I love the game of chess. It's a beautiful game in many ways. The game is quite simplistic to learn as there are only 6 different types of pieces, which all move and kill in a certain way, and then a handful of rules. But beyond that there is nearly an infinite amount of strategy and planning to learn and master. I can learn a lot from chess, and I can apply what I learn to my life. Chess flexes the brain the way Weights flex your muscles. People don’t weight lift because they might be walking down the street and walk by a dumbbell that needs to be lifted. But it keeps them healthy, and able to lift things if they need to, like a couch, or doing other physical activities. I don’t play chess because I'm afraid of randomly finding a chess game lying on the ground in front of my path that I must win. But it does flex my brain, keep me sharp, and allow me to apply some things I learn from chess to my life. Chess teaches me patience. First it teaches me to think before I move a piece on the board, and look carefully at the wide variety of options, and look for a better move. When I find a better move it teaches me too look closer and make sure it's better, imagining what my opponents next move may be. In chess it is important to look ahead in a game and picture the chessboard in your head with pieces moved. If you move a piece you need to then look at the board in your head with that piece moved and see how the landscape of the game has changed. A single move can very often change the outcome of an entire game. Chess is basically a mathematical formula in the form of a game. If look at an algebraic formula that is quite complex and change one period or at a multiplication symbol it completely changes the outcome of the problem. It’s the same in a game of chess. This is why it is important to picture a move in your head and possible subsequent moves as well before you make the move on the board. Picturing this in your head "flexes" your brain and this can be useful in your life as well. you can use the same technique when having an argument with someone. If you say something specific, how will you respond? You can picture your life if you choose to move somewhere, instead of staying put, how will your life change? What aspects will remain the same? There are an infinite number of examples I could give, but it should suffice to say that picturing many games of chess in your head is a useful exercise that can be translated into situations that may arise in your life. In chess you have pieces to work with. These pieces need to work in conjunction with each other to accomplish goals, with the ultimate goal of winning the game. Perhaps you are trying to move a pawn across the board to promote it to a queen - The pawn, if left to itself will probably be killed by your opponent, or blocked by a piece. To circumvent this you will probably need at least one other piece backing it up. Maybe a rook directly behind it or a pawn to its side (behind) so is a piece takes it, you can kill it with the second pawn. Sometimes you might have five or so pieces all focused on the pawn, because it has the potential to become something much more powerful. Every single checkmate possible requires the combination of more than one piece outside of the checkmated king. Every piece is vulnerable to other pieces in certain condition. Every piece has weakness and strengths. As in chess, in life, you utilize tools, people, skills, objects, anything, to accomplish a goal, and these are best used in combinations, as in chess. A simple example is preparing a resume. You may have letters of recommendation, as well as previous job history, and these things work together to fight for you to get a job. This is like pushing a pawn across the board. Obviously there are many differences. But chess helps you think about all of the tools you have at your disposal, from connections and people you know, to the Internet, to money, a car a pencil and paper, etc. Every time you want to accomplish anything you have to size up what you have available and work with it. If you want to get to work.. If you have a car, use that. If it’s nearly out of gas do you have cash and a gas station at your disposal? Same is true of chess, you may need a rook in a certain place on the board but in order to get it there you may need to use your other pieces first. Chess teaches you the importance of planning ahead. If you move pieces randomly, or only moves that accomplish a short term goal, without thought for several moves down the line you will quickly get into trouble. I know for me, situations have came up in my day to day life where I took extra effort to plan ahead solely because I thought about how I plan ahead in chess. If I am going to expend so much mental energy on a game, why would I not do so in my life as well? Flexibility in chess is very important. Every time a piece is moved the board needs to be entirely rechecked for possible moves. In life there aren't turns so it can be harder to remember to continually reevaluate your situation, but it is still very important to do. People give up and let chaos theory dictate the outcome instead of themselves. In chess if someone does not see a move they like, or an obvious move, they may give up and randomly move a piece. Be focused; don't let your opponent control the outcome. Life is like a chess tournament, because you have several smaller goals within the ultimate goals. You can fail at some goals, or games, and still accomplish your larger goals. With within your games or smaller goals you have to have even smaller goals. I feel sometimes I'm losing in my life for awhile, and then I get back on track for awhile, and its somewhat of a cycle. Both in a chess tournament and life it can come down to be focused and STAYING focused. My actions and choices in chess reflect my actions in choices in life. I am always slow to start, and am rarely aggressive, I take my time, too much time to position myself. I have missed many opportunities to check mate an enemy early on. The same is true in my day to day life. When I am planning for something such as moving, or changing jobs or even smaller things, such as making a piece of art, or organizing my room, I spend too much time readying myself and have a hard time with the follow through. Chess teaches humility. I have noticed that sometimes I will play someone not as good as I am. Or I play someone as good as I am, but I am well ahead in the game. I get cocky and end up losing. This happens on a professional level, and it happens in life. A example of this would be the designers of the Titanic. They became too cocky. Hubris will be your downfall in chess and life if you aren't careful. I don't think much about my physical self, my appearance what I wear, my environment, I put more of my energy into helping others, or thinking about ideas involving philosophy and politics and more. I have noticed on the chess board my king is just a nuisance the way my physical body is in real life. I neglect my king and lose early on sometimes, but this is something I am working on, and I think I should work on this in my life as well.
