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Ask HN: Who plays chess?

32 points by alanthonyc ↗ HN
I'm on Chess with Friends (iOS) and Chess.com. Same username as hn on both.

I'm not super good, but I've been getting better since I started playing online a month ago. I used to play a lot more when I was a kid.

31 comments

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dbingham
I used to use the chess.com facebook app a lot to play. But at some point I stopped. I forget when or why. I think I got fed up with the app engine and just turned it off for a while. I've since turned it back on, and might start playing again. I've played since I was a kid and always enjoyed it, but haven't had a whole lot of time recently.
alanthonyc
The great thing about these formats is that the time commitment is minimal, though chess.com does ask you to supply a 2-3 day time limit between moves.

This also explains the great success of Words with Friends. I had been playing that game consistently since I was introduced to it back in March when I discovered chess. I never played scrabble before, I guess that phase is over now. I like chess much better!

Hit me up if you can!

starpilot
I play on Yahoo Games. Not any good at it though, despite having read a basic chess book and gone through the surprisingly thorough Yahoo Chess Strategy Guide http://games.yahoo.com/help/strategy/ch&ss=1. It's a fun game if you're more of a spatial thinker (hello designers) or get bored by more quantitative games like poker.
sliverstorm
I was never good enough to surpass the simple reactionary one-move-deep analysis of a beginner player (e.g. if I move here he'll capture my piece, or if I do this he'll have to respond like this or that), so the strategy in my games is very limited making it not-so-exciting.
travisjeffery
I used to play competitive A LOT when I was younger, my best was 3rd place for an all Ontario (Canada) competition and I won some county competitions. But it got to the point of being too time consuming and too boring, all you're doing is memorizing openings and certain strategies for middle play and end game situations rather than playing.

Having said that I really enjoy going through the old Master's games. If you're into Chess then I suggest getting 'The Most Instructive Games of Ches Ever Played' by Chernev (http://www.amazon.com/Most-Instructive-Games-Chess-Played/dp...). He goes through each game explaining the strategy and contexts of the games and moves, really enjoyable if you're into Chess.

chessgames.com is a cool site for going through their archive of games. My favorite is 'The Game of the Century' with Fischer who was my favorite: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008361

shazow
Nice, I think I might have played in the same provincial tournament (Ontario). Tied for 2nd in the Intermediate devision when I was in highschool. That particular tournament took place in Trent University.

(I'm shazow on Chess With Friends!)

num1
I had a similar experience. I was a strong contender for the US West amateur championship for a few years. But once I got good enough to spend most of my thinking time on positional concerns things stopped being a game and started being a huge database to memorize. I would spend my free time analyzing my games for weaknesses in my strategy, and practiced speed problem solving using giant books of tactical problems. Everybody serious about chess hits the point of diminishing returns per unit of studying, and I believe that the "good" players are the people who can ignore the impossibility of their task and keep studying anyway. There are probably better solutions to the problem of diminishing returns than quitting cold turkey, (the solution I chose) but I'm convinced my experiences with chess have made me a much better programmer. Looking ahead at the consequences of my actions, being able to look for oddball solutions to impossible situations, never giving up, and occasionally memorizing established solutions are all things I'm appreciative to chess for teaching me.
travisjeffery
Yeah, basically there's a point where you come to an ultimatum: "Do I want chess to be my life?" and we chose no -- simple as that. And it seems we're both happy we took that path! :)
num1
Hmm, I was content to show agreement simply by up-voting your comment, then I realized that was an anonymous action. So publicly, +1 to your comment, you hit it right on the nail.
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tarmstrong
I think my best was 4th for all Ontario. How old are you?
aquateen
If you're really interested in getting into chess, check out ICC and FICS.
jph
I play casually and wrote a simple HTML jquery chess board: http://joelparkerhenderson.com/chess/

The board is just pieces you can drag and drop anywhere. For me, this is more flexible than Chess.com, Yahoo Games, and other sites with sign in, membership, Java, Flash, and the like. Feel free to use it. Feedback appreciated.

djmattyg007
i used to play all the time. now i only play maybe one or two games a year. never been much good at it though :(
hsmyers
I've played tournament chess on and off since the mid-70's and as was pointed out elsewhere, to get good you need to devote a substantial amount of time to the game. Not that this is a bad thing, but you do have to ask yourself just how much time you have to devote to just how many things? I've managed to make a decent living from time to time as a chess programmer--- don't do the engines, but did do the interfaces. Starting with John Stanback and Hal Bogner working on Zarkov, and then later working with Electronic Arts for real money! I always got a kick out of the fact that I was the lowest rated player in the project including the manager! The last interface I worked on was for ICC another interesting project...
aquateen
Sounds nice to work with chess as a programmer.

I remember about 10 years ago when I was too young to pay for an ICC subscription, I would continually use a two-week trial by changing the volume ID on my hard drive.

richardw
I keep Shredder on the iPhone and usually play with that. I go through phases of playing it whenever I have a couple minutes free. I like it because you can keep a game around for a while, only needing to play when you're in the mood.
jonbaer
I have been really playing alot for past 2 months.

