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ralis

Online Chess

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Any chess aficionados or high level players here? I started playing a couple of weeks ago and a good friend of mine is beating me every game. Just not playing at a high level at this time and more experience is what I need.

 

I am playing on an app from the Apple store.

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I love my chess! I'm not very good and I only play 5 minute games but I find it a great way to relax after I've been using my brain on work.

 

But I never play against a computer, the games are just sooooo boring because they don't make mistakes. The whole emotional roller coaster ride of a game of chess comes about from the simple mistakes either you or the opponent makes.

 

To this end I just play on line on various chess websites. My current one is chess.com as it's free and finds opponents with in seconds. It also has some really good tuition from beginners up to experts. You may have to pay $5 a month for them, but if you're new to chess, I really recommend them, just to get a good over view of all the different aspects.

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I love chess!  What a great game.  I'm decent at it, but not great.  However, if you can stomach it and your friend is good, keep getting your ass handed to you.

 

When I left NYC for the West Coast, 17 years ago this month I just realized, the guys I worked with threw me a going away party.  At the party there was a young man, early 20's, he was one of our laborers at the shop (we built scenery for broadway shows and the fashion industry), sitting next to a chess board, kicking everyone's ass. 

 

I sat down and tried my hand.  We played three games in under five minutes.  I don't recall if I collected any pieces from him other than pawns.  He aced me in a handful of moves every game.  I stalled, tried the few openings I know and it was just awesome how concisely and quickly he backed me into unblockable scenarios.

 

I asked him how he got so good so young and he replied "I spent a lot of time in the park next to our apartment... single mom and that was where I was allowed to hang out when she was at work. There were concrete chess tables set up there and these old men, who hung out at the played for cash or fun.  I've been beaten by them thousands of times, thousands.  Once you've lost four or five thousand games, you begin to recognize the patterns and groupings of moves in which one can be beaten and start to use those methods yourself."

 

He talked in lines and conjunctions of pairings of pieces.  It was all over my head.  Alas, I am crap because I don't have the willingness to sit and take that kind of abuse over and over again. 

 

I love Wei Qi and have been enjoying having the computer kick my ass at that recently...  Most Westerners know it as Go since it was introduced here after WW2 from the soldiers stationed in Japan.  Supposedly one of the oldest games in the world. 

 

That game is elegant, alluringly simple and brutally deep.  Alas, I can't get my wife or son interested in playing yet, so I play that online against a computer. 

 

There is something to a chess set and the pieces all set up that resonates.  Happy hunting mate.

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I played throughout my childhood.  There were chess masters in the family.  I am not one of them.  But chess decided my fate one day. 

 

In my teens I wound up playing most of my games with my best friend, a girl I grew up with.  We beat everybody else in our surroundings, so, no challenge there except against each other.  Then in college, she studied math and computer science and I got to meet some of her college friends, some of them geeks with serious chess on the side -- well, this is Russia, right?  One day a classmate of hers dropped by when we were about to start a game, someone who was reputed to be their best player.  I challenged him to play with me.  He looked amused -- what, seriously?  At the time, I looked like someone who's into, well, this and that and rock-n-roll, not someone who can name the pieces.

 

I won the first game, he admitted he hadn't been taking me seriously enough and wasn't really trying, so, with new understanding that he still needs to pay attention even if the opponent is just me, he set up the second game, which I promptly won again.  He was visibly having an identity crisis.  We played for the third time -- it was a long game, he was giving it all he had -- and I won again.  He quickly said good-bye and left.

 

About a year later I happened to meet his brother.  Who wanted to find out who that girl was his brother couldn't stop talking about.  Long story short, I wound up marrying brother number 2.

 

Interestingly, I never won a game against my brother-in-law ever again.   Not even close. :angry: 

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My game is improving somewhat and won the last match by playing in a more unorthodox fashion. The games we have been playing last up to a day since both of us lead busy lives.

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I play chess.com and 3d world. The game in 3d world is absolutely amazing thing. I highly recommend it. For 3 years of the game, I very much increased my rating. I can offer to play with me in the 3rd world. http://secondlife.com

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Love the game. Actually been playing a lot lately.

 

chess.com is a great site to play with people live, around the world.

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Love the game. Actually been playing a lot lately.

 

chess.com is a great site to play with people live, around the world.

 

 

I have been using the Chess Time app from the App Store.

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I have been using the Chess Time app from the App Store.

 

Wonderful. I have not heard of it. Will check it out.

 

Are you enjoying a faster pace vs. slower pace or visa versa?

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I got really good at chess some years ago and then stopped playing. It just got boring. Eventually you get tired of seeing the same set of possibilities play out over and over. At least with games of chance you can be surprised sometimes.

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