Can you play chess by yourself?

I have thought about this on an off for decades.

The first time I've heard about this is at a party. I brought Gomoku. We played. Nobody has seen it before. The best player at the party (besides me) and I talk.

He noticed that the game is deceptively simple. Key word is deceptive.

He also plays chess, but doesn't like it. It is the same every time.

He plays a game called Warhammer. One he rolls the dice and moves for one side. The next day, he rolls the dice and moves for the other side! That is the first time I've heard of such a thing.

I've also heard it from Kung Fu novels. Some crazy guy has black hair one side of his head and white hair on the other side. And he uses his hands to fight each other, each hand fighting with a different style. But that is fiction.

My first thought, and still for the most part, is that this cannot be done.

Because, chess has an element of "I know something you don't know". Ironically, it has elements of poker. Elements of hidden hands (even though everything is on the board and nothing is hidden). It has elements of deception, guile, and bluff.

You cannot play chess against yourself because the traps would not work.

I've played chess where I let the fianchettoed bishop capture my Rook by "surprise", to attack the weakened holes without the bishop.

I've moved my Queen in front of the other Queen, and the other guy backed off his Queen. It was pure bluff.

In playing other people, and computers, we essentially are playing against ourselves, but not exactly.

If I were to play myself, I cannot deceive myself. What would the advantage and disadvantage be?

I learned to play ping-pong and tennis that way. By myself.

I learned to play ping-pong against a backboard.

I learned to play tennis against a wall.

Learning to play tennis against a wall is perfect. The wall forces you to be balanced because the wall is balanced (left and right).

The wall let you see the other side of the net, albeit slower.

The wall immediately reflects your flaws.

I am revisiting this concept because I am re-learning Vietnamese by myself. I don't have a "dance partner". I can do a lot by myself.

I can learn by "kata" like in Karate. A book is a kata. Chess games in a book is kata. That is easy. I can spar with computers.

Can I spar with my clone? Hmm.

People do do this as an exercise. Actors who play twins in a movie. They talk, fight, and interact with "themselves".

All by myself. Sounds like a Celine Dion song.

The thing that re-triggers this thought is the scene in the movie Creed where Rocky has Creed shadow box his reflection in front of a mirror.

Really smart people understand this.

I read in Chess Life, a grandmaster said, "You are trying to trap a piece that I am trying to sacrifice."

If you were to play chess by yourself, it would inevitably lead to a vicious cycle of countering your own plans.

I played chess by myself. I found it interesting. You’re right that attempting traps were difficult, but it was pretty good positional play.

But that is what chess is.

Martial arts have a saying, "Every move has a counter, and every counter has a counter."

Hmm . . .

This is contradictory to the dictum:

All wars are based on deception. Sun Tzu, the Art of War.

Hmm . . . Things that make wanna go hmm . . .

@long_Quach What are you, only played around a dozen games and post long messages on forums. Why?

History is a very long time. Not just today.

I play Yahoo Chess for about a decade before it died. Before Chess.com was born.

Before that, I played in The Arlington Chess Club, in person. Time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves + 60 minutes.

I am going back to face-to-face chess using Meetup, in a "brewpub".

https://www.meetup.com/Alexandria-Pints-Pawns-Chess-Club/

Chess.com is not the end-all-be-all of chess.

@hi_dudes

When was the last time you play

60 minutes.

On a wind-up clock.

Moves written with a fountain pen?

In a "brewpub".

Never, ever in a million years. That's when.

@hi_dudes

I have a wind-up Jerger clock that is about 100 years old.

How old is your chess clock?

Can your clock run without electricity?

This must be what it feels like being a immortal Highlander talking to a regular person.

@hi_dudes

In 1979, I made my first Chinese Chess set with bottle caps and a brown paper bag, in Vietnam.

I will ask you the same question you asked me.

What are you?

Can you have a conversation with yourself by starting a conversation and replying to yourself?

Yes.

I learned to play tennis against a wall.