Is chess dangerous to the mind?

Another point.  You seem to be an intelligent person who tries to keep her/himself informed and engage in creative thinking and dialogue.  You seem to be somewhat educated as well.  Yet the result of your education and creative thinking and information gathering (it appears to me) is the attitude that everyone else in the world (for the most part) are not nearly as smart, informed, intelligent, creative, etc., etc., etc. as you are.  So could we suppose that being the way you are is also dangerous to the mind because in a twisted, back-door way it also makes one uninformed, unintelligent, and yes self-absorbed?  The end result of education should be humility and the realization that one has so much more to learn--unfortunately, at least sometimes it has the opposite effect.

Pwnster, you said,

"It is valid for orangehonda to question the validity of your "experience" because what you are relating is not actually your experience (which is simply that you have talked with, played, observed many chess players and people) but rather your interpretation of your experience"

 Adding that I interpreted my own experience does not negate the fact that it is my experience. Orangehonda, by saying I was wrong about having experienced this, is not asking if I was wrong, but judging my experience and the interpretation of my experience as wrong.

"...it is very open to criticism from everyone else who has also talked with, played, and observed many hundreds of chess players and who has gotten a different impression of them than you have."

 Yes. Therefore, I have my experience and you have yours.

"That the overwhelming majority of people in general are ill-informed, trivial, and self-absorbed is an absolutely premature statement to make since you have only met a very small percentage of the billions of people in the world and probably mainly only in one culture."

Again, this is MY experience. One may agree or not, but to point out the obvious, that there are billions of people on the planet, how can my statement include them, brings us back to a preface that you neglect: It is my experience.

"...jumping to another ridiculous conclusion (chess is dangerous to the mind)"

It was my question, not a conclusion.

"(it appears to me) is the attitude that everyone else in the world (for the most part) are not nearly as smart, informed, intelligent, creative, etc., etc., etc. as you are."

I make no such claims. 'smart', 'creative', 'intelligent', etc., these assumptions as to what I think of myself is consistant with your entire rather dull appraisal. You seem to have taken offense somewhere, but reading your comments leads me to believe that you are one to create imaginary errors.

I don't think so. Chess is just a game made to pass time and have fun. But if you take your wins and losses too seriously or your are too obsessed to the game, then it can affect your attitude, emotions and personality. Fortunately, no one has known to reached that level of severity.

Now does anyone have a cheeseburger?

I have had problems where after a tourney my head hurts.but usually not in casual play.

By the way, we need a Chessburger.

In my experience, there are two kinds of chess players, both of whom are quite different.  On the one hand, you have chess players who just play chess to say that they play chess.  These players do so, because many people have the same opinion as your friend.  A lot of people (at least in my experience) believe that chess players are intelligent, so some chess players are just trying to look good to everyone else.  Those players are generally as you describe.  On the other hand, there are those chess players who are truly intelligent and/or play it because they find it to be fun.  Unfortunately, a lot of the people who talk about playing chess are part of the first group, since they try to draw as much attention as they can to the fact that they play chess as they can.  Note that I am not relating any level of skill to either group, as either group, given enough practice, can actually get pretty good.  The people you have talked to who mention playing chess are probably mostly in the first group, judging from reading your experience.  Note that I do not associate any level of skill with either group.  

As for whether or not it is dangerous to the mind, I think it's only dangerous if you stop focusing on the real world and spend all of your time on chess, but the same could happen with any pastime.  It just happens that people on Chess.com play chess for a pastime, and spend their time on forums discussing things related to chess instead of paying attention to current events and being well informed people.

Peace

nice post

when I learned to play,I enjoyed playing,but then something had happened concerning the one that taught me,then did not play for years;now if I let that part of my life in my mind,then yes chess is dangerous,but playing to meet people and have a nice time is how I deal with chess.

Of course its dnagerous to the mind..

look at all these chess Professionals. .they were all crazy! Except Kasparov, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Anand, Kramnik and more..

but seriously.. you could go insane.. good luck with chess :)

I would have some slight hesitation before calling ivanchuk "not crazy" though .

Ben Franklin wrote "The Morals of Chess" which he described the many character building qualities of the game. Do you really want to question the authority of Ben? (Afterall, he's on the hundred dollar bill.)

In spite of his face being on money, which I think is a strike against him, I would like to read that book gbidari, thanks for telling me about it

How is that a strike against him?  It's an honour bestowed upon few, and the indviduals are not chosen without good reason.

I don't think it's an honor, TheGrobe. The people chosen to be on money here, in the States, are just past presidents (except for Franklin). So what? Truman is on money , and he gave the order to incinerate over a hundred-thousand people in seconds. What a great reason to be "honored". In England they put Kings and Queens on money, Rome had Nero on money. Yes, being on money is no great honor in my opinion.

I think rather than dismissing someone because they happen to be on money you should probably look at their lives on a case by case basis and draw your assessment from there -- Franklin in particular is a fascinating and exceptional individual.

What denomination is Truman on?

Truman was a prick, and that is the point. Let us not get distracted from the issue. Why Nixon is not on money I will never understand. "The Morals of Chess" can be read online if you Google it.

Truman's face is on special issue silver one ounce coins, that my roomate has. Yes, Franklin is interesting. I never dismissed someone because they were on money, I didn't write that. In spite of Franklin being on money, I was interested in reading his chess book. But I don't find that having your face on money means anything at all. To me, it doesn't mean you're a great person, and if some people look at it as an honor, I disagree.

I didn't know it was a politics-free zone either. But, let me just repond. The U.S. wanted to get in the war and pushed the Japanese to attack. Both sides were wrong, but acting like it was some suprising offence that the Japanese did attack, is wrong. It was only suprising to the misinformed public that stated they were suprised. Truman incinerated over a hundred thousand HUMAN BEINGS. If you want war, fight it hand to hand, army against army. Dropping a bomb on a city and vaporizing a bunch of civilians is insane. And last time I checked, many nations have the bomb and only the U.S. has used it...Twice...On civilians. And BTW, there has been research done that shows Japan was more than willing to surrender before the bombs were dropped, and Truman and his generals knew this.

Thanks again gbidari, I'm going to read that now

 BTW I consider "chessplayers" to be players who go to rated tournaments. 

This is just wrong.  If you play regular then your a Chess player.  If you love the game over all other games then your a Chess player.  Doesn't matter how good you are.  That's one of the factors that makes Chess what it is. 

What your saying is like saying 'a guy who runs in the park every day but doesn't enter marathons isn't a runner'. 

There are some instances in life where this kind of logic does apply, professionally speaking.  For example, a man cannot honestly lay claim to being an astronaut without actually being an astronaut. 

I am a Chess player.  I play it every day. 

As for the thread, well Chess can help or harm the mind in a variety of ways.  I could write a short novel on how I think it's affected my life pro and con.  You only have to look at some of the greatest players and what became of them to realise this.