You're assuming that the time you put into chess was time well spent...
I suppose everyone does that in many areas of life though.
I suspect that is at least part of the problem. If you are doing something badly, practicing it badly just makes a person very proficient at doing something wrong.
Now you're talkin'.
Keep doing what you've been doing and you'll keep getting what you're getting.
In your case: nowhere.
But...you are having fun.
Where are your manners e4nf3
@ Meadmaker:
How did you become good at math ? Did you have a teacher ? Did you study it in an orderly manner or did you just play around with it here and there ?
Or didn't you have to study it because you had it in you since you were a toddler ?
@ Meadmaker:
How did you become good at math ? Did you have a teacher ? Did you study it in an orderly manner or did you just play around with it here and there ?
Or didn't you have to study it because you had it in you since you were a toddler ?
Good question.
Needless to say I had instructors for math in school, as did everyone, but some people find it effortless, and others struggle.
(anecdote deleted)
I've been googling on the general subject of chess skill and academic success, and there is some interesting literature. The interesting thing is how much it has been studied, and how little is known. Overall intelligence seems to be a good predictor of Chess success, but not a great predictor, and there seems to be a sort of threshold phenomenon. You have to be smart, but being very, very, smart doesn't seem to help much.
I had expected to find some correlated abilities, i.e. people who are good at Chess tend to be....X, but there is precious little in the findings.
I am sure this has been covered by 12 pages of discussion but its to do with visual memory. Which isnt relative in other common intellectually measured academia, i.e Math and Science.
Where are your manners e4nf3
Truth is blind to manners. Besides, I am a chess player...not a diplomat.
People who suck at chess but refuse to study their craft and blame it on the notion that they are really brilliant in everything but chess, or are too old to think squarely or use a database while playing (or even an engine...same thing, IMO).
Scorn, not manners, is what they require.
Where are your manners e4nf3
Truth is blind to manners. Besides, I am a chess player...not a diplomat.
People who suck at chess but refuse to study their craft and blame it on the notion that they are really brilliant in everything but chess, or are too old to think squarely or use a database while playing (or even an engine...same thing, IMO).
Scorn, not manners, is what they require.
Oh dear. That seems a bit harsh to me. I try to save up my scorn for bigger issues, but if it's something you feel strongly about, then scorn, by all means.
i never had a math instructor and i design math courses
I just meant teachers in school.
I am sure this has been covered by 12 pages of discussion but its to do with visual memory. Which isnt relative in other common intellectually measured academia, i.e Math and Science.
The academic literature doesn't seem so clear. It seems that expert Chess players are extremely good at remembering Chess positions, but no better than average at remembering other bits of information. The example most cited was that experts could recall hundreds or thousands of exact board positions that had arisen in Chess games, but were no better than anyone else at memorizing the position of Chess pieces placed randomly on a Chess board.
Also, the "visual" aspect is interesting. When recalling the chess positions, they appear not to recall a realistic visual representation, but a highly abstract representation.
In dealing with perception of a Chess position, they seemed to visualize the relationships among the pieces, instead of the pieces themselves.
(If I run across a truly excellent paper on the subject, I'll post a link. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested, ask me for a link to research I'm finding. I'll try to provide.)
ETA:people.brunel.ac.uk/~hsstffg/preprints/Visuo-spatial_abilities.doc
The study suggests little correlation with chess playing skill and visual memory.
Example: I went to the University of Illinois, and one summer I took a class in Combinatorics. (Can't remember the class number, but it was crosslisted Math/CS/EE, but it was a 300 level class, available for undergraduate and graduate credit. I was a senior at the time.) The class met at 11:00. The night before the first test was Little King's Night at the local bar, and I got severely drunk. When I woke the next morning, my alarm clock read 11:05. My head was pounding. I threw on clothes and hopped on my bike, arriving at class at 11:15, and grabbed a copy of the test. I turned it in at 11:35, the first in the class to do so, and got 100%.
Now, the point of the story is not to brag. Yes, I was good at math, but everyone in that room was good at math. I got A's in all of my math classes, but I can assure you that most of them required a lot of study, and I sure would not have been drinking myself into a stupor the night before a test in differential equations, which I found incredibly difficult.
You spend entirely too much time writing about yourself. Get over it.
Study the game, and you just might get better. Q.E.D.
I already told him that.
He refuses to study. He complains about bad chess play due to some kind of missing chess gene.
Maybe he is right. (lol)
I already told him that.
He refuses to study. He complains about bad chess play due to some kind of missing chess gene.
Maybe he is right. (lol)
Or maybe "The Devil Made Him Not Learn It." After teaching him the Calculus of Variations, and Optimal Control Theory," while attending Buddhist Summer Camp, and being interviewed by CNN.
Here's an interesting study: The part of the brain used for facial recognition is highly active for Chess masters studying Chess positions, but not for weak Chess players studying Chess positions. The links below are to the original published study, and a more digestible summary.
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/28/10206.full
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eyes-the-brain/201107/chess-and-the-brain
It would be interesting to see if skill at face recognition is correlated with strong Chess playing ability. The study didn't specifically address the question.
...doo-dah...all the doo-dah day...
I already told him that.
He refuses to study. He complains about bad chess play due to some kind of missing chess gene.
Maybe he is right. (lol)
Or maybe "The Devil Made Him Not Learn It." After teaching him the Calculus of Variations, and Optimal Control Theory," while attending Buddhist Summer Camp, and being interviewed by CNN.
I've never been interviewed by CNN, nor have I ever made any such claim.
To become a a good chess player it helps (a lot!) if you deeply love the game because you need to spend a lot of time at it.
But maybe REALLY intelligent people avoid the chess addiction so they can use their time for productive activities, like earning a living.
Maybe really intelligent people avoid discussions about intelligence as well. 
Maybe really intelligent people avoid discussions about intelligence as well.
Indeed.
In response to the criticism, I have deleted the overly lengthy anecdotes previously posted.
I find this topic interesting, and I intend to continue it, but I had, indeed, spent a bit more time than was warranted on one particular example.
whatever