Chess World Cup

[mjmooney]

You can read some basic strategies. Basically you want to control the centre of the board. 

 

If that was a response to my "I'm shit at chess" post, you have failed to understand my problem.

 

I can't hold more than one move in my brain at once - in fact I can't even see all the possibilities that that one move will open. I can sit and ponder the board for ten minutes, make my move - and then immediately see my queen taken, because I hadn't spotted that that would happen.

 

So that the very concept of 'controlling the centre of the board' or coming up with any sort of strategy is meaningless.

 

It must be some sort of left brain/right brain thing - I mean I think I'm reasonably intelligent in other ways, but chess (and similar games) is a real blind spot. And it really isn't worth the effort to work on it, TBH.

[MakemineVanilla]

 

You can read some basic strategies. Basically you want to control the centre of the board. 

 

If that was a response to my "I'm shit at chess" post, you have failed to understand my problem.

 

I can't hold more than one move in my brain at once - in fact I can't even see all the possibilities that that one move will open. I can sit and ponder the board for ten minutes, make my move - and then immediately see my queen taken, because I hadn't spotted that that would happen.

 

So that the very concept of 'controlling the centre of the board' or coming up with any sort of strategy is meaningless.

 

It must be some sort of left brain/right brain thing - I mean I think I'm reasonably intelligent in other ways, but chess (and similar games) is a real blind spot. And it really isn't worth the effort to work on it, TBH.

 

 

It is probably because you are not gifted with the sort of Asperger's which enables you to think in patterns.

[mjmooney]

I think that's probably true. I have quite a short attention span if something doesn't capture my interest immediately.

[MakemineVanilla]

I think that's probably true. I have quite a short attention span if something doesn't capture my interest immediately.

 

Some time ago we had an outbreak of chess interest at work and people played in their breaks.

 

It was surprising to find out who turned out to be good and who not.

 

It tended to be the guys who were very competitive in other games and sports who were the best.

[mjmooney]

I'm competitive at some things - running for example, even though I've never been good enough to actually win anything.

 

And quizzes.

 

But if it's something that I'm no good at, and don't particularly enjoy (e.g. chess), I just give up almost immediately.

Edited November 13, 2013 by mjmooney

[MakemineVanilla]

 

But if it's something that I'm no good at, and don't particularly enjoy (e.g. chess), I just give up almost immediately.

Me too. 

 

Playing computer chess I found that my pleasure in the game increased with chances of me winning.

 

But as it was pointed out in a certain episode of Frasier, chess is a bit too Oedipal for my liking. 

[Nigel]

 

You can read some basic strategies. Basically you want to control the centre of the board. 

 

If that was a response to my "I'm shit at chess" post, you have failed to understand my problem.

 

I can't hold more than one move in my brain at once - in fact I can't even see all the possibilities that that one move will open. I can sit and ponder the board for ten minutes, make my move - and then immediately see my queen taken, because I hadn't spotted that that would happen.

 

So that the very concept of 'controlling the centre of the board' or coming up with any sort of strategy is meaningless.

 

It must be some sort of left brain/right brain thing - I mean I think I'm reasonably intelligent in other ways, but chess (and similar games) is a real blind spot. And it really isn't worth the effort to work on it, TBH.

 

Ill play you for a tenner!

[momo]

Well, the fourth game ended in a fourth remis, that is a draw for you who don't know the lingo. It's chess fever in Norway and India.

[mjmooney]

Well, the fourth game ended in a fourth remis, that is a draw for you who don't know the lingo. 

 

Is Alex McLeish managing these people? 

[momo]

It finished yesterday with a new world champion. The second youngest ever. And it has been 103 years since the world cup was decided this early (the tenth of twelve matches. Well done by Magnus Carlsen to beat the 5 time champion Vishwanath Anand.

 

 

Magnus Carlsen made chess look sexy – now he's world champion

Fans hope historic win by player likened to Harry Potter will help the game recapture its former status

• Esther Addley
•  
• The Guardian, Friday 22 November 2013 20.50 GMT

Magnus Carlsen, right, beat reigning world chess champion Vishwanath Anand, left, in Chennai on 22 November. Photograph: Manjunath Kiran/AFP/Getty Images

His career to date has earned him comparisons to Tiger Woods, Mozart, and the boy wizard Harry Potter, but Magnus Carlsen might now be justified in feeling he has become his own man, after he became the youngest world chess champion on Friday since Garry Kasparov, just days shy of his 23rd birthday.

The Norwegian is also a part-time model who already earns more than €1m (£840,000) a year and was named by Time magazine as one of its 100 most influential people in the world this year. But with his 6.5-3.5 series victory on Friday over chess's reigning champion Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen has earned a place at the very pinnacle of the game, and comparisons to the greatest players of all time.

