my thoughts exactly ;0)
The Communist Utopia
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well....I try to watch videos when I can, but yeah, you make a good point.
Oct 18, 2013
0
#4
There are far too many resources which are free already for the person who wants to be a strong chess player. Chess.com's resources are for convenience--helpfulness in one place.
The only reason I have gold is to play more tournaments. When my games get fewer than 15 or 20, I just enter a few tourneys, and soon it's back up to 30 or 40 :)
I think what is truly valuable at this site is the Tactics Trainer, Chess Mentor, Game Analysis. With the Platinum membership you get the necessary access to these (Tactics Trainer unlimited, Chess Mentor 5/day, Game Analysis 25/week). This has the best value/money ratio since there are tons of free videos on the net and you don't need unlimited Chess Mentor lessons and Game Analysis. All in all Platinum membership makes a real difference for the average user compared to free membership but Diamond compared to Platinum does not. I feel I have made the right choice when opting for Platinum.
Oct 18, 2013
0
#7
rooperi wrote:
The only reason I have gold is to play more tournaments. When my games get fewer than 15 or 20, I just enter a few tourneys, and soon it's back up to 30 or 40 :)
I get my little star to avoid crappy little pop-up ads. The other stuff is sometimes marginally amusing.
True story, not much to do with communism, but but illustrating that chess transcends class.
In the 1980's, South Africa was very much a racially segregated society.
You would not see a non-white face in national rugby or cricket teams, and at club level, these cluns were segregated. You had white clubs, and black clubs. The never or hardly ever even competed agains each other.
But in the middle to early 80's Johannesburg Chess club had many players of all races. Arthur Kobese (father of Watu, who so nearly became a GM, just couldn't get that last norm, but that's another story...) was an efficient and active member of the club committee.
At tournaments all races were present, I cannot think of any other sport/activity that was so integrated.
No white person EVER went into Soweto....
Except us chessplayers who supported Arhur's tournaments at Funda Centre and were very graciously welcomed there.
Guys... this thread isn't about Communism. Read what the OP is saying. Don't judge a thread by it's title!
Oct 18, 2013
0
#10
macer75 wrote:
Guys... this thread isn't about Communism. Read what the OP is saying. Don't judge a thread by it's title!
It is now. Try to keep up :p
The topic was consciously and deliberately switched to something more interesting that the OP's odd question about whether people would use the extra features if given them for free.
The only thing that should be avoided is nihilism. Tactics Trainer is good. Period.
Tactics Trainer improves your game if it is free and improves it if you have to pay for it.
I would be glad if Tactics Trainer (and some other features) were free. And would use them of course and would be happy with a free membership. I need no crown or diamond or anything else beside my name. I just want my Tactics Trainer.
But to argue that Tactics Trainer is an aristocratic or eggheaded thing just because at this particular site you have to pay for it is nonsense.
You have to separate what are good things and how you gain access to those good things. The first part is not a question of politics the second is politics itself.
TheGambitKing wrote:
owltuna wrote:
Ironic to see objections about a thread getting hijacked to its topic.
There will always be a struggle to effect a change for the good of all, by those who have been exploiting the freedom of all for the good of a few.
Once again, your response has nothing to do with the post you were responding to.
There is 'positional trainer' too (Chess Mentor in many ways is a positional trainer). I just used Tactics Trainer as an example. You can substitute Tactics Trainer for Chess Mentor ('Positional Trainer') and my argument remains the same.
Things have intrinsic value independent of their price. This is my point.
Savage wrote:
TheGambitKing wrote:
It makes sense that someone from Australia, one of the most unruly, materialist, corporate-dominated nations on earth, would say such a thing.
I know, it's a living hell. Kim Jong-un is processing my immigration application as I type.
Wow GambitKing.... congratulations, you just insulted an entire nation.
Now all we need is to have SupremeOverlord comment on this.
I just needed a catchy title. Nice to see that people contributed some interesting insights to it. I personally think Communism is inherently more evil than Catholicism or National Socialism, but!!! ... as this touches a political subject and I try to adher to the Rules of Conduct the site management has laid out, I won't delve any deeper.
My 2 cents, after all. Feel free to discuss about anything here, I don't care. 
TheGambitKing wrote:
Ha ha nice flag there, Johannes. I bet you feel it's a big conspiracy on the part of our Zionist overlords to set up a unified world government. There is such an initiative, of course--but the Rothschilds have no interest in Communism. Inherently, Communism is the control of production by labour; in other words, the realisation that everyone is a labourer, and the sharing of resources in order to accompish a common goal. To understand what it should really look like, read the first few chapters of Acts in the Bible. Of course, the Jews were very much AGAINST those Communists!
