07-21-2008, 04:10 PM | #21 | |
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Lots of fun.
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Fitter. Happier. More Productive. "Everyone is against me. Everyone is fawning for 3D's attention and defending him." -- SeattleUte |
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07-21-2008, 09:53 PM | #22 |
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I quit playing chess about 6 years ago when a kid on my boy's baseball team kicked my ass. He was 8 years old and had finished something like 20th in a national tournament for his age group. I knew I was in trouble when he made the first move and I made my move and he asked me "Why would you do that?"
I got back at him though. He played the minimum number of innings required and not one single one more for the rest of the season that year.
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"The beauty of baseball is not having to explain it." - Chuck Shriver "This is now the joke that stupid people laugh at." - Christopher Hitchens on IQ jokes about GWB. |
07-21-2008, 09:56 PM | #23 | |
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"The beauty of baseball is not having to explain it." - Chuck Shriver "This is now the joke that stupid people laugh at." - Christopher Hitchens on IQ jokes about GWB. |
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07-21-2008, 10:03 PM | #24 |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
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The kid who knew chess the best in the troop--he knew a lot of the lingo I didn't know, but not anywhere near what SIEQ is talking about.
It was fun when I would do things like take his queen cause he overlooked a move. And after I would win, I would dance around like crazy. |
07-21-2008, 10:04 PM | #25 |
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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We should have an online chess game here on CG.
You post your move. Like SEIQ against someone else. And the rest of us can follow along. |
07-21-2008, 10:35 PM | #26 |
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07-22-2008, 12:08 PM | #27 | |
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If multiple people are interested, we could do a round robin. I could post the details of chess notation too, as it can be a bit confusing at first.
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"Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; " 1 Thess. 5:21 (NRSV) We all trust our own unorthodoxies. |
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07-23-2008, 02:57 PM | #28 |
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Chess in the U.S. has a problem. Chess is more popular almost everywhere else (In Germany they even show the national tournament and major international tournaments on TV). The highest ranked U.S. player--Gata Kamsky, an immigrant from the U.S.S.R.--is ranked 17th in the world, behind a slew of Russians, Ukranians, Bulgarians, Western Euros and players from Black Sea and Baltic states. The top player in the world, ratings wise, is Anand, who is Indian.
Chess is most popular in the U.S. in New England and the mid-Atlantic states. New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have chess clubs everywhere. Maryland and Mass have plenty of chess going too. Florida has a decent chess scene, in no small part due to Cuban immigrants. In the west, California and Nevada (specifically Las Vegas) have a pretty healthy chess scene. Chess has a solid collegiate presence in Texas, but not much more than that. Many of the top U.S. players are immigrants or the children of immigrants: Hikaru Nakamura, the second best American player behind Kamsky (Nakamura is ranked #31), has always been a U.S. citizen (because his mother was), but his father was a Japanese citizen. Alexander Onischuck, the 3rd best U.S. player, is an immigrant from Ukraine. The 4th best U.S. player, Yasser Seirawan (#96), is also an immigrant whose parents were Syrian and British. You get the idea. It's also true that many of the top players in the world and the U.S. are and have been Jewish. Fisher's mom was Jewish (even though Fisher went paranoid and rabidly anti-Jewish in his later years). Kasparov is Jewish. Former World Champions Botvinik, Lasker, and Spassky are Jewish. The reigning Women's Champion, Judit Polgar, is a Hungarian Jew. The list of Jewish standouts in Chess is very, very long. Even Israel, with it's comparatively small population, has produced Boris Gelfand, who is ranked #18 in the world. There are also quite a few world class Arab, Persian, and Islamic chess players. Azerbaijan has two players in the top ten. Chess just doesn't quite match with Norman Rockwell's America, and that's too bad.
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"Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; " 1 Thess. 5:21 (NRSV) We all trust our own unorthodoxies. |
07-23-2008, 02:59 PM | #29 | |
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07-23-2008, 03:01 PM | #30 |
Demiurge
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 36,365
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Here's a problem with chess: Americans don't want to read books on how to play a game. They just want to play it.
My wife doesn't know how to play chess. As in she doesn't even know how the pieces move. |
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