I know it is hard to believe...I think I said 5 times :) so closer to your friend.
My Husband Is Really Good...
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A few years ago I had to give up online poker - it was taking up too much of my time. I made some money with it, but the money wasn't worth the time spent away from my family or more productive endeavors.
Those that don't understand...it's just like any other compulsive behavior. Too much of anything is unhealthy. Sometimes it's best to quit a behavior altogether if you've shown an inability to meter the obsession yourself.
Good story, immortalgamer! :)
"My husband is really good!"
Heh, yeah, chessplayers usually like to "play it closer to the chest" as immoralgamer said. When a new guy shows up and starts in on the I'm not very good, I'm rusty as I used to play 20 years ago... I play occasionally but was just released from the hospital after major surgery... that sort of thing... those are the players I watch out for.
When some guy comes in real confident and bragging like he's recently won a major tournament, you know either a total patzer or a GM has just walked in... more than 9 times out of 10 it's a patzer :)
I wouldn't say that a few martinis constitutes being drunk.
On a tangent, your wife tells you when you can play chess and when not ? On those occasions when you are permitted to play, you also have to do so whether you are feeling like it or not, and you must then win regardless of the shape you are in ? Pretty tough it sounds.
Ha, I know that is how it sounds. But that is not the case. Very simpily online chess was taking up to much of my life. I was wasting time playing online. She would bug me all the time to stop playing, to stop wasting my time everyday, to focus on more important things. Inside I knew she was correct. I didn't listen to her wisdom for a long time until I just realized I was wasting my life on chess. It isn't that I don't love the game, or have stopped enjoying it.
For me it was just prioritizing, and putting some boundaries on myself concerning chess. I wasn't going to play that night because of my commitment to not playing online chess for 1 year. She realized that it would be nice to encourage me to play just one and then move on to the rest of the evening...which is a healthy way to enjoy chess.
I don't think everyone is like me in regards to not being able to stop playing a game, so this might seem drastic, but for me it is working fine and because of this I've been able to make 5 times the money I usually make in a year in the 3 months I've stopped playing chess. Might be a coincidence or it might be because I'm not focused on chess during the day.