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On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

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Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#211

Post by aerovistae »

rubidium wrote: post #185
_the_inflator wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there fellow AoE II player! Cool, to hear from some decent player. What time did you play? Around 2002? Since I was a 2k player at the time, let me assure you, that the top dudes at the time (Koven, Sheriff for example) were already so called pro gamers who got payed/sponsored and they were exceptionally good. The true story is, that many folks above 2k+ did what was called "points trading" back then. Koven once…

Played and followed the AoE scene many times: 2002-2004, 2013-2014, and now playing again on AOE 2: DE. The new training scenarios in DE are quite helpful and I'd recommend them to new or returning players. DE has led to a massive resurgence of interest and a 3rd generation of players. First gen was AoE2 (CD), 2nd gen was the forgotten empires continuing things, 3rd is DE. Some players have spanned all 3. My current…

Oh yeah the twitch scene has really made a massive difference to this generation and to the modern-day level of interest. Viper's stream was what got me into competitive play.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#212

Post by aerovistae »

_the_inflator wrote: post #158
dreamer7 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, DauT is the Mikhail Tal of AOE while Viper is Bobby Fischer. I've watched endless videos of DauT and Viper playing AoE. ZeroEmpires has done a lot to popularize AoE streaming. Here's his YouTube channel if anyone is interested - https://www.youtube.com/user/ZeroEmpires

T90official is also suuuuupercool! He also started as a pretty mediocre player and now deserves his rank among the best players! He shares a lot of his secrets and is also #1 commentator now for AoE II:DE related games: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZUT79WUUpZlZ-XMF7l4CFg Also watch his Twitch account. Spirit of the Law is also a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChzLZJo-SxuPHz-oYKAIC_g

T90 to me is such a confusing phenomenon. I've never understood why a low-rated player who (to me) did not have a particularly entertaining personality was the most-subscribed AoE2 player on twitch. Is he actually good now? How high-rated is he compared to Daut and Viper and so on?

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#213

Post by eru »

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #49
eru wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the time, and it's fun, why not? Many ordinary people spend more time every day watching TV.

Time alone is not enough to reach the top 5% or better in a game. You need to be focused and put a lot of effort into improving. It's quite draining, and nothing like watching TV.

Oh, true. I was just reacting to the 2h-a-day.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#214

Post by eru »

watwut wrote: post #25
eru wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the time, and it's fun, why not? Many ordinary people spend more time every day watching TV.

I do tv watching equivalent at times when I tired for focused activities or when I also do something else on the side. It is just not the same. You play chess at your mental prime-time basically, to challenge and tire the brain. You watch tv/youtube to get rest.

I usually use sleep to rest.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#215

Post by BurningFrog »

hackerNoose wrote: post #103
sedivy94 wrote: post #31

Highly, highly recommend "The Queen's Gambit" on Netflix. Like wow.

It's not very realistic when it comes to the chess, except the actual games. I also found it frustrating that they obviously were inspired by Bobby Fischer whose real life would have made a great story, but decided he wasn't hollywood friendly.

"I would have liked to watch a different movie" is an understandable reaction, but not a valid criticism of the movie you watched.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#216

Post by thisisnico »

rubidium wrote: post #185
_the_inflator wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey there fellow AoE II player! Cool, to hear from some decent player. What time did you play? Around 2002? Since I was a 2k player at the time, let me assure you, that the top dudes at the time (Koven, Sheriff for example) were already so called pro gamers who got payed/sponsored and they were exceptionally good. The true story is, that many folks above 2k+ did what was called "points trading" back then. Koven once…

Played and followed the AoE scene many times: 2002-2004, 2013-2014, and now playing again on AOE 2: DE. The new training scenarios in DE are quite helpful and I'd recommend them to new or returning players. DE has led to a massive resurgence of interest and a 3rd generation of players. First gen was AoE2 (CD), 2nd gen was the forgotten empires continuing things, 3rd is DE. Some players have spanned all 3. My current…

AoE2:DE Player here as well. It's a fantastic game and I love the current community.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#217

Post by colmvp »

MauranKilom wrote: post #108
fabian2k wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would strongly recommend to play against real humans, not the computer. The computer with a handicap just plays in very weird ways, and that is not really helpful for learning. I also played the computer at first, and level 3 is the first level where it actually puts up a fight. But it plays very weird combinations of strong moves and then completely blunders at times. The problem is that it blunders in a very non-…

That has also been exactly my experience. Beating level 3 is just about capitalizing on the obvious blunders it makes. It feels completely unrewarding. Playing against humans, even significantly stronger ones, is so much more fun and rewarding. It's just way more exciting when both sides can capitalize on smaller mistakes, so the game becomes about building and maintaining an advantage. Or setting up a tactic that fe…

Yup.

The computer will be able to find optimal plays that require looking ahead several turns ahead while blundering obvious moves (e.g. capturing a piece that's clearly hanging after you used that same piece to capture their piece). Or they'll constantly move the same piece over and over again.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#218

Post by mantap »

edanm wrote: post #120
mantap wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, top level chess players are likely to have missed some non-chess education when they were young due to being a chess prodigy, which would contribute to a lower IQ in adulthood.

I'm pretty sure IQ tests aren't supposed to work that way. At least theoretically, they're measuring intelligence, not education.

Intelligence is a complex interplay of nature and nurture. There is no way to test only the "nature" component, it's akin to unmixing a pot of purple paint to extract the red and blue.

A lot of IQ test questions get easier the more mathematics you have studied.

Re: On Learning Chess as an Adult – From 650 to 1750 in Two Years

#220

Post by tmountain »

Trufa wrote: post #93
prune2000 wrote: post #10

You should use lichess.org instead. You would have unlimited tactics per day which come from real games played on the website, endless number of studies made by other players on opening theories, free analysis of your games, and all these statistics about your progress and more! Like "do I win more often or not when Queens are traded?". Good luck!

I’m a huge fan of lichess for playing and analysis but I think for tactics, it’s the one place it’s lacking, it’s always too easy for me for some reason and I go to chesstempo instead. Does anyone else experience this? By the way, when I say easy it’s for me that I’m an average player.

Also a big fan of lichess (using it daily). That said, I agree on the tactics comment. I've found this website to be a nice supplementary resource (https://www.chesstactics.org/).
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