1. e4
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    10 Sep '09 22:22
    I'm a 100% addict.

    I still get an andrenalin buzz by picking up a chess book and
    settling down at a board to play over the games or solve puzzles.
    Incredible.
    I hope I never lose the buzz.
  2. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:22
    If chess is art, why don't we all paint, make sculptures or write lovely poems? Because we, chess players, are far too uncreative, far too incapable, to do so. Have you ever seen Kasparov producing some worthwhile artwork? Chess is art for dummies.
  3. Account suspended
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    10 Sep '09 22:262 edits
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    If chess is art, why don't we all paint, make sculptures or write lovely poems? Because we, chess players, are far too uncreative, far too incapable, to do so. Have you ever seen Kasparov producing some worthwhile artwork? Chess is art for dummies.
    how would that differ from a guitarist saying the same things? artistic ability isn't transitive or "interchangable". (that doesn't sound like an actual word πŸ™‚) some can play a good chess game, some can paint. majority of artists can't perform art in more than one area.
  4. Standard memberKristaps
    Kerfufflecopter
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    10 Sep '09 22:27
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    If chess is art, why don't we all paint, make sculptures or write lovely poems? Because we, chess players, are far too uncreative, far too incapable, to do so. Have you ever seen Kasparov producing some worthwhile artwork? Chess is art for dummies.
    I'd say that art is something artificially created that is aesthetically pleasant so chess combinations would fall into that category. Though you have to know something about the game if you wish to understand the beauty behind Loyd's puzzles.
  5. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:30
    Originally posted by greenpawn34
    So what is chess?
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    10 Sep '09 22:331 edit
    Originally posted by philidor position
    how would that differ from a guitarist saying the same things? artistic ability isn't transitive or "interchangable". (that doesn't sound like an actual word πŸ™‚) some can play a good chess game, some can paint. majority of artists can't perform art in more than one area.
    OK, that is a pretty good point - or actually, mine was pretty weak.

    But if we stick to the "chess area" then, have you ever seen a GM create a "work of art"? I have not, all they do (and all they can possibly do, it is sad is it not) is producing strings of piece movements - where can I find the art?
  7. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:37
    Originally posted by Kristaps
    I'd say that art is something artificially created that is aesthetically pleasant so chess combinations would fall into that category. Though you have to know something about the game if you wish to understand the beauty behind Loyd's puzzles.
    Artificially created? Aesthetically pleasant? What in the world can be so aesthetically pleasant about action figures placed on a grid?
  8. Account suspended
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    10 Sep '09 22:421 edit
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    OK, that is a pretty good point - or actually, mine was pretty weak.

    But if we stick to the "chess area" then, have you ever seen a GM create a "work of art"? I have not, all they do is producing strings of piece movements - where can I find the art?
    you have. you have created art either. did you ever enjoy watching a soccer game, a basketball game, a good hard slam dunk, or Gilmour's solo in comfortably numb?

    you have, right? That's because they had aesthetical value in them. what you feel when you see a "beautiful" chess game is exactly the same. it's just that a very little group of people can enjoy this.

    you can't enjoy a novel in a language you don't know. chess is an art that's hard to grasp the language of. I know you know that language pretty well, so yes, you have seen a GM create a "work of art."
  9. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:441 edit
    Originally posted by philidor position
    chess is an intellectual activity.
    No, playing chess is an activity just as intellectual as playing monopoly or tiddly winks or singing Beatles songs while standing on your head.
  10. Account suspended
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    10 Sep '09 22:461 edit
    Originally posted by Kristaps
    Once chess has gotten its hooks into you, it's pretty hard to get rid of it. There are many kinds of treatment (e.g. extensive search for another hobby) but they don't always work.
    A lousy art form? i beg to differ. we see beauty in it, aesthetics that make us marvel, there is composition, movement, design, harmony, focal points, bold brush strokes and subtle ones, thematic genres and imagination. Indeed, it cannot be brought down to the banal level nor the the coldness of a science, but like the musical notes in a composition, while finite and easily defined we try hard to arrange them in a composition that is pleasing in order to express that which is human! a lousy art form?, it is the ultimate art form!
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    10 Sep '09 22:46
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    OK, that is a pretty good point - or actually, mine was pretty weak.

    But if we stick to the "chess area" then, have you ever seen a GM create a "work of art"? I have not, all they do (and all they can possibly do, it is sad is it not) is producing strings of piece movements - where can I find the art?
    and by the way, from that standpoint, all painters do is move their arms/hands up and down and left and right.
  12. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:49
    Originally posted by philidor position
    and by the way, from that standpoint, all painters do is move their arms/hands up and down and left and right.
    We are not discussing the peculiarities of painters here πŸ˜€
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    10 Sep '09 22:492 edits
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    No, playing chess is an activity just as intellectual as playing monopoly or tiddly winks or singing Beatles songs while standing on your head.
    they are intellectual activities too. they aren't physical activities, right? (the beatles one partly isπŸ™‚) Chess has a higher level of abstraction, so could be placed above those activities in that category.
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    10 Sep '09 22:50
    Originally posted by heinzkat
    We are not discussing the peculiarities of painters here πŸ˜€
    maybe we should πŸ™‚ they are no different then chess players.
  15. Joined
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    10 Sep '09 22:55
    Originally posted by philidor position
    they are intellectual activities too. they aren't physical activities, right? Chess has a higher level of abstraction, so could be placed above those activities in that category.
    No, the playing of chess is a pretty dumb activity, far from "intellectual". You can say, hey, in order to play chess, you have to actually think every once in a while, but really, it is not so necessary to "think" to "play chess".
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