Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

Thanks for the recent posts.

I've just spotted a thread here that features a poem entitled: Cranky Old Man. This reminded me of a visit that I recently made to another part of the Province to see my Mother who now lives in a Senior's Lodge ( near one of my Sisters ). The poem and the visit took me back many years to my early childhood in the Black Forest when my Mom was a young lady not yet 30 years of age. As we see our older relatives ageing we see the ravages of time but we often tend to forget that they were once young and indeed were once children ( & were busy playing hopscotch or other children's game of their day ). Scientists have speculated that " Time " does not exist but if " Time " really does not exist then how can it pass by so quickly ?    

Recently I got quite a chuckle out of a thread that asks the question about " People Having No Lives ? ". I'm going to assume that a younger person started that thread. Retirees can have periods of boredom depending on such situations as health, finances, hobbies, interests, being near family etc etc. Some people are busier after they retire than when they were working. Of course the questions regarding health and/or finances are quite important because if those two areas are lacking things can get rather difficult.

I am age 71 and very handicapped with some brain damage. There are some very simple things  I cannot do.

My chess is  way below its peak of over 2500 as for one thing part of my brain damage has to do with spatial. Also, have memory problems.

But some things I can do well. I have bowled more than 350 perfect games on Wii bowling despite being barely able to walk [and I cannot drive] 

I am part of the Ponziani Power group as I coauthored a fairly recent book Play the Ponziani.  They have a vote chess and since I have [still have]  very high knowledge of the Ponziani--I can make valuable contributions to their vote chess and the players in that group have great discussions before many of the moves.

There are several recent "refutations" to the Ponziani -One which is already answered very well in Play The Ponziani.  There other main refutation is somethng I "had" to find a solution to or it would have killed the whole opening.  I have found a very good reply to that "refutation" also. [ a line  seemingly never been played before]

I am keeping it a secret until it may come up in vote chess.  However i have a good friend, much younger than me--who I am helping with opening variations--I send him my innovations in the Ponziani and new moves and variations and he is compiling them on his computer, in case something happens to me--that knowledge will not be lost...

Well, guess I am an oldtimer rambling on again!

I guess, my point is, when you get old or older you will lose a lot of abilities and you may become disabled  but  then you can focus on some  things you can still do  and still enjoy endeavors such as chess.

 Here is one of my very recent games:

Thanks for the post Ponz111.

I'm sorry to hear about your health difficulties and I'm glad that you are still getting some enjoyment from Chess. One thing that I should have mentioned in my previous post is that health is definitely Number One. Of course the finances are also important but health is the main thing. Mind you there are some people that are having problems in both areas and that is a sad situation. I guess that one can only carry on and hope for the best. 

Back on page 5 of this thread I mentioned the fact that improper activities took place in major Chess tournaments years ago at the request of the Russian Chess Federation ( as admitted many years later by Bronstein ). However as it turns out this type of activity also occured among female players as well as the male players. Recently I was looking thru " Check ! " magazine ( produced by the CCCA ) and I came across an interesting article by ICCF GM A.Ugge. As stated in this artice Olga Rubtsova ( of the USSR ) was the only Chess Player, male or female, to be OTB World Champion and Correspondence Chess World Champion, however the question is did she deserve to be ? Rubtsova was OTB Champion from 1956 to 1958 and then became the 1st Women's World Correspondence Chess Champion in 1971 ( still back before PCs messed up that type of Chess ). The Article in " Check ! " goes on to explain how Rubtsova moved from 2cnd place to 1st thru some odd manouvers by East-Bloc players and officials. Of course Bobby Fischer also mentioned that the East-Bloc players took odd looking draws etc., to help each other out, perhaps on orders from higher up.  

Well the fun continues, just recently had another Chess game where I gave away my Queen for no reason and of course the best part of it is that I'm looking right at the board at the time ( oh brother  ). Chess Blindness ( Amaurosis Scacchistica ) and Wandering Mind Syndrome ( Loss of Concentration ), it is a lucky thing that I'm not betting on these games.      

