Opinion: Chess is like Jeopardy!

You've seen the champions on Jeopardy whisk away at the board, answering clues one after the other. You're a good player, knowledgeable, read extensively, and that helps. but the ability to retain information is genetic, or through some sort of brain mutation or other condition that makes the brain work very differently than others. In some it's a handicap; for others a superpower.

The ability to read, see or hear something just once and retain that information throughout your entire lifetime is incredibly remarkable. This is something you cannot learn. You either have it or you don't. You could study your entire life, become good at something, but never achieve genius level. It is the wunderkind, child prodigy that plays Mozart perfectly at 5 years of age, that no other child could play even if they had a genius of a teacher and practiced every waking minute.

You're born with it.

Fischer, Kasparov, Carlsen were born with it.

Notice how some Jeopardy! champions seem a bit off to you? It is because they are. That's not a put down or an insult; they're just made differently. Born with a different set of tools than the average person. Magnus Carlsen is not your ordinary human being.

There are many good chess players, most will not become masters. Don't beat yourself up. It's probably not your fault. A master can study one game once and know the moves or enough moves to put them in a position for a checkmate. Not everyone can do this. Not everyone is born with that capability.

The difference between Jeopardy! and chess is that you actually enjoy playing this game. It interests you. Learning about the history of Guam in hopes of just answering one single solitary clue on Jeopardy! is just not interesting to me.

Have fun,

R.J. 

What is the number one consumer of cans of Spam per capita in the world.

Lol

Guam