Do you ever play Chess against yourself?

Hm I find this post interesting. A while ago I saw an interview with Carlsen where he said that he used to play against himself when he was younger to improve. The point here is that you always now the strategy of both sides and can always find the best move (for your personal chess experience) for both sides. So ideally you would draw any game.

To the ones saying that they "can't surprise the enemy": there are no real surprises in chess, a surprise means that your enemy is (at least partly) weaker than you and you only improve when you play against equal or (slightly) better players. After all, chess is a purely logical game which, when played perfectly, will always end up in a draw.

To the ones saying they are always winning: thats a clear sign you need to play more chess against yourself because youre making mistakes or blunders/are unconcentrated. If you improve your concentration and always play the best move for both sides (for your personal chess strength capability ofc), which shouldnt be too hard when you get used to estimate all kinds of possibilities, you will always (realistically almost always) end up in a draw.

A hint: take some time to estimate the moves, playing chess against yourself is more of a task of analyzing then "normal" playing. Theres nothing wrong in playing yourself when a midgame move takes you 20 minutes or even longer to calculate. This calculation time will shorten eventually, once you get a hang of it and will greatly benefit your overal tactical play.

After all it's a tip from great Carlsen himself, so why not trying it??

Cheers!

Ya

I don't do that

no i dont