Internet chess: bad for your game & makes you angry
"would you rather be the best mini golfer in the world, or have the skills of Tiger Woods?"
I'd rather be the best mini-golfer. Just because you have the skill set of Tiger doesn't mean you can use it properly. And correspondence chess when played correctly is helpful for your game. You can analyze and correct mistakes that you would make OTB, and that will help you OTB especially if you play the same lines in both. Memory is everything, and the best chess players are great pattern recgonizers. And why bash correspondence chess on a correspondence site?

Well, if playing internet chess is bad why do GM`s play 1minute games (nevermind 15 minutes!!!) on playchess.com
I rest my case.
P.s. i love mini golf.
That story you gave was actually pretty accurate for someone who plays 1 minute games all the time, but I believe that a good mixture of both is important. Blitz games can help improve your intuition, your ability to look for tactical themes, to practice and experiment with openings or new ideas, and could also be used to blow off some steam and simply have a quicker and more exciting game. Long games help your calculating ability, planning abilities, and deeper tactics than you would find in blitz games.
As for OTB games vs. internet games, I see how internet games can be slightly worse than OTB games, but not as exaggerated as you say because OTB games are not always more polite than internet games, but they are a lot of the time. It depends on the maturity of the player you are playing against. Also, some people don't have a lot of good players nearby to play OTB and just use the internet games for convienience, so I wouldn't rule out online games at all. I have felt a big improvement in my game since playing on chess.com and I have been playing on this site almost exclusively.

Well for the past year 99% of my chess was on ICC . In that year I played around 500 games and around 90% of those games were 15 5 time control . In that year I went from around 1300 rating on ICC to 1600 . 15 0 is the lowest I went though


Why play 15 minute games when you can anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks to think about each move. It's correspondance chess; you're under no obligation to play 15 minute games.
Internet chess is great for most people because OTB is much more difficult to arrange. None of my friends or relatives play chess seriously and there are no clubs in my city. Internet chess is my only chess outlet and I assure you it's been good for my game. I suspect there are thousands of others who share my view.



For an example of a monk that is shpongled, see above post.
/I'll be here all week, folks
//it wasn't funny?
///haha fine, you're right, it wasn't

haha you have hit so many into that pond you also bring your fishing rod with you...and not to mention that travel chess set for while you wait to hook that fish!


yes, but the yellow balls tend to appear a little dirtier than others. i go with green

yes, but the yellow balls tend to appear a little dirtier than others. i go with green
won't you lose it then? mines neon orange
also... i wonder how many people there are like me, who have absolutely nobody to play... my college has no chess club, and nobody interested in joining one... and i know nobody that enjoys playing chess, (well besides my dad but after i beat him a few times he takes a break from it for a few months)... chess.com was a godsend, its the first place i've felt comfortable playing online, and finaly a way to play chess even though im all alone... i know it doesn't really help me get out and make new friends and whatnot, but i haven't met anyone into chess, so i don't think they'd be worth being friends with ;p...
Survey says.................regularly playing internet chess will, with 100% certainty, make you LESS of a competitor and you turn you into an unsportsman like player. This fact I have gleaned from my own personal 30+ years of chess playing. Over 10 of those have been on the internet. There is NO comparison between OTB players' attitudes and internet players' attitudes. OTB are more polite 100% time. Not 99.9%, but 100%. Each and every time. Look at any chess site or chess bulletin board and you'll see, hear and feel the anger and every 4th word will be "cheating". It's undeniable. As for ruining your game, I've made the analogy 1 million times before: it's like playing only mini golf and hoping to make the PGA some day. ANY game played on the internet that is under 30 minutes has NO REDEEMING chess value other than entertainment. THere is NOTHING to be learned in chess by playing 15 minute games all day long.
Here's a little story I'd like to tell you all. About 9 years ago there was a person on the now-called POGO website that was phenomenal at 1 minute games. This guy was unmateable. Seeing chessbuddy didnt exist yet (an auto232 program) he was not cheating. I was still playing about 40% of my games legit back then, so I played him in a one min. game. I'm no chess slouch, but I got my butt handed to me time after time. I then used chessmaster on him but I lost BIG on time. This guy was holding his own against chessmaster well into the middle game. I was impressed. Well, as the months went by, I got sort of friendly with this phenom and talked him into playing a 45 minute game just for kicks. He played that 45 min. game like he just got a frontal lobotomy. His quick wristed moves, his "trade pieces until the time runs out" philosophy destroyed him. He couldn't see 2 moves into the future. I believe I mated him in 25 or 30 moves. He only used about 4 minutes of time compared to my 40.
So people, ask yourself the question: would you rather be the best mini golfer in the world, or have the skills of Tiger Woods. I know the answer. No need to respond. I rest my case.