"With my death imminent, he dropped his queen on a square and my bishop slid across the board and took it...DRAW!!! He muttered the "F" word as I stuck my hand out for a handshake and sneered out a "good game". Take the win anyway you can get them."
Great story with a clear and valuable point.
Thanks for sharing this - best
Clownfish wrote:
Duffer1965 wrote:
Just to clarify a point: Every American is either an immigrant or the descendants of immigrants (even the Native Americans came from Eurasia). We can't afford to be too snooty about someone not being of pure American race, since that is a contradiction in terms. By that rationale, everyone living outside Africa are goddamn immigrants! We should all have stayed where we came from!
Actually probably everyone living outside the Khalahari desert is an immigrant. There's no reason why immigrants should be seen as bad. The US was built by immigrants.
mandelshtam wrote:
neospooky wrote:
The USA has a nation of more than 250 Million people, with huge number of highly educated people. Don't you think this justifies an expectation of a much stronger chess nation, with some hundred GM's ?
You might have that expecation if you don't think about it very deeply. How many GMs does China have? With a population of 1.3 billion, by your "reasoning," 20% of the GMs in the world should be Chinese.
But if you want to feel superior, by all means don't let me stop you.
artfizz wrote:
"there are no 'friends' in chess - only opponents"
I choose to call them enimies while playing. and just so you know if you look at games even gradmasters have resigned when they have a winning game or a draw you should be able to find examples in your local tactics book.
Duffer1965 wrote:
mandelshtam wrote:
neospooky wrote:
The USA has a nation of more than 250 Million people, with huge number of highly educated people. Don't you think this justifies an expectation of a much stronger chess nation, with some hundred GM's ? You might have that expecation if you don't think about it very deeply. How many GMs does China have? With a population of 1.3 billion, by your "reasoning," 20% of the GMs in the world should be Chinese. But if you want to feel superior, by all means don't let me stop you.
This really sucks. Whenever I start with a tiny criticism against the USA, some of you superpatriots attacks me, leaving the ground of reason and compares me with 'Hitlerjungen'.
Shall I give you a list of nations which has more chess knowledge/culture per inhabitant ? Would you shut up then ?
Iceland , Hungary, Georgia (not the US state Georgia of course), Ukraina, Russia,
Armenia, Germany (once again, we are the nation with the highest number of chess club players in the world! But germans just like to be members of all kind of clubs, therefore the other nations, and may be more, come first), Netherlands, UK, France,... I don't know where to stop.
W.r.t. the above criterion, the above are all better than USA.
I bet with you, send a team of average US club players to Moscow, in golden September, let them play randomly against people in Sokolniki Park, kids, men, girls, even drunks and babushka's. They will become very quiet after!
The quote below is from a topic started by Mandelshtam Prior to his topic being blocked.
"I saw that two of my topics have been blocked. BY WHOM ? FOR WHAT?
I must say that if some person of the staff did this, I find this unacceptable. I have not even been informed of the blocking. Mandelshtam " Why don't you try and use that big brain Mandelshtam and stop the drama queen routine. Everyone who reads your posts understands exactly what type of person your are. We have an amazing community on chess.com so please stop - THX !!
The only thing is that Americans are into video games and other stuff. They socialize and to them, it is all about sports. Parents constantly give huge sums of money for their kid to get private sports lessons from the pros. Americans are all about sports, while in other countries chess is their national pastime.
CHEATER1 always EMPHASISES weird WORDS DON'T you THINK?
acephalic, another superpatriot who attacks me for telling some little story about great 'America'.
I don't know you, so you cannot know me.
I received thanks from many people on chess.com for my threads about chess.
I don't care about you.
Topics were blocked because I wrote something against a player who insulted me during an ongoing game (I did not talk to that player before, so he/she did not have any reason to do it). When I told him/her my opinion in harsh words, challenged her/him to a new game, he/she threw more dirt on me, calling me sick...
My mistake was to give the name of the player in a forum. (I didn't know where and how to complain about this player, I did this later, and the player got a warning.)
Another topic was blocked because political themes were discussed (I was not the only one who did that in that forum). I was informed about the blocking later ...
