It is such a great game because unlike any other games it only uses logic. You don;t need to be smart or rich to play it. You just need to know the game rules and chess moves. People from all oever the world play it because of its addicting logical thinking,us,included. Chess has made our lives more interesting. You can play it anwhere you just need to bring a game board. So,chess may not be the most popular board game but when you play it sure makes a lot of fun.
Why is chess such a great game?
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Huh? (lots of games use logic).
Wait that should be some.... sorry
But there is no randomness...like dice..its just logic...
I know, that is one of its drawbacks...
I think chess is such a great game because you have to rely on ur brain and thats it unlike many sports where the strongest or fastest man wins. I also like how the same principles of the game apply to life. Think before you moove plan ahead get urself in a position to win take ur time. Thats why I love it. Then I just found out about 960 like a week ago and i'm even more amazed because now it levels off the playing field even more against GM who study opening and how to defend them 960 is strictly based on tatics and the plan you have not something that was played in the 1800's and early 1900's before i was even thought of yet alone born.
I like many sports where the strongest or fastest man wins.
Chess is not primarily a game of logic. Intuition and other unconscious processe are what usually generate the candidate moves. Logic is often just a means for verifying the move that the unconscious processes have suggested.
Consider what you would do in the following position:
For those who saw the Greek Gift Sacrifice, did you use logic to discover it, or did it just appear in your mind (probably because it reminded you of similar positions you've seen in the past)? You probably used logic to verify that it works, but that's it: you didn't systematically enumerate all the possible moves or use logic to reason your way to the consideration of the sacrifice. Most of chess is based on the same sort of unconscious processing as allowed you to become aware of the sacrifice in the first place as a reasonable move to be considered.
This leaves logic in the same relation to the non-logical processes (such as intuition) as Hume famously put it: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions."
What makes chess a great game in my opinion is the combination of the rational and the creative/artistic/aesthetic it embodies, as well as the degree to which we can improve our skill and yet still never be close to total mastery.
On the topic of never achieving mastery, I found the following passage in this month's New in Chess very interesting:
Naturally, [He] was delighted with his win at the end of a long and exciting chase, but true to his convictions, he was critical of his play. There was not one game that he was entirely satisfied with. "Some things are hard to do, almost impossible to do, like playing perfectly in extremely complicated positions. But it really bugs me when I miss things that I really shouldn't have. I am always going to make mistakes. I don't have any illusions that my understanding of chess is perfect or anything like that. It's just that I have to work on relatively simple mistakes.Those I am making every tournament. When I can lower the percentage of such mistakes then things are going to be much better."
The speaker, of course, is Magnus Carlsen, the top-rated player in the world.
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People play chess because they want to think they are clever and want to win!!
I actually consider intuition logic as well. It involves speculation, but an intuitive sacrifice is just a logical guess that it will work isn't it? You see that it exposes his king, so you deduce that you will be able to win more than you sacrificed -- either mate, or a large amount of material he has to give up to prevent it. You don't work everything out, you just use your judgment, which is based on general logical ideas.
What amazes me is that first of all, there is one simple goal of the game -- checkmate. And yet, we end up doing things like maneuvering our pieces when we realize that in order to checkmate, you need a lot of material, and for that, you need well placed pieces, and for that, you need a center, and so on. It's beautifully deductive logic, every single strategy and idea being derived from that one simple goal of checkmate. Because of that, the difficulty of the game feels natural, and not the result of a ton of confusing rules.
Second of all, the game is so complex that even planning your strategy beforehand (opening prep) isn't even considered unethical! You can study all the opening positions you want before hand, but despite how predictable the starting position is, you will still find something you have never seen before every new game you start. We play the same position every, single, time, and yet the game still never feels played out.
Thus, with a new position, there is always a new lesson, and a chance to improve your logic for next time.
Elubas wrote:
I actually consider intuition logic as well. It involves speculation, but an intuitive sacrifice is just a logical guess that it will work isn't it?
er...maybe (that's a way to win the argument, no matter what)
RonnieLewis wrote:
People play chess because they want to think they are clever and want to win!!
Judging from all the crap we see posted in the forums about IQ and all that, this is likely truer than many a more pious response. 
Jan 22, 2015
0
#16
Chess is the greatest game humans ever invented mainly because its complexity is far greater than any human could possibly learn in a lifetime. Even seasoned grandmasters constantly find new problems in chess.
Another reason is that it somehow allows to express one's personality in the style of playing. Some people love to win by checkmate, others love to win by slowly grinding down the opponent in the endgame. The possibilities seem endless.
Oh, and yes, there's a slight element of randomness in chess too, namely the luck of the draw who will play the white pieces first.
I asked a grandmaster is chess maths or imagination he told me he had two friends who played chess one was very clever the other was very stupit the clever one was terrible at chess for all the years he played and the stupit friend was a fantastic player. So i think the way some people are say great at DIY and some will never be. Cheers Guys.
sapientdust wrote:
Chess is not primarily a game of logic. Intuition and other unconscious processe are what usually generate the candidate moves. Logic is often just a means for verifying the move that the unconscious processes have suggested.
Consider what you would do in the following position:
For those who saw the Greek Gift Sacrifice, did you use logic to discover it, or did it just appear in your mind (probably because it reminded you of similar positions you've seen in the past)? You probably used logic to verify that it works, but that's it: you didn't systematically enumerate all the possible moves or use logic to reason your way to the consideration of the sacrifice. Most of chess is based on the same sort of unconscious processing as allowed you to become aware of the sacrifice in the first place as a reasonable move to be considered.
This leaves logic in the same relation to the non-logical processes (such as intuition) as Hume famously put it: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions."
What makes chess a great game in my opinion is the combination of the rational and the creative/artistic/aesthetic it embodies, as well as the degree to which we can improve our skill and yet still never be close to total mastery.
On the topic of never achieving mastery, I found the following passage in this month's New in Chess very interesting:
Naturally, [He] was delighted with his win at the end of a long and exciting chase, but true to his convictions, he was critical of his play. There was not one game that he was entirely satisfied with. "Some things are hard to do, almost impossible to do, like playing perfectly in extremely complicated positions. But it really bugs me when I miss things that I really shouldn't have. I am always going to make mistakes. I don't have any illusions that my understanding of chess is perfect or anything like that. It's just that I have to work on relatively simple mistakes.Those I am making every tournament. When I can lower the percentage of such mistakes then things are going to be much better."
The speaker, of course, is Magnus Carlsen, the top-rated player in the world.
Wow, great answer, love it!
Dec 18, 2020
0
#19
Sorry if this is an obvious question, but, as a beginning player, can I enjoy learning the game as I progress, or do you have to get to a certain level of understanding, before you can really enjoy the game?
Why is chess such a great game?
I just posted a blog on the topic, and I hope you will take time to add your comments there, too.
http://blog.chess.com/patriot76/why-am-i-such-a-nerd-top-10-reasons-why-i-love-chess