lol.

Anyway seriously do you ever just sit down (OTB or on a program) and try and play both sides of a game?  Perhaps this isn't entirely uncommon and I'm just unaware, but I was standing over my board thinking about the idea and because you would avoid ridiculous tactical errors and it might help develop a very positional game.  Maybe I'm way off here, but really I just want to know what some players thoughts.

EDIT:  The point really would simply be to play out a game attempting to make the best possible move for both sides.  I think the playing against yourself creates the wrong image, but the Idea is basically the same as analyzing a game.  Instead of looking at a game deciding your moves and then looking at the moves made, you simply play the game out with your move.

I used to, but I am dangerously close to getting thrown into an asylum, so now I really gotta be careful with stuff like that.

Well the good part is you never lose when you play against yourself. :p

I used to all the time, until I got a wrist injury

 Sure you do unless you draw them all

I see what you did there WellRounded. :S Anyway I don't play against myself much, somehow it's not much fun. I do analyze openings though, if that counts...

I think I did it maybe once or twice because nobody around wanted to play...but it was terribly boring...if you could find a way to forget your plan from each side it could work.  Maybe bullet with yourself could be ok.

 what was the furthest you got with pi?

I was shocked when i read the title of the thread, until i clicked inside... lol

Yeah, if the position is interesting and I want to look at it -- it's pretty rare that I play a whole game from the starting position.  The trick with playing from the beginning is to be honest and not slightly favor one side, when I'm trying as hard as I can for both sides it's always a draw but then I know I did it right.

But if there was a critical position or interesting endgame from a club game when I get home I might set it up and and try to convince myself I had a draw/win or my opponent had a missed draw/win... so like you said it's pretty much the same as analysing.

I used to do this and intend to start doing it again.  At first I found it boring and annoying unless I stretch out the length of the game to the point where I'm only making a move or two a month.  You have to be able to absorb the game from one sides point of view and then discard that information and start again. This is easier done over a period of time.    

wow, wouldn't that mean that a game could literally take years to complete?!

Nah, I never bother playing with myself.

If I'm working on an opening playing that opening against myself is a must.

I find that if I sit on my right hand for a couple of hours if feels like someone else is playing with me.  It's part of the autodidactic sub-branch of the counter-intuitivismism movement.

 Good one.

I sometimes just play for fun.

ya i do sometimes and get really  absorbed