Can You "Buy" Your Way To Better Chess?
Unlike other sports where if you have the money you can "buy" a better game, new chess pieces and a board or a shiny new clock can't help you in the least.
In golf, any pro will tell you that equipment is a vital component. Baseball equipment, hockey equipment, track shoes, tennis racquets.......and the list goes on. In chess, new equipment doesn't mean a thing.
If we needed to run faster or jump higher there's steroids and personal trainers. Both of little help to the chess player. (I know, there's been talk of smart drugs and benefits of exercise and how it helps chess for years. I believe it with all of the BUFF grandmasters out there these days.)
What about dumping tons of cash into a chess coach, or two or three? Doesn't work, I've tried it. (Maybe I need the smart drug too.)
The aspiring chess player has only himself/herself to rely on and the only equipment that can be improved is his or her brain. Now, if you find out where to buy one of these, let me know because I could sure use one, and I'd pass out a few as gifts.
Thx,
Mike