Your last sentence is waaayyy off, lol! The main revolutionaries in the SU were Jewish, and the agenda of transforming the world into a Socialist paradise wasn't really much of a conspiracy, it was an open fact. I don't take any sides, I believe any ideology which forcefully attempts to re-imagine society is corruptable and detrimental to the individual liberties of each one of us. And this is the last comment of mine on this issue, but if you feel like, we can exchange PMs if there's still something you might be curious about me.
But honestly, I think you're just a troll.
Oct 19, 2013
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#18
My physics professor has a lot of molecular periodicity papers in Russian, so maybe I could see if he had some political ones, too--then I could get the other side of the story!
You should google "The Marxist Internet Archive Library," they have a number of books that may be of interest to you.
Oct 19, 2013
0
#19
The gambit king should realise by now that sharing equally is fundamentally impossible between humans. Power corrupts, gangs and groups rule the world, every utopia breeds it's stalin and there are no hobbits on our planet. It is utterly stupid to believe in an ideology that does not work.. All pigs are equal, until some become a lot more equal than others.
TheGambitKing wrote:
As a virulent Marxist, I was somewhat disappointed that given the forum post's title, there wasn't any discussion on the strong link between chess and Communism in many countries. I don't think it's a coincidence that many of the strongest players have been from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and Yugoslavia.
On a side note, I wish that I had some of my old games back. However, after I got banished for disputing Jeremy 'God' Silman's charlatranry and innacurate writing, as seen in his chess improvement books, I had to realise that all of my old blogs (where I had posted and archived many of my notable games, to bypass the time restriction for free members) had been removed.
When they did run that promotion awhile back where free members got premium services for a little while, I thought that I should take advantage of the videos while I could. I enjoyed some of them, but they weren't that great, honestly; there's a lot more interesting stuff out there that's free, in my opinion.
It's okay to believe what you like, capitalism isn't for everyone and could very well have its fall too, but Silman isn't a charlatan he's an actual IM.
"Let's all fight for our rights as free members, not to be confined to our role as pawns in the game of the aristocratic class comprised of chess 'experts' and 'masters'."
It's not a good analogy because chess masters have a tangible skill whereas aristocrats are simply born rich and not really better than anyone.
"The Capitalist nations of the West have been too concerned with bleeding their citizens with interest charged on money created out of thin air, tax exemptions and tax havens voted on by 'elected' officials funded by lobbyists for the rich who benefit from such things, and the creation of an 'idiot class' not concerned with anything challenging or substantial in life, but content with the 'Walmart brand' of entertainment, to actually have an interest in a worthy intellectual sport such as chess."
Yeah I think we should judge America not what it says on paper but by what it actually does. America has hate crime laws and all men are created equal is in the constitution, yet Emit Till and Trayvon Martin's perps got away with their crimes. What made America great in the first place?
1.Social mobility: people are priced the hell out of college and swimming in debt too so this doesn't apply anymore. Also there's a saying, born in the ghetto and die in the ghetto. The inherant flaws in the system make it that way.
2.Religious freedom: Yeah, try opening a mosque in a small town, see what people say.
3.Freedom of speech: Uh-huh, say the wrong thing and the big power will seek to discredit you.
4.Legal system: See above. Also, rapists can get four years whereas internet pirates can get over 20. You could also be sued for having music in your Youtube videos.
So America is largely intolerant, the chances are great that you'll stay in the same social class as your parents, job securty is vastly reduced, stuff that's manufactured here (what little there is) focus on size instead of practicality (so I don't feel sorry for Ford and such for losing out to Japanese companies, who actually focused on practicality and fuel efficiency), healthcare is abysmal, education sucks, and isn't really that great.
As for elected officials I say we the people circumvent congress and the judicial branch entirely and take matters back into our own hands. Serve justice ourselves and get stuff done. We don't need some judge or congresse's approval to do the right thing. We don't trust those self-seeking greedy rich bastards anyway.
If all the Premium Membership benefits for paying members would be made available to everybody, what would you do different? Would you be spending more time here? Play more games or watch more videos than now?
In all honesty I can say, I would do nothing different. I used to imagine myself having access to all these cool videos out there, becoming a better player by the minute while eating potato chips and let the GM on the computer screen do the magic ... but now I realized I'm way too lazy for improvement and maybe just not destined to be an above-average Chess player.