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Learning Chess at 40

nautil.us

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Re: Learning Chess at 40

#21

Post by dragontamer »

Children are definitely quicker, and in my experience with Chess... tactics are king. And tactics favor the quicker minds.

Strategic chess can be taught with words, and adults will naturally lean towards the strategic parts. We respect our predecessors, we seek knowledge that has already been discovered. Alas, heuristics and such aren't worth very much to a Chess beginner, who will regularly make "simple blunders" (like putting their own pieces in a knight fork) until Elo 1500+ (a moderately skilled beginner club player).

And even then, Elo 1800 to 2000 will regularly put themselves in a position where they can be forked in two or three moves.

If you can manage to play a blunder-free game (much harder to do than it looks), that's when strategic thinking comes in. Knight placement in the center vs edge, or backwards pawns here and there, or whatever.

In part, I think children do best at chess because they aren't distracted by any of the myriad of books and research on the subject (which are... hopelessly irrelevant to beginners)

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#22

Post by ktRolster »

chongli wrote: post #15
diogofranco wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would mean that all the GM's very well documented decline after 35 has to with lack of obsession at that age, which seems a rather strong claim. Maybe amateurs learning at different ages is a different phenomena than the top competitors decline, but the research showing the decline of professionals is certainly not weird, and probably not even research, since they are easy to lookup facts.

Not all GMs decline immediately after 35. Anand is 46 and still right at the top. His peak rating came at age 41 and he held on to his world champion title until age 43 (when he lost to Carlsen).

Viktor Korchnoi gave his expert opinion that most chess grandmasters hit their peak around age 40, maybe a little after. He also tried to analyze what gave various people the drive to work hard enough to become a grandmaster.

Also, Anand would arguably be world champion right now if he had the stamina. His knowledge of the game is probably the deepest of anyone, but he runs out of energy as th game progresses.

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#23

Post by vinceguidry »

The first time I beat my step-dad at chess was the last time we played. I tried not to gloat, but I could tell he was disappointed. I half-heartedly suggested another game the next week, he declined, and that was the end of it.

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#24

Post by crispyambulance »

lordnacho wrote: post #12
danielvf wrote: post #2

I'm learning the game of Go at near fourty. But I'm not having any of the problems he describes. A great thing about learning and playing online is that you can find an opponent at your same skill level within minutes. Unlike learning in a local club, where every person you will ever play beats you every time, I win slightly more than half my games. I also get this nice increasing graph of my skill level. This is a l…

I wish physical sports were like this. Anything online is blessed with this mechanic where you can keep it challenging for everyone other than the people at the top or bottom (based on my experience in CoD where I'm pretty sure I'm bottom). With sports like soccer it's quite noticeable that some people are way better than everyone else, or way worse. And there's no way to improve since you can't just rearrange thousa…

Many physical sports are actually just great for 40+ folks, that's why there are "masters" categories in competitions.

As long as individuals recognize the limitations of their age groups they'll be just fine.

Actually, even if individuals _don't_ recognize their age limitations and play against 20-somethings that's also OK (if they're willing to have their ass handed to them on every competition).

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#25

Post by spdegabrielle »

lordnacho wrote: post #12
danielvf wrote: post #2

I'm learning the game of Go at near fourty. But I'm not having any of the problems he describes. A great thing about learning and playing online is that you can find an opponent at your same skill level within minutes. Unlike learning in a local club, where every person you will ever play beats you every time, I win slightly more than half my games. I also get this nice increasing graph of my skill level. This is a l…

I wish physical sports were like this. Anything online is blessed with this mechanic where you can keep it challenging for everyone other than the people at the top or bottom (based on my experience in CoD where I'm pretty sure I'm bottom). With sports like soccer it's quite noticeable that some people are way better than everyone else, or way worse. And there's no way to improve since you can't just rearrange thousa…

I started playing soccer at 40 - the best way to learn is to play with and against people who are much better than you.

BUT is is a dangerous game - you can get hurt playing against 20year olds!

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#26

Post by x5n1 »

BooneJS wrote: post #10

Thankfully I'm 39 for 3 more months, so this article doesn't apply.

That's the thing with age, it's an eventuality. No matter how smug you are, the age you are smug about not being comes and much more quickly than you thought it would. I am not quite at 40, but still I know it will come soon enough.

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#27

Post by kd5bjo »

lordnacho wrote: post #12
danielvf wrote: post #2

I'm learning the game of Go at near fourty. But I'm not having any of the problems he describes. A great thing about learning and playing online is that you can find an opponent at your same skill level within minutes. Unlike learning in a local club, where every person you will ever play beats you every time, I win slightly more than half my games. I also get this nice increasing graph of my skill level. This is a l…

I wish physical sports were like this. Anything online is blessed with this mechanic where you can keep it challenging for everyone other than the people at the top or bottom (based on my experience in CoD where I'm pretty sure I'm bottom). With sports like soccer it's quite noticeable that some people are way better than everyone else, or way worse. And there's no way to improve since you can't just rearrange thousa…

It takes a bit more effort to figure out, but it is possible. I started playing tennis regularly about 2 years ago; I eventually found an academy attached to a resort, so there's a steady stream of players coming through of all skill levels.

About 2 months ago, I left my job at Facebook to move out here and it's been great -- I can always find someone that wants to play, and they're all in a good mood because they're on vacation.

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#28

Post by wslh »

danielvf wrote: post #2

I'm learning the game of Go at near fourty. But I'm not having any of the problems he describes. A great thing about learning and playing online is that you can find an opponent at your same skill level within minutes. Unlike learning in a local club, where every person you will ever play beats you every time, I win slightly more than half my games. I also get this nice increasing graph of my skill level. This is a l…

I tried to learn Go, obviously beyond understanding the rules, and found it very difficult comparing to Chess. I wonder how you dealt with the huge exploration space of just putting one stone in the beginning of the game. In Chess, every movement is very constrained.

Re: Learning Chess at 40

#30

Post by yolesaber »

keiferski wrote: post #11

Probably the most interesting example of someone pursuing chess later in life is that of Marcel Duchamp, the famous Cubist artist. He grew up playing chess for fun, but at age 36 he basically stopped making art and started pursuing chess full-time. "I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art—and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position." "The chess pi…

It's fascinating that people say Duchamp stopped being a practicing artist when he turned his obsessions to chess. I would say he just changed his medium. He wasn't one for retinal works anyway.
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