Chess is not a game which scatters its garlands freely – Anand has held the title since 2007, and Carlsen's victory makes him only the 16th undisputed world chess champion since the title was made official in 1886. But with record-setting TV audiences in Anand's home country of India, and huge interest around the world, Carlsen's achievement is not merely a sporting one.

"The interesting thing from a chess fan's perspective is that this match was probably the biggest chess match since Fischer-Spassky in 1972," says the British grand master Nigel Short. "There's been an absolutely colossal audience for it." Why? Firstly, it was played in India, where Anand is a sporting superstar to rival even its cricketing heroes. Also, he says, "Magnus is a star. He is young and he is not Russian. And it helps that he's a model. He makes chess cool."

His achievement may be remarkable, but it is not a surprise, according to John Saunders, associate editor of Chess magazine. "People were saying 10 years ago, Magnus Carlsen will be world champion one day," he says. "You could have staked your mortgage on it and you would have won your money."

The Norwegian was five when he started playing chess, taught by his father Henrik, a capable club player. Both the boy's parents were engineers, and his talent quickly attracted the attention of top coaches, including grand master Simen Agdestein, who coached him at the Norwegian College of Elite Sport.

When Carlsen was 12, his family took a year off to escort him to chess tournaments around the world. By 13, the boy was already a grand master. He became world number 1 at 19, and last year became the top-rated player of all time.

Along the way the affable young man ("He's a pretty normal guy actually," says Short, "We're not talking about a weirdo here") acquired a full-time manager, a modelling contract with the Dutch fashion company G-Star Raw, for whom he became the global figurehead, and a legion of fans – a pre-tournament trip to India in August saw him mobbed by 2,000 supporters.

So why is he so good? "It's his vision," says Saunders. "To be a fantastic chess player you have to have fantastic vision, a really good memory, you have got to have an ego, to believe in yourself." Carlsen, he says, could be compared to Bjorn Borg – an intimidatingly strong baseline tennis player who wears opponents down by the force of relentless, faultless rallies. Even as a newly minted world champion, Saunders believes the Norwegian has done enough to be considered alongside the game's very greatest players, arguing that he is so talented, "the only real challengers to him in chess history are going to be Kasparov and Bobby Fischer".

Kasparov, who became world champion in 1985 aged 22 years and seven months and is considered by many to be the greatest player ever, tweeted after the match: "Congratulations to Magnus for his victory! He continues to shatter the highest expectations with his skill and tenacity. Three cheers!"

He has previously written: "If he can rekindle the world's fascination with the royal game, we will soon be living in the Carlsen Era." Short agrees that Carlsen has the ability to give chess a public profile not seen since the cold war lent the intense matchplay rivalries of the 1970s an extra edge. "We tend to be focused on very few people in the chess world. Garry Kasparov has that name recognition – he can go on CNN and everyone will know who he is. But there are actually very, very few players who command that level of recognition.

"Magnus has that ability to be recognised. He's already reached places that chess players don't normally reach."

[Dodgyknees]

Can my Czech mate join?

[leviramsey]

[Stevo985]

How is that guy a model?

He looks like a pug

[CrackpotForeigner]

I can't hold more than one move in my brain at once - in fact I can't even see all the possibilities that that one move will open. I can sit and ponder the board for ten minutes, make my move - and then immediately see my queen taken, because I hadn't spotted that that would happen.

 

As I remember it from my days in the school chess club (), the number of moves you can see ahead is related to how much you play, rather than how naturally autistic you are.

 

Older brains might need a lot more practice though, my iPod app kicks my arse these days even in Sandbox mode.

[leviramsey]

How is that guy a model?

He looks like a pug

Norwegians be weird, yo.

[momo]

Magnus did it again!

[Stevo985]

I like that this topic has been bumped.

 

I'm trying to get good at chess recently. I started at utterly clueless, I've always known the rules and how the pieces move but never any sort of strategy or anything.

I've now progressed to terrible.

 

Any advice beyond "practice" much appreciated

[villaglint]

I played a computer a few years back in my spare time think it was called thinking machine or something like that. 

I basically repeated the same pattern of moves every time until it beat me. Change one thing and then start again. 

My theory was that it would always react in the same way so eventually I'd be able to work my way around it. It was handy to get an idea of general strategy and forcing your opponent into certain directions. 

And it worked eventually took me a few weeks but I beat the bastard. Did some research afterwards and apparently to beat this puts you at "novice level club player". So that was me! Then anyway... probably take me several more weeks to beat it now. 

Helpful I know 

Edited December 1, 2016 by villaglint