Why is chess so hard?

[SuperElroy]

Every time I play online I get my ass kicked.

I think they are all advanced level.

[Grub-Xer0]

Best word of advice I can give is to plan very far ahead. I've been playing chess for 10 years and I've only won a handful of matches.

[Tankdown]

At 2/11/14 05:18 PM, SuperElroy wrote: Every time I play online I get my ass kicked.

I think they are all advanced level.

Or maybe the problem is you.

Just saying...

[SuperElroy]

At 2/11/14 05:20 PM, Tankdown wrote:

At 2/11/14 05:18 PM, SuperElroy wrote: Every time I play online I get my ass kicked.

I think they are all advanced level.

Or maybe the problem is you.

Just saying...

No. I can never get better because their skill level is too high. It's a monopoly of chess if you will. When I played with a friend for a while we got better, because we were of equal skill level.

[Scarface]

At 2/11/14 05:22 PM, SuperElroy wrote: No. I can never get better because their skill level is too high. It's a monopoly of chess if you will. When I played with a friend for a while we got better, because we were of equal skill level.

It's hard to program a computer to only be a little good at chess. There are so many moves to make, some obviously worse than others, and it's hard to design a program that would have the computer make mistakes a real human would, as opposed to making the computer too good at the game or too bad.

[Tankdown]

At 2/11/14 05:22 PM, SuperElroy wrote: No. I can never get better because their skill level is too high. It's a monopoly of chess if you will. When I played with a friend for a while we got better, because we were of equal skill level.

Few tips

Try to control the center of the board, do not take the queen out immediately, and try to develop your pieces into the field.

In the one of the Alice in wonderland books. Alice was made the most powerful piece in the name. The queen's pawn (the pawn in front of the queen).

[NeonSpider]

At 2/11/14 05:26 PM, Scarface wrote: It's hard to program a computer to only be a little good at chess. There are so many moves to make, some obviously worse than others, and it's hard to design a program that would have the computer make mistakes a real human would, as opposed to making the computer too good at the game or too bad.

Mmm not sure what you're getting at, but there are plenty of adjustable-difficulty computer-AI chess games out there. The Chessmaster series would be one of them. Some are better/worse than others.

I think he's playing against other people and not computer AI's though. And really just gotta play people more close to your skill level or get better.

It's only hard relative to how good other people are to your own skills. I agree there tend to be huge gaps with lots of beginner-ish people, lots of very skilled people, and little in between though. So play a computer AI with adjustable difficulty to get up to a level where you're more confident in play.

[Painbringer]

It wouldn't be so hard if it had dice rolls for movement and combat damage.

Like, who came up with the idea of queens, bishops and towers, all moving at the speed of light?

[Conal]

I have no problem with it. :L I can kick anyone's ass.

[Scarface]

At 2/11/14 05:34 PM, NeonSpider wrote:

At 2/11/14 05:26 PM, Scarface wrote: It's hard to program a computer to only be a little good at chess. There are so many moves to make, some obviously worse than others, and it's hard to design a program that would have the computer make mistakes a real human would, as opposed to making the computer too good at the game or too bad.

Mmm not sure what you're getting at, but there are plenty of adjustable-difficulty computer-AI chess games out there. The Chessmaster series would be one of them. Some are better/worse than others.

I mean it's hard to program a computer to predict what mistakes a human would be most likely to make. It's just too difficult to guess at, as it varies from person to person.

[Tankdown]

I knew this guy who studied chess, and learned from a master. I bested him only a few times. He suggests not to learn from a computer. A computer performs by a series of steps and not so much with a plan. It will think about taking pieces, but not about pieces you wouldn't move, and the positioning of the entire board for future possibilities.

Play people, ALWAYS play people.

[Profanity]

Because the game itself isn't played on the board, it's played in the mind. It's what you do leading up to the game that decides whether you are a stronger player or not.

There are four ways to play the game:
1. Try every combination of games. You slightly vary your game or jump around between a huge number of games until you eventually find a game that let's you win. This is essentially guess-and-check, which is known as 'brute forcing' the gameplay. There are so many possible games that it would be impossible to employ this strategy without borrowing tactics from 2, 3, and 4.
2. Apply your intuition oe some sort of forward thought to the way you move your pieces. This is, as some players call it, 'thinking n moves ahead. It's how most people play, because they're just playing to feel smart, and this takes the largest amount of brainpower.
3. Apply visual-spatial techniques to the board. When estimating the value of a move, invent a system of visualizing the topology of each piece and how they interact through time.
4. Read books by chess masters. Despite how smart you may be, you will always gain hundreds of ratings points by reading a books written by a master. Chess openings, games, and strategies have been thoroughly explored for hundreds of years, and none of the other techniques will help you understand the game as fully as this.

Number four is the only technique you can't do during gameplay. It must be memorized, and practiced beforehand, to have any effect on your gameplay. The more practice you have, the more your rating will grow.

[Evark]

Analyze your games. It's like anything else in life: record everything and, during review, determine where you could have made a better choice and learn to recognize that situation. If you couldn't have made a better choice, the mistake was made earlier in the game.

[SuperElroy]

At 2/11/14 05:37 PM, Painbringer wrote:

Like, who came up with the idea of queens, bishops and towers, all moving at the speed of light?

Someone fucked in the head.

[Vinnyy]

Because you're going up against an AI. It was programmed to excel at chess and being a machine, it doesn't make the same mistakes that human beings do. Considering how there's many different moves in chess and how it probably knows a good portion of them, it will be very difficult to outsmart an AI designed for chess.

[NuclearInfected]

There's a reason chess is mostly associated with smart/nerdy people.

[SuperElroy]

At 2/11/14 09:06 PM, NuclearInfected wrote: There's a reason chess is mostly associated with smart/nerdy people.

Just because you're smart or nerdy doesn't make you a grand master chess player by default.

The people that are good really like chess, they really really REALLY like it.

[Trillionaire]

At 2/11/14 09:06 PM, NuclearInfected wrote: There's a reason chess is mostly associated with smart/nerdy people.

Try to find a successful businessman who doesn't know how to play a game of chess.