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Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

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Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#41

Post by pjungwir »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

If you're looking for something close to chess, you might enjoy Xiangqi, or Chinese Chess. It has a similar layout, but with a few changes, e.g. rook-like pieces that capture not the closest piece, but the second-closest piece. Two on the same file creates all sort of weird possibilities.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#42

Post by username42 »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

Go is not boring, but what you see in the game evolves a lot with your level. I have stayed a couple of year at 5 kyu with monotonous games. Once I have improved to 3kyu, games were a lot more funny.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#43

Post by abvdasker »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

David Foster Wallace wrote (I'm paraphrasing here) that "tennis is a combination of chess and boxing". Maybe try that.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#44

Post by S4M »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

You can try Chinese chess (xiang qi) or Japanese chess (shogi). I particularly like shogi because it has the rule that you can reuse the pieces of your opponent you capture.

Both are a bit hard to learn though because the pieces are oriental characters.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#45

Post by bmslieght »

rikacomet wrote: post #5

Now what the heck happened in the end? Anand gave up a knight advantage, purposedly for a clear cut draw. I have no clue why he did that this time. He took queen with queen, clearly, knowing it would be lost to king, and then again the pawn with knight. He had a knight, of all things!

Clearly you should be in the next final of the world championship of chess.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#46

Post by scott_s »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

Chess 2 ( http://ludemegames.com/chess2/). I'm not joking. USGamer has a good write-up on it: http://www.usgamer.net/articles/chess-2-the-sequel

I agree there's a certain amount of hubris behind the endeavor. But I'm interested in the design of balanced games, and the ways in which some old games are not balanced or rigid.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#47

Post by laureny »

TylerE wrote: post #30
aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

Not a board game, but Bridge. Backgammon is also very rich also, although there is a random element there which, depending on your preferences, is either a good or bad thing.

The random element in backgammon is inconsequential: a good player will always beat inferior players over several games. What makes good players good is not that they know how to win when they have a good roll but the fact that with regular throws, each of their move is optimal, which guarantees a win over the duration of the entire game.

The same could be said of poker, where the element of chance appears to be huge but which doesn't matter over many games.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#48

Post by scott_s »

abvdasker wrote: post #43
aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

David Foster Wallace wrote (I'm paraphrasing here) that "tennis is a combination of chess and boxing". Maybe try that.

Chess boxing is a thing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing

Anyway, every one-on-one sport makes a reference to "human chess."

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#49

Post by prof_hobart »

3327 wrote: post #9

Chess is amazing it blows my mind why simple tools and games like this are not incorporated in some 'fun' way into the education system. By 'fun' I mean that if children were told to play chess they would not. A system would be need to be designed so that they look forward to chess class as they do for PE and art.

My daughter hates PE, but she's just been peer pressured into wanting to learn chess - at her first wet break time in her new class, half the girls sat down and started playing, and she felt left out.

That (along with watching the World Championship) has got me back into the game after not really having played it for about 30 years.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#50

Post by TylerE »

laureny wrote: post #47
TylerE wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a board game, but Bridge. Backgammon is also very rich also, although there is a random element there which, depending on your preferences, is either a good or bad thing.

The random element in backgammon is inconsequential: a good player will always beat inferior players over several games. What makes good players good is not that they know how to win when they have a good roll but the fact that with regular throws, each of their move is optimal, which guarantees a win over the duration of the entire game. The same could be said of poker, where the element of chance appears to be huge…

Yes, absolutely - but it's a notable difference from the fixed game-tree state/totally known information of games like Chess and Go.
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