I don't understand how people with below-1000 ratings after hundreds of games...just don't quit ches

The same or similar thing happens in duplicate bridge. Some players make the same mistakes over and over again and are not interested in playing a stronger game.

But they love the game anyway. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Same thing happens in poker to a degree...[except with poker they lose money]

I absolutely agree. I was for example really bad at math in school but with hard work  I was able to get really good grades in math in college.

Actually it wasn't even hard work. I practiced and learned on a daily basis. When I wrote the exam I was amazed by how "easy" it was.

I agree. Like in other areas of life you can't understand the beauty of math, chess, love ... unless you spend time doing/learning/understanding it.

People these days expect everything for free but they forget how much they can do themselves to appreciate and understand the beauty around them.

I began to like it when I learned how useful it was. It changed my way how I approached problems but it was also directly applicable to real word problems.

For me personally Linear Algebra is my favorite topic because every concept you learn there can be visualized. It helped me remember and understand the concepts instead of learning them by heart. It was really fascinating to see what you can do with transfomation matrices.

myabe they just play for fun and dont care about rating, elo or so on

A lot of weaker players *do* quit. If they didn't, you'd see a whole lot more of them. There are a ton of people who tried chess, weren't getting it, and quit. Some stuck with it for various reasons detailed in this thread, though, and that's who you're seeing.

 

I didn't realize this was happening until I started teaching chess classes for kids and talked to other people who also taught.  The stronger players come back at much higher rates than the weaker ones, but there are always some people who enjoy it regardless of their level, too.

 

For anyone who feels like they're just doing so-so at chess, remember that you're probably doing better than a whole bunch of people who tried, weren't getting it, and quit. Chess is tough!

leonskennedy992, you could spend your whole life studing chess  and you will never become World Champion, or top 1000 , or top 1000 in anything you do for a living, so you must quit...

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Thanks! Best comment here. And yes, chess is definitely tough. I suspect perhaps even the majority of people who try it don't stick at it. 

The fact that so many quit might indicate just how much society insists we must be good at things rather than simply enjoy them, sub-par though we may be.

Well it's fun for poeple. Depending on where you live you can make money for very little skill. (In tournaments when I was 750 I won $25... At 1300 (chess.com score, I'm higher OTB) At 1400 I'm about middle of my club. If after 500 games I had given up i would never have reached 1000. Now I'm on 1400 and might win my city's entire chess championship. In a city like New York or in America 1400 would be the worst adult rating in a club. But where I'm from it's a pretty decent score.

Anyway what I'm saying is the people beneath 1000 are tying to get above 1000. Their trying to improve. Some of them might in the future reach 2000 after a few years/decades

Anyway most of them are kids or beginners just stating. When it comes to kids a 8 year old with 690 could still become a good player in the future.

As for players still in the hundreds after 3000 games? Yeah they're not likely to improve.

But they enjoy the game, and that's all that really matters.

what a clever lad you are. clearly made up things dont exist.    im impressed

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Note that a player with a rating of 1000 is 50% likely to win games here because he'll have a similarly rated opponent.  I went through a stretch where I was winning about 50% at a rating in the 1700's.  Both ratings can produce equal enjoyment if the outcome of the game and the thought put into it are what motivates the players to play.

In my case, I was trying to be more aggressive and experimenting with attacks on the king based on principles from Fred Wilson's Simple Attacking Plans and Keres' & Kotov's old classic The Art of the Middlegame, Ch. 2, "Strategies and Tactics of Attacks on the King."

I was too aggressive at first and lost a lot, but I still enjoyed the games.  Now the study is paying off and my rating is up 100 points and I'm enjoying my games a little more, but the challenge, win or lose, is fun in any case.

AT LAST!! A thread about me!

It's good to have dreams, KruKc.

fun...enjoyment...keep the brain young...family time...mental exercise...

I asked them...They said they do it just to piss you off...

hahah, that was a nice comment.  

I will tell you why I won't quit. Regardless of level, the yearning; the fast heartbeat; the game, is the same to all chess players unmindfull of the ratings, which make people like me with low chess scores wanting to keep playing and playing! So avoid us and don't concern yourself. We are having fun. 

Many chess players pride themselves on intelligence and maybe some of them can't fathom how someone could enjoy chess while not being good at it. They forget, I assume, that chess is a GAME and people enjoy all sorts of games whether they are good or not. Look at how many years Jeopardy has ran & I doubt that most armchair contestants can get most those answers but they still love to watch and play. It's FUN, win or lose. That's all.