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Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

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Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#131

Post by jballanc »

Yovel wrote: post #78
jballanc wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but just wanted to add that if you find Go boring, I suggest you pick up a good Go book or two. The really good Go writers can construct an entire war narrative from a game of Go, all the while giving you deeper insight into the strategy and tactics at play in the game. To be honest, compared to Go writing, I find much writing about Chess to be very boring and analytical (though I'm sure that has as much to…

Do you have any good Go book suggestions?

Right now I'm working through the book "How Not to Play Go", by Yuan Zhou, but he has many very good books I could recommend. Neil Moffatt is another good writer, and I particularly enjoyed "Double Digit Kyu Games" by him. If you're not afraid of diving right in, Yuan Zhou's "Master Play" series, where he dissects games by different Go masters are very entertaining as well.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#133

Post by gnuvince »

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.

Backgammon: the best way to want to kill yourself. I was playing a 21-game match against someone on the Internet, it was 17-16 for him, but I was in a very good position and I doubled and he (incorrectly) accepted. I was about to build a 5-prime between my 4 and 8 points when he got a lucky roll, hit two of my blots and closed off his home board. He won a gammon and the match. One lucky roll, 1/36 chance and I go from still being in the match to being a 3% dog.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#134

Post by girvo »

After spending the last 18-months immersed in the professional StarCraft 2 scene, I can totally appreciate a lot of the meta-stuff around Chess now. I always enjoyed Chess, and was not too bad at it (compared to those around me, certainly nowhere near even an amateur-pro!), but for some reason SC2 "clicks" better for me (I think being addicted to Brood War while spending 6 months in South Korea probably has something to do with it).

The discussion of "mind games" {"nettlesomeness" here) is something that SC2 has an obsession with, and certainly can play a massive part in pro tournaments, and I'd never considered it applying to chess... but now that I think about it, everything in SC2's meta really came from Chess to begin with, only applied in real-time with 300+ actions per minute and hundreds of pieces with few illegal moves. And yet I struggle more with grokking the advanced strategies of Chess than I do for StarCraft!

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#135

Post by lukev »

flud43 wrote: post #92
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 should really give No Limit Hold'em or Pot Limit Omaha a try. Poker is a game of astounding complexity once you start taking it seriously and it's quite fun. Combine that with the ability to take a small bankroll, $100 or whatever you're comfortable using as seed money, and turn it into a roll sufficient for high stakes poker (with enough dedication and time) and it truly does become quite an amazing game to play…

Are there any legal or quasi-legal ways to play online poker in the US, currently?

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#136

Post by girvo »

Technophobe wrote: post #132
reidmain wrote: post #128

As someone who played chess as a child but gave up after high school what are some apps that would get me back into the game?

Books.

I have to say, the combination of your username and comment was rather perfect (even if it was on purpose).

And you're pretty correct there, too, according to the last person I asked this question of.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#137

Post by girvo »

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…

StarCraft.

;)

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#138

Post by jrs99 »

schoen wrote: post #98
jrs99 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you see many, many people getting obsessed with a game, and you think it's boring, it's usually a sign that you're not understanding something. Go and no limit poker are getting massively popular. They are both like chess, but much less tactical and a lot more strategical games. In other words, computers can't beat the best players in these games yet. For whatever reasons, the status of games is somewhat related t…

Although the best chess players are now computers, chess doesn't seem anywhere close to being solved in the formal game theory sense (where we know how to produce perfect play that can't be beaten even in principle). There was a gap of over a decade between a machine becoming the world checkers champion (1994) and checkers becoming a formally solved game (2007). (Impressively, both of these were achieved by the same…

yes, absolutely agree. that's what i mean by "solved" in quotes. i mean that computers can beat the best humans, not that the games are solved in the absolute sense like tic tac toe.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#139

Post by gk1 »

reidmain wrote: post #128

As someone who played chess as a child but gave up after high school what are some apps that would get me back into the game?

Consider joining ICC (http://chessclub.com). It's the best place online for playing chess, and also comes with an app. Tell 'em gk sent you.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#140

Post by jrs99 »

phaus wrote: post #99
jrs99 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you see many, many people getting obsessed with a game, and you think it's boring, it's usually a sign that you're not understanding something. Go and no limit poker are getting massively popular. They are both like chess, but much less tactical and a lot more strategical games. In other words, computers can't beat the best players in these games yet. For whatever reasons, the status of games is somewhat related t…

>If you see many, many people getting obsessed with a game, and you think it's boring, it's usually a sign that you're not understanding something. I love chess, but this type of thinking is flawed. Using this logic, the Twilight movies are misunderstood masterpieces, Justin Beiber is the millennials' Mozart, and WWE style wrestling should be in the Olympics alongside the decathlon.

you're right. i should clarify that i mean "a life long pursuit" kind of interest and devotion. That something could offer that many stimulating moments to many people intellectually and aesthetically and socially.
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