Hi ResolvedAce,
You're sure right about the teaching you patience part.
Nice essay!
-AlienDjinn
ResolvedAce wrote: Chess flexes the brain the way Weights flex your muscles.
Chess flexes the brain the way Weights flex your muscles.
And for entertainment value, it sure beats the he11 out of playing Brain Age.
blakbuzzrd wrote:Cool. Some great reflections in there; what was the inspiration to sit down and compose this essay?
ResolvedAce wrote:I love the game of chess. It's a beautiful game in many ways. The game is quite simplistic to learn as there are only 6 different types of pieces, which all move and kill in a certain way, and then a handful of rules. But beyond that there is nearly an infinite amount of strategy and planning to learn and master. I can learn a lot from chess, and I can apply what I learn to my life. Chess flexes the brain the way Weights flex your muscles. People don’t weight lift because they might be walking down the street and walk by a dumbbell that needs to be lifted. But it keeps them healthy, and able to lift things if they need to, like a couch, or doing other physical activities. I don’t play chess because I'm afraid of randomly finding a chess game lying on the ground in front of my path that I must win. But it does flex my brain, keep me sharp, and allow me to apply some things I learn from chess to my life. Chess teaches me patience. First it teaches me to think before I move a piece on the board, and look carefully at the wide variety of options, and look for a better move. When I find a better move it teaches me too look closer and make sure it's better, imagining what my opponents next move may be. In chess it is important to look ahead in a game and picture the chessboard in your head with pieces moved. If you move a piece you need to then look at the board in your head with that piece moved and see how the landscape of the game has changed. A single move can very often change the outcome of an entire game. Chess is basically a mathematical formula in the form of a game. If look at an algebraic formula that is quite complex and change one period or at a multiplication symbol it completely changes the outcome of the problem. It’s the same in a game of chess. This is why it is important to picture a move in your head and possible subsequent moves as well before you make the move on the board. Picturing this in your head "flexes" your brain and this can be useful in your life as well. you can use the same technique when having an argument with someone. If you say something specific, how will you respond? You can picture your life if you choose to move somewhere, instead of staying put, how will your life change? What aspects will remain the same? There are an infinite number of examples I could give, but it should suffice to say that picturing many games of chess in your head is a useful exercise that can be translated into situations that may arise in your life. In chess you have pieces to work with. These pieces need to work in conjunction with each other to accomplish goals, with the ultimate goal of winning the game. Perhaps you are trying to move a pawn across the board to promote it to a queen - The pawn, if left to itself will probably be killed by your opponent, or blocked by a piece. To circumvent this you will probably need at least one other piece backing it up. Maybe a rook directly behind it or a pawn to its side (behind) so is a piece takes it, you can kill it with the second pawn. Sometimes you might have five or so pieces all focused on the pawn, because it has the potential to become something much more powerful. Every single checkmate possible requires the combination of more than one piece outside of the checkmated king. Every piece is vulnerable to other pieces in certain condition. Every piece has weakness and strengths. As in chess, in life, you utilize tools, people, skills, objects, anything, to accomplish a goal, and these are best used in combinations, as in chess. A simple example is preparing a resume. You may have letters of recommendation, as well as previous job history, and these things work together to fight for you to get a job. This is like pushing a pawn across the board. Obviously there are many differences. But chess helps you think about all of the tools you have at your disposal, from connections and people you know, to the Internet, to money, a car a pencil and paper, etc. Every time you want to accomplish anything you have to size up what you have available and work with it. If you want to get to work.. If you have a car, use that. If it’s nearly out of gas do you have cash and a gas station at your disposal? Same is true of chess, you may need a rook in a certain place on the board but in order to get it there you may need to use your other pieces first. Chess teaches you the importance of planning ahead. If you move pieces randomly, or only moves that accomplish a short term goal, without thought for several moves down the line you will quickly get into trouble. I know for me, situations have came up in my day to day life where I took extra effort to plan ahead