I wrote a first post on chess here, and I mentioned I would update my thoughts or lack thereof as I had something I wanted to note for myself. Here is the first of the updates.
Chess it seems is like any serious undertaking. To become skilled takes time and dedication. I can appreciate why so many people prefer to do something other than sit at a chess board. On another note, I think those few now dusty games that have been around forever, will be making a comeback soon.
The world of electronic gaming, unless some new genre is discovered and catches on, will grow old in the most developed countries. How many ways can you shoot ‘em up, track them down, or whatever else is the game play before one game starts to run into one another game. The movies are already experiencing an exhaustion of usable material, resorting to remakes and remakes of remakes. Electronic gaming can not be too far behind if it is not way ahead already.
Trying to play better chess is a lesson in humility and some frustration. One Sage suggests concentrating on opening moves, the next promotes learning the end game (when only a few pieces are left), while a third thinks the middle game is most important. I can appreciate all points of view.
Without an understanding of, or at least the mimicry of a good opening, most players worth their salt almost immediately turn into aggressive serial stalkers. Systematically removing my pieces from the board faster than I can get them in front of the the pawns they stand behind and the middle game is a dream that never happens.
On the other hand without learning how to checkmate your opponents King, excellent winning opportunities are missed and the win happens with something akin to dumb luck. Playing the few others around my level of play, I occasionally see potential checkmates my opponent would probably make if they were aware enough of the end game to see them also. Instead they miss their opportunity allowing me to save my King, and play on to at least a drawn game, if not a thundering win.
I am getting better at creating a drawn game. Having your King run for its life every other game gives me solid practice on the fine art of not being forced into checkmate too quickly, and occasionally winning a fifty move draw. Of course with better players, fifty moves is a pipe dream, let alone not having my King in a steady state of fleeing across the board trying to avoid checkmate.
Learnings that have helped most are spotting simple Forks, Pins, and Discoveries. Being able to identify them in the process of being conjured up, or noticing I myself am creating a Fork, Pin, or Discovery has helped my game more than anything else to this point. Of course there may be learning’s that are helping me of which I am not skilled enough to realize I am getting value from.
I am also learning to think well for longer periods. I find myself myself thinking, “I am doing better”, as I notice my army is being decimated a few moves slower than my previous personal best. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I can see it when I replay some of the games from the best players in the world, and notice they too make mistakes.
Replaying games played by some the worlds greatest players and noticing they make mistakes has helped my game. I know there is a ratio of errors in a master game compared to the games I am able to play. Master mistakes are noted in mistakes per hundred, while mine are easier to track because I can count in sets of five moves per mistake.
It is easy to draw inspiration from sports figures and gamblers when playing chess. If I can keep my skill level creeping along, I may make it to the (for me) coveted pinnacle of ‘average’ in the chess world. From there life is not so bad, because from average there is still a world of room for improvement.
Yes, the board is backwards, unless White moved his camp from one end to the other chasing Black away in the process.
