Luck in chess?

[Rob Thompson]

Another unlucky incident might be their phone turning itself back on and defaulting them - something that can be very difficult to anticipate happening. There might be those who get on their high horse and blame the player with the phone for it but I always think that those types simply have further to fall when something of that nature happens to them.

My phone went off when i was playing at the Torbay congress last weekend. However, as i had intentionally left it in my car, it didn't matter. It's very, very easy to avoid these issues. If you must keep it one you, take the battery out. Then it can't turn itself back on.

[Alex Holowczak]

However, as i had intentionally left it in my car, it didn't matter.

Your car?

[Joey Stewart]

here is another good example - when you are facing a team in a large event (such as a county match) it is based very much on luck as to who your opponents are (and also what players you are able to field) as so many of the ones you would like to play will end up with some sort of commitment or fall ill close to the match or get stuck in traffic etc...
There is no real way of knowing who will be available on a given saturday, so the team you field is down to luck, and therefore the result can also be affected by said luck.

[Alex Holowczak]

here is another good example - when you are facing a team in a large event (such as a county match) it is based very much on luck as to who your opponents are (and also what players you are able to field) as so many of the ones you would like to play will end up with some sort of commitment or fall ill close to the match or get stuck in traffic etc...
There is no real way of knowing who will be available on a given saturday, so the team you field is down to luck, and therefore the result can also be affected by said luck.

Is that luck though? A team's prior commitments is not based on luck; it's not luck that they have to watch a football match, or have to go to work, or have to look after the kids etc. These events have no luck in them at all. It's more a direct consequence of other events that have no luck involved with them.

[Rob Thompson]

However, as i had intentionally left it in my car, it didn't matter.

Your car?

Yes, my car. I am 17 (nearly 18), and thus old enough to drive and own a car (albeit one as old as me).

Scary thought i know

[Joey Stewart]

here is another good example - when you are facing a team in a large event (such as a county match) it is based very much on luck as to who your opponents are (and also what players you are able to field) as so many of the ones you would like to play will end up with some sort of commitment or fall ill close to the match or get stuck in traffic etc...
There is no real way of knowing who will be available on a given saturday, so the team you field is down to luck, and therefore the result can also be affected by said luck.

Is that luck though? A team's prior commitments is not based on luck; it's not luck that they have to watch a football match, or have to go to work, or have to look after the kids etc. These events have no luck in them at all. It's more a direct consequence of other events that have no luck involved with them.

If I have 30 regular players and each has a probability of 50% of playing then for me to field a full side it would be very slightly above the average - I would define luck to be any situation where you achieve a result which is statistically unlikely but works in your favour.

[Geoff Chandler]

Of course there is luck in chess.
Possibly more than some players would care to admit.

I know we have all experienced this.
A piece being on the right square at the right time but was
originally played there for a totally different reason.

After the game your opponent shows you a winning line you had
not even seen but this piece just happened to be on the right square
to prevent it.

That's luck.

If not then what else do you call it?

[Michael Jones]

here is another good example - when you are facing a team in a large event (such as a county match) it is based very much on luck as to who your opponents are (and also what players you are able to field) as so many of the ones you would like to play will end up with some sort of commitment or fall ill close to the match or get stuck in traffic etc...
There is no real way of knowing who will be available on a given saturday, so the team you field is down to luck, and therefore the result can also be affected by said luck.

Is that luck though? A team's prior commitments is not based on luck; it's not luck that they have to watch a football match, or have to go to work, or have to look after the kids etc. These events have no luck in them at all. It's more a direct consequence of other events that have no luck involved with them.

It's not luck as far as you're concerned, no, because the factors in question are within your control (or at least your team-mates'). I would say it is luck for your opponents, though, since they benefit from a factor which is outside their control. If I'm playing a team who I anticipate will have on my board a player who is likely to thrash me, then find that that player is unavailable (or is playing on a higher board because someone else was unavailable), and his replacement is a much weaker player whom I then go on to beat, then I would say I had been lucky.

[Derek Pugh]

In choosing a chess move (say which rook to move to a central file) it is surely possible to benefit from good luck. If you happen to choose the right option for the wrong reasons, or for no good reason at all, then you have surely been lucky under any reasonable definition. But taking Stewart Reuben's point it is harder to blame 'bad luck' if you choose the wrong option - you could have worked it out.

What is 'bad luck'? Perhaps it's simply the absence of good luck.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Another unlucky incident might be their phone turning itself back on and defaulting them - something that can be very difficult to anticipate happening. There might be those who get on their high horse and blame the player with the phone for it but I always think that those types simply have further to fall when something of that nature happens to them.

My phone went off when i was playing at the Torbay congress last weekend. However, as i had intentionally left it in my car, it didn't matter. It's very, very easy to avoid these issues. If you must keep it one you, take the battery out. Then it can't turn itself back on.

Or just have one so old it doesn't know how to turn itself back on.

[Alex Holowczak]

In choosing a chess move (say which rook to move to a central file) it is surely possible to benefit from good luck.

Again, I would say that isn't luck. You were perfectly in control of your ability to move that rook there.

[Michael Jones]

Even though you do choose your own moves, I would agree with Geoff and Derek on this one. If you play a piece to a particular square, and find five or ten moves later than it happens to be ideally placed for a combination that you hadn't seen at the point you put it there, then I'd say that's your good luck.