Playing chess against yourself..

Did you still shake hands with the other guy?

When I play with myself, the other me always cheat

I always play against another person.

It's like playing with an opponent and discussing each move over and over again, sometimes taking back, the final result is a draw.   Boring.

isn't that just like talking to yourself

Check out the great short story "Fool's Mate" by Stanley Ellin. It features mild-mannered George, married to the shrewish and narrow-minded Louisa, who one day receives a chess set from a friend. This being the era before computers or the Internet, George tries to persuade  his termagant wife to play--but she has no time for silly games.

So George tries--thousands of times--to play against himself, always taking the black pieces and trying to "forget" what white is up to. He finally succeeds, but is the price worth paying?

I wish I could provide a link, but it appears it's only available in print form. I read it in one of Irving Chernev's great anthologies.

When I play with myself I sometimes surprise myself with my moves because I think differently in both sides. 

Really? At least you expect playing a person.

The same way I expect you being still alive and able to read this after 4 years.

does playing against myself benefits (for starter) or no , means does it give to me a good level ??  

Interesting idea. I taught myself tennis by playing against the wall.

I don't want to play against myself because:

"All wars are based on deception." Sun Tzu - The Art of War.

I believe fighting is based on deception. If I can't deceive, I can't win.

This is a fascinating idea.

I saw on TV an older boxer and his younger student. The older guy says his student is like his clone. He wonders if he trains a kid, and his student trains a kid and we put them in the ring, who would win?

This is fascinating because what if you play against a person who you cannot deceive? Who knows what you are thinking.

We think we know what the other person is thinking and sometimes we do know. But what if the other person knows what we are thinking? If it works one way, it works the other way.

It's also great training for when you have to face your alternate self from a parallel mirror universe like in Star Trek.

I see this is a very old thread, but playing yourself/visualizing the chessboard helps with board vision!

Not crazy at all.

In fighting there is a saying, "Every move has a counter, and every counter has a counter."

What does it matter how old the thread? People have pondered this since the dawn of time.