solely because I thought about how I plan ahead in chess. If I am going to expend so much mental energy on a game, why would I not do so in my life as well? Flexibility in chess is very important. Every time a piece is moved the board needs to be entirely rechecked for possible moves. In life there aren't turns so it can be harder to remember to continually reevaluate your situation, but it is still very important to do. People give up and let chaos theory dictate the outcome instead of themselves. In chess if someone does not see a move they like, or an obvious move, they may give up and randomly move a piece. Be focused; don't let your opponent control the outcome. Life is like a chess tournament, because you have several smaller goals within the ultimate goals. You can fail at some goals, or games, and still accomplish your larger goals. With within your games or smaller goals you have to have even smaller goals. I feel sometimes I'm losing in my life for awhile, and then I get back on track for awhile, and its somewhat of a cycle. Both in a chess tournament and life it can come down to be focused and STAYING focused. My actions and choices in chess reflect my actions in choices in life. I am always slow to start, and am rarely aggressive, I take my time, too much time to position myself. I have missed many opportunities to check mate an enemy early on. The same is true in my day to day life. When I am planning for something such as moving, or changing jobs or even smaller things, such as making a piece of art, or organizing my room, I spend too much time readying myself and have a hard time with the follow through. Chess teaches humility. I have noticed that sometimes I will play someone not as good as I am. Or I play someone as good as I am, but I am well ahead in the game. I get cocky and end up losing. This happens on a professional level, and it happens in life. A example of this would be the designers of the Titanic. They became too cocky. Hubris will be your downfall in chess and life if you aren't careful. I don't think much about my physical self, my appearance what I wear, my environment, I put more of my energy into helping others, or thinking about ideas involving philosophy and politics and more. I have noticed on the chess board my king is just a nuisance the way my physical body is in real life. I neglect my king and lose early on sometimes, but this is something I am working on, and I think I should work on this in my life as well.
MistahToad wrote: ResolvedAce wrote: Chess flexes the brain the way Weights flex your muscles. And for entertainment value, it sure beats the he11 out of playing Brain Age.
I enjoyed your post but its not my nature to not thoroughly analyze and pick apart your essay. Me being a chess lover and a self proclaimed "philosopher" myself have also noticed how not only chess but games/competition in general "flexes" the mind. Competition is sewn into our DNA, if we were to have an upfront direct win lose factor in public school systems i bet we wouldnt have a drop out rate as high as we do. Everybody wants to be a winner, and when you lose naturally you want to improve so you can win. And when you cant win you start thinking, thinking of ways to win (hence cheaters), flexing your mind so you can come out on top. Competition keeps us on our toes mentally and physically, granted most people aren't looking at it consciously while they're joyessly killing an onslaught of mercenaries coming at you in every direction in Rainbowsix Vegas 2 "saying wow this is really going to improve my hand eye coordination, reflexes, and quick decision making." Or the fact that memorizing the codes for all the GTAIII games are gonna improve overall memory(or push the more important memories like idk the pythagoras theorem out the window...really depends on the individual). And i think thats the problem i have with your essay overall is the definitive answer on how chess improves this and chess relates to that, misleading a bunch of people who are the normal lets believe this guy cuz he sounds smart people, as if your perceptions on how chess relates to life is a way of life. May of not been your intentions but as i said me being me i start from the bottom, the basics the root of all things, chess is a game, games were derived from our inherent nature to compete. And the connection between chess and patience is only touching on the classical sense of chess, completely disreguarding speed chess. Granted its always important to make sure you ask 'Why?", why are you moving that piece, what is that pieces purpose and as you said you need to accomplish your goal, and that goal is simply to capture that king. Now you need to come up with a platform strategy im gonna attack from the right, im gonna attack from the left and stick to it. With over 5200 opening moves if you know your pieces and know your board you have no need to kno your opponent, you will know precisely what to do when he does it, becuz why, because you have your plan 12 steps b4 he even thinks of a plan(speed chess of course). Which i totally agree with you