Have you ever just thought about the beauty of chess. The strategy and complexity that goes into it. It's the only thing where you have to lose first before you can win. All the champions in the world lost before they won. Stuff like baseball and football, it is all about who is stronger and faster. Chess is the battle of the minds, nothing in the world can compare to it. That is why I say I love this game. Please tell me if and/or why you love this game.
Yeah, it is great. One thing I love about it is the fact that luck is pretty much ruled out. Unlike other games involving dice or playing cards - which I also enjoy - chess is entirely about the decisions made, and not a game of chance.
I got a book out of the library, foolishly, in a way. It was foolish because it is a book about chess, and I can't just sit down and read it. I have to keep stopping and playing through all this frustrating notation! I dip into it now and then and it is very entertaining. It's an autobiography of a one time grandmaster called Eduard Gufeld from the Ukraine. I haven't read very much of it yet.
The reason I mention it is its title: 'Chess: the search for the Mona Lisa'. The concept is that chess can be a competitive game and a science of a sort, but there is also another way of looking at chess... Chess can be artistic. I like the idea that there can be artistic merit in a certain style of playing.
There can be a tactical beauty in certain kinds of combinations and manouevres (they are rarely to be found in my games, however; at least not by my pieces). I often find myself fantasising about fantastic combinations I could realise if only a knight was slightly differently placed, or if my opponent missed something.... Then, of course, my opponent usually unleashes some unstoppable breakthrough which sends me into abject depression...
Any other thoughts on chess as art??
'Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity.'
Vladimir Nabokov, 'Poems and Problems', 1969
I agree with you and I like your reply, chess is an art form(as Bobby Fischer once said), but to see chess as an art you have to see the beauty in it. You are controlling an army of pieces and the one with a better mind excells over his opponent. The art in chess to me is the pieces working in unison. People say there is no i in team. There is no i in chess also. What I mean by this is, you can't move one piece around the board and expect to win, you have to work your pieces together as a team. Thanks for the reply
What attracted me to chess was the look of the starting position on a glass chess set. To a boy of 5 years, why, that was just the coolest thing on Earth!!! I would look at it from every angle possible. I watched my uncle play game after game and was continually awed by the way everything perfectly contrasted.
It's exciting to play out a fabulous combination or unstoppable mating attack; or, on the flipside, surviving one! its a work of art in its own right🙂 Complex & elaborate mating patterns are just simply breathtaking!!!
This game illustrates the sheer war-like beauty of it all!:
I was White
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. Bc4 Ng4 6. d4 d6 7. Ng5 Nh6 8. Qf3 Qe7 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Qe2 b5 11. Bb3 Bb7 12. f3 o-o-o 13. Nd5 Bxd5 14. Bxd5 c6 15. Bb3 f6 16. Ne6 Rd7 17. f4 Neg4 18. Nd4 Rc7 19. o-o g5 20. Re1 d5 21. h3 Qc5 22. hxg4 Qxd4+ 23. Kh2 Bd6 24. c3 Qb6 25. e5 Bc5 26. fxg5 fxg5 27. Bxg5 Bf2 28. Rf1 Be3 29. Bxh6 Bxh6 30. e6 Re7 31. Rf3 Qc7+ 32. Kh1 Bg5 33. Raf1 Kb7 34. Qf2 c5 35. Bxd5+ Kb6 36. b4 h5 37. Rf8 Rh6 38. Qxc5+ Qxc5 39. Rb8+ Kc7 40. Rb7+ Kd6 41. Rd7+ Ke5 42. Rf5++
This is what chess all about!!!!!!!! Dirty and outright ugly😵😛😵 There's nothing better than pulling it out(winning) while living on the brink of death!!
Glen
I never cease to amaze myself by playing for hours on end and not wanting to stop. or by being enthralled by a book on the English (my wife thinks I'm nuts). It's a game of juxaposition and harmony. A game of simplistic complexity. The game is absolutely amazing, yet completely boring to those that don't play. Ever thought of how many ways chess is unique? Oldest game in the world, only game played in every country, only game that trancends all language barriers, only game where both side are perfectly equal ??