I'm curious to know why members of this club play chess. For me, chess is a chance to keep my mind active and enjoy a uniquely beautiful art form.

I started playing around 1970. I was on the chess team at my high school, and when the Fischer-Spassky championship match took place, the chess team was suddenly a cool place to be. I continued to play semi-regularly until around 1980. Over the years I've left the game and then returned a couple times. Several years ago I began studying the game again, but I don't play much. My best days were in 1974-75.

As I've become older I've become acutely aware of the danger of dementia and other forms of mental deterioration. Now that I'm retired I'm doing my best to keep my mind active. There are few things more enjoyable than sitting next to my chess board on a cold winter evening, replaying games from great players of the past, with my precious wife watching TV just a few feet away. To me, replaying such games is almost like watching old boxing films.

So many of the posts on the chess.com forum are from people worrying about their rating and how to improve it as quickly as possible. It seems like chess is just a grind to them. Almost like a job. "Got to reach 1900. How many puzzles and blitz games do I have to complete to get to 1900?" I wonder if such people actually enjoy the game. My rating is not good but so what? I study chess in order to develop a deeper understanding of combinations, attacks, etc. Maybe I will never be able to transfer that understanding to my own play, but I really enjoy the learning experience.

And most modern chess analysis is useless to me, because it's computer-aided and I just don't care what the computer says is the best move. I'm interested in what the players were thinking when they made this or that move. I used to read Chess Life, but the articles seemed to mostly be about child geniuses, or computer-aided analysis by experts talking to each other. I could not identify with any of it. I have the Arena chess program, but I only use it to play out or print old games from the masters. I have never used it to analyze my own games. At my level that would be a waste of time.

So, fellow seniors, why do you play?

Seniors Chess

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