"Benjamin Franklin, in his 'Morals of Chess', emphasizes that: 'several valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it (chess), so as to become habits ready for all occasions. For life is a kind of chess in which we have points to gain and competitors or adversaries to contend with.' To this I would add the stimuli to our mental processes in the everchanging problematic situations on the chess-board as in life, the inexhaustible variety of life and chess, the sheer beauty of life and chess!"
-Larry Evans (International Grandmaster and former U.S. Champion), 1965
- Joined
- 10 Jan 08
- Moves
- 23349
Originally posted by MensoAge: old enough to order a beer in any country with a fake id and young enough to have snowball fights with my 8 year old neighbor.
when i say snowball fights i mean every time i see the prat when there's snow i hit him in the face and he runs inside crying.
Rating: 1500
How were you introduced into chess? - was taught the rules as a child but only started really playing 3 1/4 years ago.
How long have you played chess? see above
Why do you play chess? - to fill the void between masturbation, drinking and sleeping.
Describe your thinking process/es when problem solving (i.e. what is your method?) - it depends on many factors, if i actually care about the problem and what my mood happens to be on that day. it can vary between over thinking the problem to not putting aNY EFFORT IN AND HOPING IT ALL WORKS OUT WELL. i just hit caps by mistake and today i'm of the mood to not give a rats ass.
Describe your thinking process/es when playing chess (i.e. Explain the process by which you choose a particular move). - rarely look more than 2 moves ahead but it depends on how much i'm enjoying the game to the amount of time i put into thinking about a move. even in a winning position if i find the game boring i'll move on it quite fast....and end up making a blunder on occasions.
How do you think your chess experience influences your problem solving ability? - in real live? it doesn't. it does keep the mind a bit sharper though, especially with math based things.
Is this a positive influence? - i don't know, you tell me.
Is this a negative influence? - see above.
Anything you want to add (e.g. additional benefits, anecdotes, etc) - rating isn't related to intellect or nerdness.
Or is it draughts?
An excerpt from Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan POE:
" Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyze. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have different and bizarre motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers."
I would suggest stopping this research. It will only cause doubt, and depression. Would it be cruel to teach a child the war that is Chess? Or is it a greater evil to deny it of them?
“Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain
so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer”
- Albert Einstein
“All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess”
- Bobby Fischer
“Chess is mental torture”
- Garry Kasparov
“Many have become Chess Masters, no one has become the Master of Chess”
- Siegbert Tarrasch
It is up to you.
Sincerely,
Moshe Teutsch
Originally posted by moteutschNot in my view. Believe the realization of conflict serves as a useful rite of passage in preparation for the real thing. Youngsters becoming
[b] Would it be cruel to teach a child the war that is Chess? [/i]
acquainted with the charge of the mice, at the dining room table, may be better prepared for the charge of the elephants when it comes.
Originally posted by Grampy BobbyFootnote for Menso: Remedial benefits of chess with prison inmates may provide an interesting anecdotal argument for your proposal...
With respect to your sequence of scholastic proposal related questions:
* Grandfather on paper, but still feisty, competitive, young at heart.
* CC 1700+, OTB (lapsed, no longer available).
* Swedish Uncle, age nine. Five accomplished mentors in my twenties.
* Since, with a several career related decades gap. Joined RHP 2007.
* Enjoym do. Get going. Go get the job done.
Kind regards,
Boston Lad
09 Feb '09
as in the construct, 'If tangible remedial benefits accrue to incarcerated felons, how much more so should its classroom value be considered.'
If you're interested in pursuing this aspect, please see Darvlay's thread titled, "Forty Dollars?!?!?!". My post referencing the Boylston Chess
Club (third to the last post on page 4) provides a Google link to two articles, regarding E.M. Reubens and Ben Landey and prison chess.
Will bump Darvlay's thread to page 1 for your convenience. Best wishes for success with your proposal. Please let us know of the outcome.
-Bobby
Originally posted by Mensolook around you.
So I'm doing a research project on the benefits of using chess as an educational tool. A lot of research has been done on this matter, and the results are striking in that the majority of schools don't have a scholastic chess program. I'm hoping to put together a proposal for my local school district in hopes of persuading them to begin a scholastic chess club ...[text shortened]... ative influence?
Anything you want to add (e.g. additional benefits, anecdotes, etc)?
look AROUND you.
just, look around you.
have you worked out what we're looking for?
Isn't it arrogant, almost paradoxical, for the original question to have been asked? Surely there exists the opportunity for Chess to make us less intelligent too, depending upon how that intelligence is measured?
It isn't inconceivable, is it, that Chess could change a person's thought patterns in a negative way, disrupting their normal behaviour patterns for the worse? (assuming they almost lived the game)
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is actual evidence of the latter.