in plan ahead, far far ahead, but you can only implicate that into certain aspects of your life, if you were to think 12 steps ahead of every decision you make you'd never make a mistake, meaning you would never learn, the majority of things that happen to you in life wouldnt happen. The joys of life would be depleted, the unexpected wouldnt happen cuz you would expect it to and maybe not take that 1st step into something great becuz of what might or might not be. And from personal experience even if you have everything planned, its still a guessing game becuz you expect to see every move on the board or atleast expect to kno how the games gonna be played out, your oppononent may give you an opening that could win you the game 25 moves b4 u expected, or may throw a pawn right in the path of victory, so your always gonna have to be able think on the fly, and throw all plans out the window and come up with new plans(like speed chess). Now i could go on and be poetic and talk about how chess is like war except for the fact that you cant win the heart of the knight and you cant compromise with a bishop, but my end isnt focused on chess persay, i guess really you could call it an attack(thats what most ppl are gonna do) i was just focused on the key points that you may have not thought about or left out and how i felt about what i read. You're definately right on most things you said and you have knack for writing im just not one for defintive answers(guys are like this,woman are like that,blacks do this,whites talk like that) we're all people we all do the same ***, i just thought you were missing the broader more wordly approach, but thats my opinion and i have my right to it : ). As a thinking mind i wish i knew you in person youd be fun to bounce ideas off of/argue which ever came 1st.
btw i think u needed a closer rather than a self reflecting/pity statement,even tho the 1st sentence is typically how u should live anyway. get your confidence up homey
Interesting idea, although I cant say I agree with it. One reason, as you mentioned is the abundace of cheaters that would arise. A point you may be missing here is that while competition is within all of us, not all of us would have an urge to compete in all areas, or even any. This would turn moe off to learning if I was in high school. Infact when I was in seventh grade, at one point I have straight Fs on a report card. I wasnt lazy, and I wasnt stupid. I aced tests and refused to do busy work. Another thing is that having hyper competitive children seems like a step in the wrong direction to me. Not that I want apathetic kids, I just dont think children more focused on winning than actually learning is a much better alternative. I think school should focus on instilling a love of learning in kids. Memorizing facts is stupid when they have google. Thats not a joke, Google exists, if they are going to need to retrieve some arcane fact, they have google. Instead of having them memorize facts, teach them everything you can possibly know about google. And believe me, there is ALOT of hidden features in google.
I agree with the statement about the lack of urge to compete (hence kids not participating in P.E.) but the majority of people wouldnt want to do the things they like if they had to or if the benefits of what they were doing good or bad are takin away(Social Psychology of Modern Life by Steuart Henderson Britt).Quik lil tangent here but i once had a conversation with a psycologists friend of mine who said when he was a kid there were these boys who would follow him home and make fun of him everyday, so one day he said he decides to start paying the boys. He started with 3 dimes, of course the boys were astounded that hes paying them to do this. He said it went on for about 2 weeks then he said he stopped paying them, the boys disappointed with there lack of funds to aid there tomfoolery, ceased there daily verbal attack. But as in most mammals i have observed kids like to have fun, so what happens is during your elementary school years they incorporate fun games and activities into your everyday learning enviroment because they know they will love to learn because of the fun associated with it( and you cant sit there and tell me you dont remember elementary school being bonkers). They also kno that they dont know what they kno, meaning subconciously these kids are absorbing all this information because they see the benefits they get from it(recess, snack time,treats(prizes) etc) totallly oblivious to what the grand scheme of what it all truely is. So what happens is you hit 6th grade and your 1st day your wonderin when recess is, and the teachers like "This is middle school there is no recess and its time to grow up" so your really pissed and disappointed because all the things you associated with how school is/should be are no longer there, which leaves you in a state of, for lack of a much better word, W-T-F**kness. And just like you said you can do the work you know the answers but you dont want to do the work because the mask of "fun" has been removed from the system and now is