Here's something else to watch out for:  "Senile Disinhibition."  (Seriously, it's a an actual neurological term --- for when Grandma starts talking about condoms during Thanksgiving dinner.  She may be making excellent points, quite coherently, but --- well, you get the idea...)

Thanks for the recent posts.

I guess that I now have one more item to worry about. On the other hand I have developed this desire to tell strangers things that they do not want to know ( info on regularity etc ).

Back some time last year I bought a copy of " Chessmaster-Grandmaster Edition " which was on sale at a local store. A couple of weeks back I finally got around to loading this program into my old PC and I think that this could be a interesting Chess Series. Mind you there is a 52 page Booklet with this item so some work is needed to get all of the benefits out of this teaching program.   

Oh yeah, I think Oliver Sachs spoke of such things.  Dammit, Grandma just starts to have a little fun and right away they've got to call it something clinical!

Thanks for the post AndyClifton.

Recently I heard that Dave Brubeck had passed away earlier this week at age 91. Music was his field of course but he deserves to be mentioned here. I gather that he was still performing at age 90 and quite recently he released a totaly new CD. Dave Brubeck was an inspiration to be sure.               

Well here we are just a few days away from New Years's Eve so the question becomes: what resolutions are we going to make ? Recently I learned the fact that a form of Mild Cognitive Impairment can occur in older people that are rather overweight. At 5 foot 10 and 230 pounds my main resolution seems obvious ( but I hate the word Diet ! ).  

In my most recent post I mentioned the connection between being overweight and sustaining some MCI. Another similar concern is the problem of shrinkage of the brain as we get older. This is of course of greater concern to some people ( eg: myself ) than to others because needless to say some of us have less excess brain capacity to start with.

I am a little overweight and have mild cognitive impairment [maybe not so mild] so if you are a little overweight try and get back to a "normal" weight to avoid a lot of health problems in your future.

Thanks a lot for the advice in you post Ponz111. Yes I need to get more serious about my health and of course this is a good time to start. Mind you our New Year's resolutions only work if we puts some effort into them.  

Ah, the struggle with weight!  The past ten years have been particularly bad for me on that score.  This year, though,  I dropped about 30 lbs.  Mainly by getting rid of the donuts and the chips - and (partially) curbing my addiction to Edy's French Silk ice cream!  A lot of backsliding lately, though. Can't blame holiday feasts,  but I do blame lots of stress;  eating is my basic response to pressure,  but I guess that's better than cigarettes or booze (at least the way I drank back in the day!)

As for cognitive impairment,  I try to keep that at bay with Soduko, crosswords,  "mental arithmetic"   (getting away from the calculator!)  and -of course! - chess:  playing here,  as well as doing the tactical puzzles,  the "mentor" lessons, and following the videos.  I just found this site this year and I really love all of it,  not only for keeping the brain active,  but because it's just plain fun!

I do know from experience that being in decent physical shape can make a big difference in OTB play.

Happy New Year everyone!  May all your sacs be sound in 2013!    

Thanks for the post Apawndown.

You mentioned Arithmetic and from what I've read there are a quite a number of People who enjoy working with numbers ( & fractions etc ) as a hobby. As for Soduko I've never gotten into that, I think that I'll just stick to my Crossword Puzzles.

Also Best Wishes to you and to the other Visitors of this thread for 2013 !

I started playing chess last year, at the age of 60.  I was in the chess club in junior high school, but hadn't played since.  I played in two live chess tournaments late last year and got clobbered (I went 2-4, and currently appear to have a USCF rating of about 500 -seriously!).

Now here's where I could use help:  Of the four games that I lost, I was only checkmated in one.  In the other three, I ran out of time because it took my feeble old brain too long to decide on my moves.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to deal with this?  I'm just not as mentally agile as I used to be.  Thanks!

Jimmy, I started playing OTB in 2012 after a long gap as well.  From Aug to Oct, I went 2+/2=/18-.  At my age (66), it wasn't my slower thinking processes that was the problem so much as the fact I would tire in the latter stages of the day/tournament.  Of course there is also the problem that the quality of play where I now live is MUCH better than "back in the day."

BTW, OTB tournaments are so much more fun than this here computer/internet nonsense, but not nearly as convenient.