The 'Pointlessness' of Chess

so... pointless, what is your point? (you seem to be lacking one thus far)

 I am not doing this for me, if I wanted to show self brilliancy I could simply devote my life to one thing, such as chess for example, it seems to pull you into a web of facination. I offer you my apologies Sheath, I did not mean to anger you in any way, and im sorry that you see me as a unintelligible man. But please do know that I only tried to help you, I will "buzz off" now that I see I cannot convince you by simply typing to you. I would have to do much, much more. And that seems to go for all of you. I dont know any of you nor do I want to know any of you, your lives only seem so empty and sad to me, that I cannot simply see how you make your "right" way through it. So, back to chess, I guess that is where the drove is heading now, dont fall behind.

P.S. For those of you who do belive in Christ. Please, know you are not alone. And dont fall subject to the empty arguments of men, stand strong in your faith and know that brothers are here to help. Satan will not be here for much longer..

pointless.... you're an idiot! (someone had to say it)

pointless said "P.S. For those of you who do belive in Christ. Please, know you are not alone. And dont fall subject to the empty arguments of men, stand strong in your faith and know that brothers are here to help. Satan will not be here for much longer.."

QUO

once again, if this is a religion thing -- leave chess out of it.  go to www.thebible.com -- it's not my fault religion is struggling.

pointless I do indeed agree that there is a God but I believe religion is forbade from being discussed on the forums. I would stop before you get in trouble with Erik and the moderators.

He may not be telling the truth and we may have to deal with him some more.  But if he really means this, then I say to everyone else on this site, "You're welcome!"

 his point was that life has a point and that point is to understand the point.

What's the point of living if you don't enjoy it?

In season 7 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she fought against the First Evil.  It made the devil look like a "little man," but Buffy still prevailed and cut its reign of terror short.  So I kind of see what you're saying.  She didn't play chess.  She saved the world.

I've just turned off the tracking of this thread. May all be well with those who wish to continue it. Farewell.

Dear pointlessness, it is clear that you do not wish to talk about chess.  You seem to have created your account merely to espouse your own particular religious views.  Clearly, this is not the appropriate forum.  To strenuously assert that you have the answers because you have bought into a particular self perpetuating fable is truly ignorant and arrogant.  Try reading the latest book by Richard Dawkins if you are able to consider alternative points of view.  If not, try to accept the fact that others may have another point of view, equally valid to your own if not more so, and stop trying to convert us all.

As this site proves, it brings people together from all nations all over the world.  Our governments may be at war with each other, we may differ in religion, politics, material wealth, age, gender or race, but here at chess.com we are all chess players and that's all that matters.

How about "Writing about how pointless chess is in a chess forum is pointless" for an argument? LOL Just kiddin'... Don't get all worked up...

Pointlessness,

Chess is far from pointless.  In fact, chess is part of a very important set of mathematical problems called "NP Complete"  Many problems in this class have solutions that can end poverty, fight world hunger, produce peace, cure cancer, and a host of other cool things.

2 things about NP Complete problems which are really nifty to know:

1. There exists a unique transformation for every solution of one NP complete problem to a corresponding solution of every other problem in the class NP complete.

2. Every chess game is, in point of fact, a possible solution.

The consequence of these facts is that every time you are playing chess, you actually are possibly curing cancer, or ending poverty.  Unfortunately, there are as many unique transformations as there are games of chess, and since that is quite a large number; not all transformations are known (we just know that they exist, not what they actually are).

This, of course, runs both ways ( I hear there is a transformation which turns the cure for brain cancer into the Benoni Gambit, which, ironically is the cause of brain cancer :)  But it doesn't really matter, because it still makes my point:

Chess has a point, and is the solution to all the worlds problems.  Humans just aren't bright enough to connect the dots. (yet!)

It's rather sad to live for nothing but whatever fictional afterlife you happen to have bought into.  Sure you can probably get some comfort from the thought of singing Hosana all day to an unelected divine dictator, but if that's your only aim in actual life you're probably wasting a lot of it.

 Beautiful.

And here I was just goofing with this thread.

Chess is a world wide institution with a positive influence on par with organized religions, when you think about it.   It's been around as long as churches.  It's captivated millions and impressed on them a mode of precise thought, same as religions.  It has grace, and dogma, and life lessons to teach, the same as scriptures do.   And when I walk down Market Street, what do I see?   A random group of strangers drawn together on a Tuesday to play chess on chairs set up along the sidewalk of a busy thoroughfare.   And our gathering here on this website is a testament to the constructive influence of the game.  We might even have an advantage over churches!  -->  Churches bring the same group of like-minded folks together on a regular basis;  Chess.com reaches further into the human community and brings together those who would otherwise never have met and connects them in a kind of comradery.  It's a cultural institution.  

Nevertheless, IMO playing chess is a much more useful exercise than Sudoku.

I a very average player whose interest been reawakened so as to teach my 9 year old godson.  My only ever 'success' is to be part of the winning High school's team championship.  16 years on I have come to  realise what a fascinating pastime it can be.

Playing the game does force one to employ patience, concentration, tactics, strategy, lateral thinking, forward planning, what-if scenarios and logical thinking.  These characteristics appear trivial except that a lot of people could be a lot more effective if they possessed these qualities in their day to day work.  

For some chess is all of life but I see it as a useful reflection of it.  It is definitely worth passing on this game to your children rather than the mindless computer games they play nowadays.

If chess is pointless, then perhaps basketball, or football or bowling or any other thing is pointless...  all will be pointless!  If you could work and earn a living, and instead play chess, then it's pointless.  If you play chess but ignore your children or your friends, then it is pointless.  But if you play chess for fun when the time is right, it's not pointless...  Chess can even lure people away from destructive habits (drugs, alcohol, etc.).

I commend Pointlessness for creating a popular thread!

i think pointlessness should wait for armageddon somewhere else...