Before and after learning the game of chess !?

Did you perspective changed at all? What's changed?

Some people think chess is only for really smart people(before they play the game) and after learning the game , some change their view upon it.

Another example, you think chess is a very long , deep game with no end pretty much and only old people playing it (before you learned the game) after learning how to play you might change your thoughts.

So something like that let's talk about ,what were you thinking before you knew the game and after.

First to know chess i didn't have a life purpose,after everything changed!

Interesting

       I can say that what attracted me to chess were the weird shapes of the pieces. Then , I found  that not many people play the game.As I became more experienced at the game, I realized that a person can play ,and get enjoyment , at any level.  Has  being  Chess-Player changed  my life? no at all. I'll this  it has enriched my life only to the extent that I have  been blessed to have met several  wonderful people who dedicated their time and effort to promote this game  and share a common interest.  Here's to those individuals who share  the love and  lust to chess.

Before: How on earth did that Horsy thing do that?

After: Knights are Kewl.   

I can't remember much about the time when I didn't know how to play chess - though some of my earliest childhood memories are when my father taught me the game.

BUT...I can relate what kind of high school kids learned chess from me and effect on them of the chess club I began at our high school when a ripped Achilles tendon took me out of varsity sports coaching for a few years.

Mostly there was no correlation between the players who were getting extremely high SAT scores and their USCF OTB rating.  Some of my best players were below or barely level 3 ("college prep") kids.

Also, since most years I was a Fall Season sports coach, kids who didn't play Winter Sports from the football, soccer, girl's field hockey, etc. teams knew me as a coach and gravitated to the chess club in the Winter.  Some of those guys were the stereotype "dumb lineman" types who surprised our chess stars with how fast they picked up the fine points of chess.

A lot of the full-year. "regular" chess kids were not the popular kids in school, so when the quarterback of the football team, some cheerleaders, etc. came to learn chess from our regular chess kids and showed them respect for being county chess team champions, 3rd in state, etc. it did an awful lot to build self-esteem.