objective assessment of the game: any hobby taken to the extreme, maniacal and methodical level stops becoming a hobby, and turns into work. There is this widespread notion that the deeper you go, the more enjoyable it is and it is utter nonsense. Even in gaming, the concept of minmaxing, which is antithetical to enjoying a game, is encouraged, but all it does is turn a fun pastime into spreadsheets and hard effort for asymptotic gain.

On the other hard I had ignored the game for all my adulthood because I felt, in my ignorance, that it was a game too hard to get into. I'm starting to like it as I learn, but I have no chance nor desire to break the 2000+ ELO threshold, to compete, to leave my mark.

I am learning Chess so that if one day I find an elderly gentleman at the park with a board, I can sit for a game and a chat.

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