Happy Thanksgiving!! What are you thankful about chess?

I came back to chess early in 2017 after being away from the game since the 1980's.  

I was like Rip Van Winkle and waking up after a very long sleep.

So number one, I am thankful (and surprised) that chess is NOT dead.  I really thought it was dead or on the throes of being dead.  Computers had beaten Kasparov.  Plus video games are way more enthralling.   

So to come back to the game and find out that scholastic chess is thriving was a big jolt.  I remember in 2017 walking in a small hotel room marveling at the digital chess clocks, and then asking the TD what the little device was that some players had instead of score sheets.  He said it was a ply counter.  A what??  A ply counter.  What's a ply?  Receive answer.   How much does one of those things cost?  What??? Seriously, people pay that much!

And around that time I discover chess.com.  What a great site.  So I'm thankful to chess.com for all its wonderful features.   I wasn't around for V2.  So V3 was all I knew.  And I thought it was fine.

What are you thankful to chess for?

Wow....I am thankful to chess for being a home to me in my teenage years....and like you, I was away from it for a long time.....since 1986 I had not played an OTB game. Then I got an invitation from a friend in Iceland to play in a tournament there. Since then I have gone to Iceland around 5 times, and have met some wonderful people along the way.

I am grateful to chess.com for having a wonderful site, and for all the nice people I have met here.

Otherwise, chess gives me a sense of beauty and harmony that I cannot put into words. Going through the moves of a well-played game gives me a subtle joy that I am very grateful for, similar to the joy of hearing a good musical piece.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I may not have everything i want, but i have everything i need.

Kamalakanta, you are one of the many chess.com members that I am thankful for.  I love reading your blog posts!  

Have a great Thanksgiving!

P.S.  I'm sitting here for the last 2 hours in an urgent care as the driver for a family member who needs medical help.  So I got nothing to do except switch back and forth between the WCC game and the forums and my daily games.   So I'm thankful to chess that I have this game to occupy me!

Hi! Thanks for the kind words! I hope everything turns out alright.

I just published a nice post:

https://www.chess.com/blog/kamalakanta/what-is-in-a-face-illyin-genevsky

I hope everything turns out ok.  I will be praying for you guys!

Everything will hopefully be fine.  An allergic reaction to an antibiotic, but he will live.  Just waiting in the car at the pharmacy now.

I have been following the Cauana-Carlsen Match quite avidly, and I'm thankful that Fabio is doing quite well, all things considering.   I feared the worst, and hoped for the best, and I'm quite pleased with Fabio overall.  I think he's acquitted himself quite well.  Particularly when I read many comments about how Magnus is the greatest of all time.

But for me, Kasparov is still the greatest.  And lol, it took awhile for Garry to topple Bobby into 2nd place.  

Magnus is great, an all-time great even, but Garry and Bobby are at the very top of Chess Mount Olympus.

Fabi has proven he is Carlsen's equal.

Yes, and I'm thankful about that.  Magnus beat Karjakin in tiebreaks in 2016.  And now he has opened with 10 straight draws against Fabio.

I also read that in one of his matches against Anand, Anand blundered a straightforward move, and if that had not happened, Anand probably would have won the match. 

I will give huge credit to Magnus for being World Champion in Classical, Rapid, and Blitz.  That's impressive.  And he plays a lot and is a terrific ambassador for the game.  

Lol, I feel like the third person in a phone call - where I am put on hold and then the other two forget about me and hang up xD.

I posted in a forum by the same title hours ago, but I'll "re-post" here just to have everything in one forum  

(Below was my post)

For one, I am thankful for the great resource that chess.com can be. I mean: where else can you "chat" chess, play people around the world, and have personal and friendly forums like this one, all in one day? Oh sure pretty much all chess sites do that - but chess.com is my favorite. At the very least, thanks for the chess resource that the internet is. Just take puzzles for example: I can just solve some right now - years ago I would of needed to wait for the newspaper, or a chess book (ah, how times change...)

I know this is slightly off topic of the OP, but I don't think Fabi has proven he is Magnus's equal.  Magnus essentially is playing the match with draw odds due to his huge advantage is rapid and blitz, so he doesn't have to win in classical.  When you add in that Fabi is the challenger I think the onus is on him to win and he hasn't done that yet.  Fabi needs to become WC to equal Magnus.

Wahahahaha! I'm with you, man!

I agree.  To be the champ you have to beat the champ.  

On the flip side, this is why I can't put Magnus as greatest of all time.  He beat Karjakin in Rapid tiebreaks in 2016, not in classical time controls.  Should the same thing happen in 2018, then imho, he's not really that much better than the chase pack.

But when you look at the differences between Fischer and his chase pack or Kasparov and his chase pack, it was enormous.  That's why Maggie is great, top 5 or top 10 even, but not the GOAT (Greatest of all time).