Pros and cons of chess

i used to be all state WI wrestling jv champ. shattered my arm in 7 places. obviously i cant do that anymore. so i played lots of competitive video games. played lots of LoL and csgo getting to modest but high ranks in both. what ruined for me, abd made me fall in love with chess, is the trolls. and the idiots. every match on a team game like these seems like a neverending struggle. its this or that guy having a bad day so he throws the game on purpose, or they just have no brain and you have to struggle to carry them. in chess, my bishop doesnt hang itself. i hang my bishop. in chess, i have no teammate to babysit so they dont ruin my game. if my game is ruined, its by me. the 1v1 aspect can get lonely at times but the pros far outweigh the cons for a person like me, with great competitive spirit but a bum arm.

You should play backgammon then.

Or poker.

Or rock-paper-scissors.

RyantheBright wrote:

Basically, if you know more about chess than your opponent, you should win.

that's all it takes, one clear sentence.

This may've been mentioned already; I haven't read the entire thread. Fred Reinfeld was once asked the benefits of playing chess. He said: 1. Since chess is a long game, it teaches you patience and working toward a long-term goal. 2. Since you have to calculate your opponent's responses, it teaches you to see things from another's view. 3. Since your opening play will help you or haunt you later, you learn that actions have consequences. To those I'll add: 4. Since pieces of different abilities work to achieve a common goal, it teaches management skills. I had another one but I've been up all night and I don't remember it. But there are several, obviously.

I think Elroch did a pretty good job of evenly pointing out some of the major pros and cons of chess.A site like this naturally fills up with players who takes their chess more seriously than the more casual player. The fact that we are here proves that for the moment at least the pros of chess outweighs the cons.I also think that most of us have days where we wish we had never learned the game.

Nothing but pros. Its competitive, requires/demands patience and courage, promotes and provokes thought, promotes social interaction, the list goes on and on and on. Its universal! You can travel around the world and you might feel like a stranger in a strange land, but then you discover the locals are playing chess and suddenly youre right at home, amongst bretheren! Well ok its never really like that, but it IS a language spoken everywhere in this world, and that IS a unifying thing.

Every human being who uses their brain and common sense will benefit from chess, checkers, soccer, football, singing, and other hobbies/activities. As long as you know when to stop, every hobby has benefits that carry on in other parts of your life.

You're considered cool if you play chess

Great thread but how did I miss it the first time around   lol.    

Some trolls from the off-topic-cave would actually benefit from playing chess if they would actually play the game instead of wasting their brain resources to write pointless crap. 

[EDIT: response to a now deleted post and account].

And yet you still managed to add a point!

Well done on the top math grade. Not entirely sure you can give the credit to chess. 

Ah, back in the day when people could hav meaningful conversations on the intenet just a decade ago. I agree with many of these points, well structured arguments and claims overall. 

In my opinion, I don't believe chess is a waste of time unless one abuses it. For instance, bullet chess. Some could say that bullet chess is more relatable to video games than to a game of chess, as there is a lot of fast movement and coordination needed, and it seldom works out over the board (pieces would fly everywhere!). Video games are addicting, and so is bullet.

That is why I believe that playing rapid and classical chess are better, because it isn't as addicting, although the game in general is pretty addictive (especially blitz/bullet, but rapid can as well). However, 90+30 classical.... I don't think anyone in their right mind could play more than 2 of those games a day.

If you enjoy it and have it as a goal to become better at chess, then studying a lot is perfectly fine, you just risk isolation from others for some time, which is a sacrifice if one wants to become good at anything. If it's a hobby, some casual play here and there is great (and recommended) but don't let it ruin your life.

My thoughts.

I remember playing occasional weekend tournaments with 3 standard time control games in a day. It takes a different mind to mine to keep ones enthusiasm for that many hours!