Is chess fun?

Neill Cooper · Post by **Neill Cooper** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:15 pm

What do you think?

IM Jack Rudd · Post by **IM Jack Rudd** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:30 pm

Sanguine Jack says: it's some of the best fun there is.
Phlegmatic Jack says: it's intellectually satisfying and challenging.
Melancholic Jack says: it's a form of mental torture and it's out to get me.

Matt Mackenzie · Post by **Matt Mackenzie** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:16 am

Most of us have had those range of feelings, tbh.

I was on a bit of a downer with chess myself a few years ago, but am enjoying it again much more now.

Clive Blackburn · Post by **Clive Blackburn** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:28 am

I drag myself reluctantly to a club match, sometimes driving up to 10 miles if we are playing away.
Throughout the journey I am thinking that I will probably get thrashed yet again and there are just so many other things that I would rather be doing.
Then I somehow manage to win my game and all the way home I am on a high and wondering if there are any congresses coming up that I can enter!

It's pain and pleasure, you can't have the highs without the lows!

Chris Rice · Post by **Chris Rice** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:41 am

At the back of the first edition of New in Chess for 2015 there is an interview with Alejandro Ramirez (came 2nd in the 2013 US Championship) who in response to what the most exciting game of chess he's ever seen was answered Morozevich - MVL from Biel 2009 "was the most WTF game" he'd ever seen.

Of course I should have been working but that sounded interesting so I gave it a look. OMG! If this game doesn't put a smile on your face then nothing will....

0-1

Some hailed it at the time as the game of the decade. Morozevich missed a number of wins in this crazy game. If you want it again with a bit of analysis here's an old ChessBase report to look at

http://en.chessbase.com/post/biel-2009- ... nchuk-lead

Jon Mahony · Post by **Jon Mahony** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:17 am

After two pretty mediocre congress performances in as many weeks I’m on a bit of a Chess downer at the minute. I’m dragging myself to a Bradford league match tonight, when all I fancy doing is finishing work, going home to make some tea and veg out with my new Blackadder box set which has just arrived off amazon.

Blackpool in particular was a bit poor, I should have been a favourite in that section but after a good start 2 lower graded opponents got draws with me and someone beat me (using the Nigel Short DTF method) slowly torturing a weak pawn, which held up my whole position.

Ironically after taking it all super seriously, I had a few pints Sunday lunch time and played one of the best sacrificial mating combo’s of my life in R5, hey-ho it’s a funny old game! Think I’m going to stick to Majors from now on, I prefer having nothing to loose

JustinHorton · Post by **JustinHorton** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:10 am

Jon Mahony wrote: (using the Nigel Short DTF method)

TDF, I believe

Chris Rice · Post by **Chris Rice** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:43 am

JustinHorton wrote:
Jon Mahony wrote: (using the Nigel Short DTF method)
TDF, I believe

Had to look it up http://www.kingpinchess.net/2014/09/tdf/

MartinCarpenter · Post by **MartinCarpenter** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:01 pm

You can of course manage to be in both places at once

Evening league stuff I'm on a broadly self inflicted run of 0/4 and a 0-5 team loss in a K/O final. Longer play? A big plus score for the season and we just won one of the critical matches in the Yorkshire league.... Frankly that mostly leaves me slightly confused

You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.

Clive Blackburn · Post by **Clive Blackburn** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:13 pm

MartinCarpenter wrote: You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.

Yes, you can see them on the grading database - every 3 years or so they "give up" chess and take a season off but they always come back for more!

Jon Mahony · Post by **Jon Mahony** » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:36 pm

Clive Blackburn wrote:
MartinCarpenter wrote: You do certainly need to be quite level headed to roll with it. I'm sure we all know people who find it genuinely hard to take.
Yes, you can see them on the grading database - every 3 years or so they "give up" chess and take a season off but they always come back for more!

Bernie Hare (author of Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, graded 170+ and former member of Leeds Chess Club) once told me he was “Cured” when discussing his giving up Chess - mind you he does seem to have stayed more or less on the waggon apart from playing the British RP major a couple of years ago.

stevencarr · Post by **stevencarr** » Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:59 pm

I greatly prefer reading chess books to playing.

I find playing chess quite meditative. I can switch off the outside world for a couple of hours.

But it is important when playing, not to worry about the result.

If you lose, you lose, and it is probably because your opponent played well.

It is not fun to play a game and be scared of losing.

Matt Mackenzie · Post by **Matt Mackenzie** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:07 pm

For recent games high on the "WTF!" factor it is hard to beat Cheparinov-Sutovsky, Poikovsky 2013.

(starting maybe with 14 Rg1!? which had apparently been played before

)

Neill Cooper · Post by **Neill Cooper** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 6:46 pm

Thanks for all the comments. I played my first game for a while last night and it was fun. This was partly because, as referred to above, I did not worry too much about the result, helped by my opponent being more highly graded than me. And I got a draw having had to defend the worst side of an ending.

I my other roles, as a secondary school chess organiser, I am concerned that chess is often not enough fun. The sort of event I'm running tomorrow, with 4 rounds of blitz chess, seems to be more enjoyed by school teams than the more traditional long play matches. Prhaps reflected by having 10 schools entering. Perhaps I should play more blitz myself!

Arshad Ali · Post by **Arshad Ali** » Fri Mar 27, 2015 8:31 pm

Not fun in the ordinary sense, no. Fun in a grim, vigilant, sadistic and masochistic way, yes.

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