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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

#311

Post by fakedang »

aerovistae wrote: post #207
fakedang wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I play Starcraft for the story only, and I loved it. Still play the campaign from time to time. I feel like a savage amongst civilized men on this thread.

This was how I played AoE and StarCraft as a kid! I think the vast majority of players play them this way, actually. If you're in the competitive multiplayer scene, it's easy to forget there are millions or tens of millions of single player / campaign-only players.

Campaigns seem to have a bad rep among most gamers online, but honestly they are the most satisfying aspect of strategy games. One of my favourite games growing up was Rise of Nations and its Conquer the World maps - remove that and you get a worthless husk.

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

#312

Post by kjaftaedi »

caffeine wrote: post #162
hannofcart wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I advocate the same (teaching kids) Poker for the same reasons you mentioned (certain self-control and tactical/strategy concepts) but this is often greeted with controversy anytime I voice it. Learning to weigh the odds, exercising patience, taking calculated risks in the face of incomplete information, making allowance for the vagaries/emotions of your opponent all seem like great skills that would help one in life…

I am a grown up, but I'd love to hear your recommendations for how to learn poker for a beginner? Say I can dedicate about 3 hrs / week to this, what is the most efficient way to spend that time?

Find at least two books about poker that you think would be interesting and read them cover to cover.

Repeatedly consider the concepts you've learned and try to apply them.

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

#313

Post by ouid »

dreamer7 wrote: post #139
xuki wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who could never break 1750 on Zone, hat off to both of you. Even though I no longer play, I did follow the scene closely for a while until a few years ago. To my surprise DauT is still a top player, although one of his teammate is clearly the indisputable No. 1 by a distance compare to anyone else.

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

Viper is pretty defensive and grindy. I think Carlsen is a much better comparison.

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

#314

Post by snarf21 »

hannofcart wrote: post #270
OskarS wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that poker teaches many useful lessons about probability and weighing your decisions, but it's not just a moral panic to say that's it's maybe not the most appropriate game for kids. Poker is genuinely very harmful for a non-trivial number of it's players, and it can be a destructive force in a way that (say) chess is not. I've had more than one friend lose tremendous sums of money and had to go cold turkey o…

Started looking at backgammon after reading your comment. I find it fascinating. I'm probably going to go ahead and invest some time learning it. Thanks. I found this section on the Backgammon Wikipedia page relevant to this discussion: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backgammon#Legality

And to be clear, there is a lot of gambling on backgammon. Add in the doubling cube and it is similar to poker.

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

#315

Post by creamynebula »

_the_inflator wrote: post #36
windowshopping wrote: post #28

I did something very similar with an old strategy game called Age of empires II. Over the course of two years I went from a 1300 rating to 1850. I don't play chess, so it's hard for me to compare the scales, but I will say the highest players were rated around 2600. I think being 1850 put me around 90-95th percentile for active players-- there were less than 50 players over 2300, and only a few hundred over 2000. My…

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…

Just to let you know that Chris came back to the game recently, he streams on twitch as iamchris_age2

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

#316

Post by peterburkimsher »

thisisnico wrote: post #216
rubidium wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do real-world maps work with DE? I had fun making a map of Taiwan, with actual locations of gold, stone, fish, wild animals, etc.

https://github.com/peterolson/AOE2-Real-Map-Creator

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

#317

Post by creamynebula »

aerovistae wrote: post #212
_the_inflator wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

T90 is on the 2000-2100 range currently, he just reached top 100.

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

#318

Post by hugocbp »

That was an amazing read but, to me, the whole thing sounds to me more like a second job than a hobby, if I'm being honest. Obviously different people relate differently with those side activities but your dedication to learn chess puts it very much outside my personal definition of hobby or unwinding activity.

I have a analog story that ended up burning my up with my hobby: playing music. I played guitar (acoustic and electric) since I was a teenager, and sometime after I was an adult, I decided to double down to really learn it (as a hobby, since I already had my main career). I set up several hours a week for deliberate practice, started a classic guitar class, tried some Brazilian MPB class. The endgame for me was that I got completely burned out.

After doing that for about 2 years, playing became a big chore for me. One day I just stopped and didn't touch a guitar again for almost 5 years.

It was still very interesting to see how you approached it.

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

#319

Post by navan »

kadabra9 wrote: post #193

I've mentioned this before in other discussions about chess. I was a little over 2000 USCF when I went to college before I decided that girls were more important than getting to 2200, lol. Anyways, if you're a newer player and want to improve your game fast, this is what I would focus on. 1. Tactics. The vast majority of games between newer players are decided by tactics...someone hanging a piece, falling into a trap…

Totally agree with all your points. I also have a rating little over 2000 USCF. New players tend to over-emphasize on openings. To this day I know only names of about 5 openings. I do not know more than a few moves in them. I have generic replies for most of them.

Majority of the games of new players are decided by some stupid blunder. Blitz games do not help improve this area much. Like you said game reviews and puzzles are best.

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

#320

Post by RhodoYolo »

windowshopping wrote: post #28

I did something very similar with an old strategy game called Age of empires II. Over the course of two years I went from a 1300 rating to 1850. I don't play chess, so it's hard for me to compare the scales, but I will say the highest players were rated around 2600. I think being 1850 put me around 90-95th percentile for active players-- there were less than 50 players over 2300, and only a few hundred over 2000. My…

I don't know if you've ever played runescape but it has a very similar experience to the one you are describing.

It's interesting you compare your time spent in a game to time spent productively outside the game. One of the things driving the 'investments' in those style of games(MMO's) is that you get this feeling of progress and can compare your progress to your friends 'skills'. I've been writing alot in my personal journal on how to turn runescape skills into real life skills with achievements.

Ruby on rails would be a 'skill' and based on time spent doing pomodoros to earn xp for a 'Ruby on Rails' Skill, combined with certain projects awarding XP and achievements would turn real life into a game. Think like a self defined 'Khan Academy meets Facebook'.

You could see your friends skills and see what they are working on. Maybe a bulletin board/ social media style GUI that would say ' x just completed a pomodoro in Piano'. You could post to your linkedin account all the 'skills' you've obtained to show your various interests.

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