I run a chess club at my high school and there are a lot arrogant players who never shut about how good they are and how many hours a day they spend studying, when in reality they are not very good at all, being a fellow student, hwo can I let these people down easy in order to get them to shut up?

Play and pwn them, and then act in an arrogant manner every time you win. They'll see how stupid they look--bragging doesn't make you better, it just shows that you're insecure about how hard you're trying and how good you really are (most of the time).

no. I agree that it may be good to play them and show them who's boss, but acting arrogantly after winning only makes them more arrogant. You need to be a role model, and show that after winning it is better to be humble that prideful.

I'm thinking of starting a small chess club myself. I live in a community with a good 30'000 people...and no chess club. In fact, if I wanted to play in a rated tournament...I'd have to drive 400km to the nearest city. Kinda sad really. Anyway, I have played against these players, and being the quiet type that I am, after giving them a good woopin, sometimes being humble about it gets the point across. I especially like hearing all about "Oh I wasn't paying attention when this happened" or some other lame excuse. Don't get me wrong, I'm not into beating weak players, but the arrogant type I just can't stand. I hope I don't have have to deal with too much of that should I chose to go on with my plans of starting up a club.

Kill them with kindness and knowledge.  Arrogance for arrogance will get you nowhwere...don't stoop to their level.

Also remember that it is human nature (especially amongst school-age kids) to brag and boast.  Be the 'bigger man' and approach the problem as you would a chessboard.  Outmaneuver, outwit.

My suggestion to you is to play them, just as you stated, but after the game, take a different approach than would have been offered to you.  If your opponent seems to genuinely WANT to learn, offer advice.  To those that would take this as being patronizing, offer a simple "thanks for the game" and move on.  Let them rant and rave...but keep in mind the reason they're mad is because they lost, and they need to get used to that if they're going to make it in life.

Be kind, be 'professional'.  You'll never go wrong.  :)

You run the club.  Lay down the law.  Tell the club (nobody specifically) that arrogance is not tolerated.  In place of arrogance, the focus of the club is [whatever you want it to be], say, to learn, have fun, make friends, etc.

People who are still arrogant after your warning get thrown out for two weeks.  Enforce it.

You're in charge!!!   Set the boundaries--explicitly--for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. 

Bobby Fischer was fairly arrogant =/

shuttlechess92 wrote:

no. I agree that it may be good to play them and show them who's boss, but acting arrogantly after winning only makes them more arrogant. You need to be a role model, and show that after winning it is better to be humble that prideful.

I think this is the best approach.

I love arrogant people, they are so easy to wind up. Also, to be arrogant you have to have an aspect of yourself that you are really proud of, so the subject of attack is easy to find, then you just unwind the abuse, but not shouting and swearing just pure taking the rise, belittle them and than y'know :)

Obviously, I'm a grown man, I don't do this to children. But aye, I find that humiliating people normally brings them into line. Oh, yeah, that's not the best approach for teaching :)

Good post  Tijaro and well said, you show them an good example of being a leader I like that. Good one.

All really great suggestions, I usually do end up just playing them and thanking them, and yea you guys are right they do make up a lot of lame excuses for losing I think the worst I heard was: "I messed up the kings gambit by not trading"--- he opened with the queen's pawn, lol!

It's not just chess. I enjoy gaming on the side (Magic and other CCGs) and there are many arrogant, subpar players. I'm not sure if it's because kids are raised to think they are the most special human being on the planet or they play in a weak environment and get a god complex.

The problem is you have to beat them, and beat them alot. I was in a gaming tournament and this kid wouldn't shut up about how he was going to crush me and that he was goning to win, etc. In fact I crushed him, and i didn't say anything outside of what needed to be said. That didn't stop his mouth. After the end of the round robin i was undefeated, and he had only the 1 loss, so we played in the finals and again he talked about how I was lucky and this time things would be different. In the finals, with everyone watching, I again easily bested him, without saying anything until the end when i extended my hand for a good game. I at least got him to stop talking garbage to me.

In gaming, and it seems chess, talking trash is just a way to try and get into you opponent's head - see Phil Helmuth and poker. I've watched 30 year olds yell at 7 year olds in Yu-GI-Oh games because they will probably cry and quit or you can easily cheat them. Unfortunatly they don't understand that you can only abuse someone so much that they don't play you and soon no one will.

I should add 1 more thing - I taught a group of kids to play magic. Over the span of about 3 years, i would estimate that i won 95% of my games against the lot. They still went to tournaments and were regularly beaten there as well. Despite that, many of them talked about how awesome they were. So i asked them how they think they are so good when I beat them nearly all the time - simple - i didn't count.

When I was in high school I found most of the kids in my chess club very arrogant as well as overbearing.  I think that in a lot of ways they didn't understand competition very well.  Most kids, in my experience, who are in chess clubs were never particularly successful with sports and as a result don't have the necesary social skills to deal properly with competition.  I realize that's a blanket statement and I think it may only be true in my experience.  I know that some kids who were really good at chess never came to club because they played football and had practice and games during chess club and tournaments.  When it's the only thing you've been good at competitively you tend to take it to far.  I find these kind of folks on this site as well.  One guy said I wasn't a good player; he said I was just lucky.  I don't know if I was lucky the first, second, or third time I beat him.   Anyhow, the reality is that most of us are terrible.  Some of us are adequate and maybe 2% of us really have the capacity to play at a very high level.  I think arrogance towards others during a chess match shows a huge disrespect for the game.  It's difficult and just enjoying chess shows a high level of critical thinking skill that should be respected.

Anthony

You can't!  Having been to many a chess club, I can tell you that it is (unfortunately) part of the milieu--especially at a high school club.  I think what TheAOD says is right; even though there probably are a few athletes who are overly competitive, it's just possible that those who participate in a physical sport (and get clobbered a few times as a result) might get a little sense knocked into them along with their lumps.  Don't know whether it's due to HS chess players' inability to deal with competition or simply their inability to deal with people...but in either event, I don't think you're going to get rid of it.  And any ill-conceived attempt to do so will only very likely make matters worse.

theAOD nailed it... chess players, on avergae, have some of the worst social skills of any group out there.  Especially in high school, where the big fish in the small pond thinks hes the man when really, he might be average.  Its actually quite ironc when he finds himself in the ocean :P

That kinda ties into a question I have for you guys, do you think it is harder to be in high school and play chess, it being known that we have bad social skills in high school to being with, then out in the real world?

Everything in school is magnified because it's a little bubble in the big world. Once you escape, or even just progress into higher education, you'll see a big-ish difference.

keep in mind there is nothing arrogent about mentioning how many hours one studies. studying chess is a wonderful thing, we all need to do more of it. those who study more than me are my role models, and I like to talk to them about what they are studying, so I can get a better idea of the benefits of studying various chess topics

Well it is not just that, they totally suck at chess, but yet they continue to get up in peoples faces about how superior they are.