Acephalic, the aggressivity against me implies you think differently about resignation than me? That is your right. But not atacking me for this opinion, which I share with the huge majority of players having elo rating more than 2000.
May be it's time to ask for a votation within this thread, to check wether I'm right in this or not...
I am very sorry mandelshtam as I missed this bit of information you provided -
mandelshtam said "I lived in Missouri for 2 years, I know what I am talking about."
Wow 2 years in Missouri - you must really have a pulse on America.
Had I known this I wouldn't have doubted you. Given that you know what your are talking about, why do Americans play so differently from the rest of the world?
How dare so many people AGREE with me? How do you all think this makes me feel? Am I part of the "IN" club now? Maybe I should go back to posting BS posts.
All joking aside, I am happy that most people think I made a decent post. What I think is happening is that people are just not BLINDLY hating me and actually reading my posts and mulling them over and not just disagreeing because it was written by me. I DO love the game of chess and have very very strong opinions about it. With me, it is black and white..there is very little gray. And coincidentally, that is most people's opinion of me, black or white, love or hate.
It makes me so UPSET that as soon as someone drops a rook, they resign. Especially Upset when it's early in the game. It's like a football team forfeiting after the 1st quarter because they are losing. How often does that happen? NEVER. It bespeaks weakness and just plain LAZINESS.
Well Cheater_1 I've got to say that many people DO blindly hate you pick up anything they can to throw at you.
However, you will be probably happy to know that there are those amongst us that hate you when you give us reason to hate you and agree with you when you have something to say that doesn't appear to have come out of the mouth of a five-year old
Acephalic wrote:
I am very sorry mandelshtam as I missed this bit of information you provided - mandelshtam said "I lived in Missouri for 2 years, I know what I am talking about." Wow 2 years in Missouri - you must really have a pulse on America. Had I known this I wouldn't have doubted you. Given that you know what your are talking about, why do Americans play so differently from the rest of the world?
They don't of course, how come that you think that?
I would rather say USA is a country of mixed culture and temperaments, and that might be a reason why you find players of all styles. The two extremes are: 'academic style' (only foreseeable risk, lots of theory in the backpack), 'adventurous style' (sacrifices when possible, waiting for the 'evergreen game' of your life).
In Germany, definitely, the first group is dominant, but things have changed in the last two decades, since there are many foreigners playing in the leagues and open tournaments, and due to the internet.
I also lived in Chile, for 5 years, there, the second group dominates ( not too surprising, in a latino-country with spicy food...).
Cheater_1 Is a complete idiot
Not a fan of country music, but Kenny Rogers I believe it was who said "you got to know when to hold 'em...know when to fold 'em". Same applies to chess.
If you are a complete novice you may not KNOW you are beaten until the mate is delivered. If you are any good at chess AT ALL, you will most times (but not all) see it coming many moves in advance. I usually (if lose in 10) will play about half of what I think will bring me to the end just to make sure the opponent is making the moves he should be to mate. If he isn't, then I have a chance. If he is...I resign about 5 moves ahead.
Which begs the question - the more advance a player you are, the more moves ahead you should resign? Any ideas?
Never say DIE
I just thought over your suggestion, acephalic, wether there is an 'american style' of playing chess. If you look at Morphy, Marshall, Fischer (he was a lonely person, though, may be not 'too american'), Nakamura (US champion), it's 'fighting, risking' style. If you look at Byrne, Benjamin, its rather a 'german style'...
My own impressions about 'typical american style' (restricted to Missouri) are mixed as well.
Would be nice to make statistics of famous players in each country, also of the past, to determine their chess style, and then come to a conclusion about a 'national style' ...
In american history, the principle 'the winner takes it all' played a major role (it is still present, even in chess, look at the distribution of whole prize funds in tornaments in Europe, and compare with US...)
If this influences chess, I would guess that in american tournaments you should have a smaller percentage of draws than in Europe (which would mean an attitude which takes higher risks, in average).
Does anyone here have a statistics about that?
good to hear that, claypot.
I still think the total number of highly educated people is huge in USA, compared to most other countries. Not their percentage.
The problem of a youth that doesn't like to read books anymore, is the same in most countries.