First studying alot, basic openings, midgames, endgames, simple tactics. But what got me really hooked was Stockfish (on iOS and Android), http://www.stockfishchess.com ... it is a pretty amazing open source chess engine. By far the best learning has been through http://www.jrobichess.com. His video analysis is great. In general I still lose alot more than I win but the studies are great and there is alot to learn.

Also great documentaries to watch ...

Game Over : Kasparov and the Machine : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLhqmqwy2gw

Susan Polgar : Brilliant Brain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WREgHsTr5yE

Also watching the current games of Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, and Alexandra Kosteniuk are great.

cletus
I used to play Chess when I was much younger and could beat pretty much everyone I knew by age 10-11. That's not saying an awful lot because I didn't know anyone particular good, and that was really the problem.

I lived in a town of about 10,000 at the time (and later in a town of 15-20,000 up until the end of high school) so didn't really have the opportunity to learn and get better. This was before the internet and playing a computer isn't quite the same thing.

It's something I'm a little disappointed about because I wish I'd had that opportunity by living somewhere bigger.

You learn from people who are better than you far more than those that are worse than you.

In university I met up with someone I'd gone to high school with (until he moved). He'd become something of a gun when it came to pool (eight ball). He used to practice 6 hours a day (I later learned) and won a junior state championship. He could beat pretty much any of us with his eyes closed. Once he beat someone when he was drunk only playing with one hand and won convincingly.

I used to play with him and actually got pretty good. By pretty good I mean I could take a game from him maybe 1 in 10-15. Against pretty much anyone else I did extremely well and even did well in the odd local comp (second place I think was my best).

That's what I mean about getting the opportunity to get better.

slyall
I played chess a seriously when I was at school but my family moved to a town without a decent club in last year at school so I stopped playing.

Started again around 2.5 years ago and I'm pretty serious. Trying to do 10-20 hours per week of training, seeing a coach for 2 hours/week and entering tournaments (I'm in the middle of one this weekend).

I don't play much online, just chess puzzles, books and playing against the computer ( The hard bit with computer chess these days is not "playing better than a grandmaster" but "playing like a nnnn rated human" ). At the level I'm at memorising openings isn't too big. perhaps 20 lines to a depth of a dozen moves is enough.

My rating is 1900 FIDE (although I'm probably 100 points lower in real life) which puts me in the top 100,000 players in the world or something like that. My medium term plans are to get a low level title (below grandmaster) in around 3-5 years. It's a plausible goal if I put in the hours.

thinkdifferent
I played chess a lot in my teenage years and I was very good. Italian Champion under 12, under 18 and under 20, fide master with 2 international master norms.

Then I decided to quit. It was incredibly fun, but also a lot of work which is not going to pay off unless you become a very strong grandmaster. I'm still thinking what a loss it was not to spend that "teenage energy" into doing something more profitable.

But it was so fun that I'm thinking about a comeback :)

nl
I used to play second board in interschool competition. We were a small school, but had a really good team (number one board ended up state champion.) Took a couple of years but we ended up winning the whole thing.

Interestingly, Terrance Tao's brother (Trevor) used to play in the same competition sometimes.

ja27
I'd never been very good at it. I could play, but would almost always lose to anyone that had spent any real time studying chess. Then a couple years ago I got into it and spent maybe 100 hours on it. Now I know I can demolish anyone that doesn't really play, but I'm probably at the bottom of any club or group of serious players.

One innovative tool that helped a lot is http://chesstempo.com. It presents puzzles, but each puzzle has a dynamic rank, so the site is always adjusting what it gives you to your current skill level.

QuantumGood
What I think are the three ESSENTIAL chess books are listed here: http://j.mp/bvbRoO ...The cheapest one is a lot of fun.

I won money in the U.S. Open and the New York Open, but that was only because I was basically improving quickly and was better than my rating. When I reached the point I could play speed chess with a clock without looking at the board (blindfold chess) I had overdone it and pretty much quit.

trickjarrett
Reassess Your Chess is undoubtedly the best Chess book I ever read
swah
Black coffee w/ as little sugar as I can tolerate in the particular moment of the day.
shareme
I use to play once or twice a week several years ago. I need to get back to doing that and get rated.

That Bobby Fisher chess open, middle, and end game puzzle book is a great way to step back into the game despite the major personal flaws that BF had.

Neputys
Chess is a candy for your brain :)
Tycho
I play on FICS via the iChessHD app on the iPad , which has a number of annoying bugs but suffices for my needs (ie. Get a ranked online chess game for free, any time of day, with control over the time parameters). When I first got the iPad I wasted loads of time playing 15 30 games which took the best part of an hour, then I switched to 2 7 'speed' game which don't feel very rushed anymore, and only take 5 mins or so.

I'm an average player among people who play regularly, although when i was a kid I always beat my friends. I don't have the patience to learn extensive opening theory, but sometimes I like to tell myself I surprise more experienced players with my unorthodox tactics and inventive responses...

I'm interested in chess as 1. A sort of daily 'brain-training' task to sharpen up 2. Finding ways and strategies for beating people who are much more skilled 3. Highlighting blind spots and flaws in my thinking (and others') 4. Improving visualisation/memory (for instance nowadays I find it easier and easier to remember entire boards/positions and analyse them in my head.

As you might have guessed, I condsider these skills to be transferrable to programming.