Do you ever play Chess against yourself?

playing againist myself has really showed me that my moves were still too irratic or random, why ? since its myself i should be able to favor one side, but i actually never know how the game will turn out because my moves were messy and well sloppy

LOOL, joker xDD

but u must also remember dat u lost 100% of the time as well ;p

Contrary to some, I actually feel that playing against oneself can be of benefit.

All too often one will make a move whose effectiveness is largely dependent upon their opponent making the more obvious but weaker move in return. This is a really bad habit - and one that I find very difficult to shake, particularly against markedly weaker players. 

Obviously therefore, if playing against oneself this practice will have no success whatsoever as every such move will be comfortably refuted. What it does then is make one sit down and really think: (for this part I think it's better to favour one side as the attacker, and keep the other in relative defence,) How can I actually construct an attack that will be so complete that the opposing pieces will be compromised whatever refutation is found? It means that one essentially plans in much more detail and much further ahead with each move - and doesn't look for the easiest possible solution but the most watertight solution - it trains discipline.  

Dreamlines...but let's face it, if every grandmaster knows the brilliant plan of the opposing grandmaster...the game ends in a draw.

I did it once to develop tactics but it is boring as anything. It can also be a complete waste of time.

This is part of the twelve step-approach outlined in the eponymous auto-biography of the  late Welsh Chess Champion "12 steps to Dai Young"

He instructs players that "to have self-knowledge is the key to unlock the path to true chess enlightenment" 

In step 7 Dai introduces the concept of auto-didactacism.  He explains that this was imparted to him in the orphanage by his mentor and teacher Father Colm O'Flaherty:

 "Playing with yourself is a key stage to full development.  Father C showed me this and I soon developed my own techniques.  I found that if I sat on my left hand for an hour solid it really did feel like someone else was playing with me"

Waiting for your next installment, Beast.  Hm...have you met Blunders?

I meet blunders in most games that I play.  Thank the druids for that!

Beast, you're incorrigible!

I always get beat by my friends at chess. so, while i was at home, last year i believe, i would play myself in chess. my skills actually improved! i mean i still get owned by my friends but it's a less humillieating experience.

small suggestion...when you're talking about yourself getting beat or losing...you don't say "I got owned"...you avoid creative wording at all costs, in fact.  

I can't play agains't myself I guess I think Im too weak to be worth playing me usually I get bored and go play bullet online or poker :)

I set myself traps but somehow they never seem to work!

usually im biased and one side eventually "falls" for something and loses

I should try to move every few days. My problem is that I always favor a side.

So thanks guys.

it makes tactics hard because I always know what I'm planning.

Well, sometimes you ought to forget what you are planning, or play something that throws a monkeywrench into the works - call it a random position creator...then the tactics are changed.  It may create a losing line, but to work out the intricacies of the losing line - that makes the game kind of fun.

Wow...so many good replies...i couldn't even read them all. I def. learned something from them tho...that is...if I play myself, play to win :D I tried playing myself before...but got too bored to get, not even barely, a full game. But playing with no take backs does help tho...makes the strategy seem more realistic.

This was a good one Mark!! ;)

I find it incredibly annoying, because everytime I begin to gain an advatage on one side I tend to feel sorry for the other side and just stop... It's just to painful to really feel your opponent losing the game inside you.

Maybe I just get bored after 15 or so moves...

Impossible to actually play yourself, but it would be good if you could somehow play yourself without realizing, many times I have tried to play myself and it has never ended in checkmate,