Chess Addiction

I am taking a quick survey on chess addiction. If you have a free minute or are just curious about the issue (or lack thereof! 🙂 ), check it out. I could use all the responses I can get. I expect the survey will take you less than a minute.

Thanks.

http://blueeyedrook.blogspot.com/

Originally posted by BlueEyedRook
I am taking a quick survey on chess addiction. If you have a free minute or are just curious about the issue (or lack thereof! 🙂 ), check it out. I could use all the responses I can get. I expect the survey will take you less than a minute.

Thanks.

http://blueeyedrook.blogspot.com/

You caught it in the beginning.... thanks!

I've been told I am addicted to chess. Is anyones hobby an addiction or just how we like to spend our time? I know a person who bikes 100 miles every day 360 days a year. Is that an addiction. If I were to say I am an addict or not I would say no. I have the power to lower my gameload and have done so many times. Although playing 4000 games online including 1200 of them cc games doesn't help that one could call me an addict. When you take it into prospective though an athlete can train 30 hrs a week maybe 5 hrs a day for 6 days a week. my baseball team did it. You have to spend time to get good at something, and when you get good at it you enjoy it so you play it more.

One of the qualities of an addiction is that it doesn't guarantee a successful outcome.

But I would describe chess as a positive addiction within reasonable boundaries. If it is harming relationships or adversely affecting other important areas of someones life it needs to be managed. As some personalities experience difficulty managing addictions perhaps for them the only solution is total abstinence.

The difficulty is in defining what the reasonable boundaries are as it will be different for different people and addicts are famous for denial.

How many hours a week are reasonable depends so much on the individual. A retired person living alone may spend several hours a day benefiting from chess activity or someone recovering from an illness with restricted mobility might be the same.

A student with exams to study for or a parent with children and work commitments spending several hours a day on chess would be very different. Earlier in the year I worked on a project about alcohol and discovered a question used to help people decide if they have a problem:

"Is it costing you more than money?"

I must go - I suspect there is something addictive about the forums!

I used to know some very strange chess players when I lived in London, many of whom you could describe as chess addicts. However after a while I realised that these people were generally misfits and the chess world was one place where they could be accepted.

Personally I like the idea that an unemployed weirdo who drinks and smokes far too much (*) can earn genuine respect from people (albeit chess players!) because of his ability over the chessboard.

(*) I'm thinking of one person in particular, but not someone on this site. In fact I haven't seen or heard from him in fifteen years.

Originally posted by ouwe belg
Your survey now totals 2 votes! 😀

I am not a chess addict. It is the truth! I can quit whenever I want, but not right now.

My friends says..., no sorry, My friend say..., no sorry, My former friend said that I play too much chess, but who has time to listen at such talk when I have moves to make.

I was at a café yesterday and when I reached for the salt, I happen to say 'Check'. Very embarrassing...

My computer support at my work complain that the RHP logo is burnt in in my screen. This couldn't be my fault, they bought too cheap screens, I'd say.
They have shut down RHP site in the fire wall. But I've found out that I can use a IP-anonymizer. Yeah, it costs some, but it is worth it. I work overtime a lot so I can afford it. Now my boss says my level of production is too low. Despite my overtime. Yeah, so what? If you want to win the games and raise your rating, you have to sacrifice something, right?

But I'm not addicted to chess. No way that I am.

sometimes people will be standing infront of me talking and then i snap out of what i realized was me considering a possible variation in my head.....

then i look at them and wonder what they were saying.

I can prove that I am definitely NOT addicted to chess. After all, I sleep at least six hours every night, which gives me at most only eighteen hours a day to devote to chess.

then how come you have played so little games on here?

It is my only hobby due to a pressing schedule... Moderation is key, the survey was interesting tho... (I do think of life in terms of chess, is that odd?)

hopefuly not when mating! lol

Originally posted by kmac27
then how come you have played so little games on here?