Happy Thanksgiving

i ate mcdonalds instead of turkey

When I was watching Pixar's Inside out with wife and kids, I was surprised by a scene showing Riley's father daydreaming about soccer. I commented later with them and other people and they all found it weird, damn, the guy is from Minnesota, not impossible but it looks strange. I even suspected the scene could have been edited by distribuitors here. Later I learned that it was Pixar's decision for certain countries, with the original showing a game of hockey. Wrong decision, we all know Americans are into that thing, especially in the north. The original would have looked much more natural.

Many people here rarely watch European movies because they look weird.

All of them are dubbed anyway.

Sure, when I watch something foreign part of the fun is little cultural things like that which I (probably) don't understand.

But since there are so many US movies, I imagine some people find it nice when the sport isn't totally unrelatable (like daydreaming of American football). Hockey is in the Olympics at least.

to all my friend and foes alike American chess players i wish you a happy thankgiving weekend  hope the weather where you reside is great -- and your friends are close 

They would have to reboot the whole "Cars" movie. One million cars just going round together until several of them crash?

No need to damage one of those!

that surprises me. at your level, i would think calculating moves against players like me (or below) would be quick.

When you are playing in public to find players then there is more going on than a single game.  You are also trying to get people to be interested in chess with people and quickly blowing a person away is not good for doing that.

I do it to be social, not to be rude

Even at the OTB casual club I used to play at (we did unrated 10+10 tournaments), unless the person was at least... 1600-1700 OTB it was hard for me to play full strength... it just felt rude.

One time I showed up drunk though, which loosened those inhibitions. I played the 10+10 games as fast as 1+0 bullet and blew people off the board. Even this one guy who was known for playing fast, I made a point to play even faster. I finished some games with over 15 minutes on my clock. My opponents were around 1500-1600 strength. There were a few 1700-1900 but the night ended before I could play them.

Anyway, demoralizing people isn't a good way to make friends

i don't think moving quickly would be seen as demoralizing. 

i don't think that's how it works in washington square park. correct me if i'm wrong, but i think it's the most famous public place to play. i would assume cues are taken from there.

Well, for example, as soon as you touch a piece, I touch the piece I'll move as a response. If you move your hand back to reconsider, I move my hand back too.

Then you go ahead and move, and before you can hit your clock I've already moved and my hand is hovering over the clock waiting to instantly start your clock again.

There's a lot of body language in OTB chess. If your opponent is oozing arrogance it's cute for the first 5-10 moves, but then if they're completely outplaying you move after move... "battle without honor or humanity" comes to mind. It isn't a game, it's an execution.

Of course you (and most people) may not think of it like that, but that's the point. When it's pretty clear those kinds of thoughts I just described are in your opponent's head, I imagine it's off putting. Like, ok psycho, have fun with that, I'll play someone I can actually have a chat with.

So in normal games it's good for me to stay calm and friendly... which also means I'm taking maybe a 50-100 handicap due to losing a killer instinct... but if my opponent is much worse than me it doesn’t matter. It's more important to be a social human being

That's like a boost in my case however, usually my killer instinct ends up killing myself.

Oh sure, drunk llama was just out to brutalize people, so that's a small hit to your Elo too.

Tournament play is you take that brutality and temper it with focus. Instead of a messy execution, it's more like a surgeon, using your knowledge and skill to kill someone as completely and precisely as possible.

"During a chess competition a chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk." -- Alekhine

---

See, these sorts of thoughts are not very friendly. People who just want to play a game aren't going to understand.

Max Deutsch, the beginner who challenged Carlsen, remarked about the odd atmosphere. That Carlsen had a tense and serious aura that he didn't drop for even a single moment. Not until the game was over. Well of course this was odd to a beginner, who only thinks of chess as a game.

this is too badass for me, but it sounds like a great strategy. i only have that type of confidence with golf. 

back when i played otb, there were guys that would focus on one part of the board. instead of staring at the board, i looked at them, and, i could sometimes determine what their plan of action was based on looking at their eyes.

and, i still stink at this game!

Haha, I like this story... one time in an OTB game my opponent moved, then froze, then shook his head like it was a big mistake, and started doing various gestures as if to say "oh my god." Then he learned in close to the board, and was very obviously staring at a single square.

Well ok, I saw that there might be a tactic on that square, but he was so obvious about it I thought it's probably a trap. So I calmly calculated and thought about it. He was like a statue the whole time, staring at the square. I eventually decided not to move there.

I won in the end, and analyzed with an engine. Indeed I had missed the best move, and it started with a tactic on that square

i'm no poker guy, but i played chess at times like one-play the person. 

of course, this only worked if they revealed their 'tells', as both you and i have described with those focusing.

i find it amusing how we are describing the same type of play, but at different levels.

you write about a square. i've read people talking about weak squares. i don't understand it. the couple of guys i'm referencing would look at a quadrant of the board.