Any Chess Players Here?

[Smokin Joe]

I used to be quite reasonable at the game, although at a fairly basic level. I haven't played for years though, and the other day found a freebee on the 'net. I thought I'd better start off at the easy level first which was just as well. I've played around ten games so far and I haven't got past a dozen moves at most before resigning when my position became hopeless.

Addictive, though.

 

[Roadrider48]

Used to enjoy a game, but haven't played for years.
But now you've put that link Reiver....

 

[ColinJ]

I'm sure that chess software is a lot better than it used to be. I had a chess computer about 25 years ago and it used to annoy me by making stupid blunders from time to time. (They definitely were not sacrifices because I used to win soon afterwards!) I am not a particularly good player so I don't want to play humans, but I don't want to play a computer that is a worse player than me!

I have a backgammon app on my tablet and that bugs me by making stupid mistakes too. It leaves pieces in my home quarter while rushing round with others, apparently to try and avoid a gammon, not noticing that it will probably be backgammoned instead!

 

[mcshroom]

I used to be pretty good (played once for England U14s and had a FIDE rating at one point of 2050). Haven't played for years though. Never really got on with online chess for some reason though, it just didn't interest me in the way real games in person did. Not sure why.

 

[ColinJ]

I used to be pretty good (played once for England U14s and had a FIDE rating at one point of 2050). Haven't played for years though. Never really got on with online chess for some reason though, it just didn't interest me in the way real games in person did. Not sure why.

I have never understood how people can be really good at doing something (like chess), and enjoy doing it, but then just stop!

I know musicians who don't play their instruments, and good cyclists who hardly ride their bikes.

I have never really been very good at anything. I probably could have been if I had applied myself, but never did. If I had made the effort though, I would have continued once I got to a decent level.

 

[swee'pea99]

I've always found chess a bit intimidating. I regard it as kind of an acid test of (a certain kind - arguably a singularly 'pure' kind) intelligence, and fear that it would show me up as being in truth not half as clever as I've tended to like to think I am. (Until recently, that is, when I've become more and more convinced that I'm actually rather a numpty, albeit a fairly articulate one.)

 

[Gravity Aided]

I've had periods where I've liked chess, but I always got, and get, a lot more out of cycling. Chess, you kind of have to throw yourself into it and devote a lot of your life to it to attain the concentration needed to properly anticipate and predict moves in the future. Bicycle-pump up the tires and go.

 

[Monsieur]

Used to play a lot - in the 'old' days I played distance chess with my brother-in-law passing on our moves by telephone.
Really should take the game up again - looked at the link above and will investigate!

 

[mcshroom]

I have never understood how people can be really good at doing something (like chess), and enjoy doing it, but then just stop!

I know musicians who don't play their instruments, and good cyclists who hardly ride their bikes.

I have never really been very good at anything. I probably could have been if I had applied myself, but never did. If I had made the effort though, I would have continued once I got to a decent level.

It was easier to be a chess player for me when I lived in an urban area with an evening league, lots of tournaments and I knew lots of other local players. It's not the same now where there are fewer players, fewer tournaments and I have to travel further to get to anything.

I also do other things now I didn't as much when I played chess. Singing has become far more important (and time consuming), as I now sing in three different choirs (one of which is a church choir that I also run which means I'm committed most Sundays - gets in the way of weekend chess tournaments), and also do some solo stuff. Added to that I started cycling and moved on to audaxing, which takes up a lot of the rest of the time.

Basically I have more interests than I have time to do them all, and chess is one of the ones that has taken a back seat for now.

 

[Roadhump]

As a lad I was a good chess player and when I was aged 10-11 and in the first year at School (Year 7 now, I believe) I used to go to the lunch time chess club. I was noticed by one of the teachers who asked me to represent the school at a regional Chess Congress. Can't remember why I didn't but towards the end of that year I started fooling around,then fell into wastrel ways for the rest of my school days so things like chess and school itself became uncool. I didn't play again until I was about 25 and had lost it by then.

I sometimes play against the computer at a low level, and even win sometimes, but it doesn't seem like the real thing somehow. I will have to give that chess.com a try though.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Used to play intermittently. This thread has piqued my interest again. Any recommendations for software to get me going again?

 

[shouldbeinbed]

I used to be quite reasonable at the game, although at a fairly basic level. I haven't played for years though, and the other day found a freebee on the 'net. I thought I'd better start off at the easy level first which was just as well. I've played around ten games so far and I haven't got past a dozen moves at most before resigning when my position became hopeless.

Addictive, though.

this is me exactly. I've got a couple of apps on my mobile and even paid £1.50 for a trainer app, which openings do what & set up positions to checkmate in 1,2,3 moves etc to try and get back into the swing of it. Right now though the phone keeps kicking my backside even on the 'blind drunk 6 year old that has never seen a chessboard' setting before.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

[QUOTE 3365321, member: 9609"]just go to http://www.chess.com/
its free just loggin and start playing, you will start of with a rating of 1200 and you will either get beat a lot or win a lot until you find your own level, then you will be playing against those of a similar level..[/QUOTE]

 

[Smokin Joe]

This is good for getting back into the swing of things -

http://www.shredderchess.com/play-chess-online.html

 

[ColinJ]

This is good for getting back into the swing of things -

http://www.shredderchess.com/play-chess-online.html

Ha ha - first game on the easy level, I managed to get stalemate with my king against 2 queens, 2 rooks, 4 pawns and a king!