perceived as "busy work". Granted there preparing you for the real world(becuz lets face it life doesnt have door prices) but even big business's have started implicating "nap times" spa passes and all kinds of assorted amenities to keep there employees happy and still wanting to come back for more, cuz apparently the all might dollar isnt worth it anymore. So obvioulsy im not to far off and if they were to vitalize these practices in 6-12 the fire burning within you to learn would still burn bright. Although some people like me never stop asking the 5 W's, that added competitive touch throughout k-12 and beyond would make learning a little more adequate. And as for google i agree its one of the best tool for knowledge research since the internet itself. But if you were to have Google 101 you'd definately have to add Research 101 to the curriculum, and teach them "I wouldn't ever want people to believe something they read online from anyonre (or offline) without doing some critical thinking of their own", and lots of follow up research. But even then i find myself getting lazy becuz anything i need to know i just hit my home button and poof evrything i need, and i dont retain the knowledge i feel i should becuz i always have my references to my side for any quick inquries, but like Einstein said " Imagination is more important than knowledge," and just becuz i may not know it off hand, i know where i can find it, so i understand your google theory.
I don't think much about my physical self, my appearance what I wear, my environment, I put more of my energy into helping others, or thinking about ideas involving philosophy and politics and more. I have noticed on the chess board my king is just a nuisance the way my physical body is in real life. I neglect my king and lose early on sometimes, but this is something I am working on, and I think I should work on this in my life as well.
I reread that statement and was thinking ok maybe he meant his body is a nuisance in spiritual terms, which i would totally agree, because of the fact that our body needs sleep, thats 8 hours out of the day which are wasted when they could be used for something productive! But your follow up sentence doesnt match that, you appear to be saying you neglect the king and lose early, which to me means you neglect yourself and worry about others to much and end up getting hurt. And i guess when you said "I don't think much about my physical self, my appearance what I wear, my environment," i mistook it as you dont think much of that as in your not satisfied, but you apparently meant you literally dont think about that stuff...my bad. As for the rest of the stuff you pretty much confirmed what i had to say and as for my non use of paragraphs its a reflection of myself and how i think/talk, i have alot of energy and when its on a roll its on a roll i dont have time to stop and seperate thoughts, it just all comes out in one big thought and is then very hard to make paragraphs out of simply because it wouldnt be the same,i dont think. besides the only access i have to a comp is when im at work so i do all this during my lunch break.
Faded XIII wrote: Are you really saying use google instead of real education? If someone is driven to use google for information then why educate them at all?
Faded XIII wrote: As for your analogy, dates are extremely important. So just knowing about when it happened doesnt cut it. Your setting yourself up for failure if you plan on living in educated society instead of flipping burgers.
Faded XIII wrote: Without dates in 100 years were going to have a million kids walking around thinking dinosaurs walked the earth when lincoln was president. Perhaps not paying attention and getting Fs WAS your downfall, your just filling in spaces that you created with some messed up educational theory you fantasized about while playing chess, you relate your life to that and come to the conclusion learning principles is more important than facts.
Faded XIII wrote: Heres another one for you. Do you want to goto a Doctor for an operation or a Plumber? Because one will generally use more facts than the other to get the job done. The principle behind fixing internal bleeding is not much different than fixing a leaky faucet.. So again, who is your surgeon?
Faded XIII wrote: Still not convinced? The principle behind throwing a punch is no different from your average person and the worlds best boxer. So what makes the difference here? A boxer relies on tried and true FACTS, your average person just knows I CLUB WITH HAND ... MEE HURT YOU!
Faded XIII wrote: Try having a conversation without relying on google. Sounds like you spend so much time talking on a computer where you can type in google.com that youve created a crutch. A crutch that wont hold you up in reality. Maybe when you have 2 weeks for a 9th grade report, but not when your trying to converse with an educated adult. Sort of like those people who cant play scrabble without a dictionary.
AlienDjinn wrote:Hi ResolvedAce, You're sure right about the teaching you patience part. Nice essay! -AlienDjinn