Chess

[djealnla]

What do you think of this game? 

[thalbergmad]

I prefer snakes and ladders or naked twister.

Thal

[ahinton]

I prefer snakes and ladders or naked twister.

I'm not at all keen on snakes in general, ladders are for builders, window cleaners, fire departments and such like and as for naked twisters, the mind fair boggles...

Best,

Alistair

[prometheus]

I like to play some chess sometimes. Asking me to judge the game overall is a hard question. Modern chess has some problems but somehow it appeals to me more than go and it may be that go scares me while at chess I have some understanding.

[go12_3]

I. Love.  chess.   

[quantum]

I. Love.  chess.    

 

Somehow I keep coming back to chess after trying various other games.

[Derek]

I'm absolutely terrible at chess. I'm worse at checkers---my wife's friend's son, who is 6, beat me easily.

I prefer Super Mario Bros.

[lostinidlewonder]

Chess is great fun, I established a chess club for my region which runs every Sundays in my town. I use to play a lot during my high school years, never got to strong masters level because studying endgame is so damn huge. I beat most people I meet over the board (but hardly anyone in West Australia actually plays chess with any seriousness), a couple of years ago I played one of the past West Australians chess champs rated like 2100 who visited our club and beat him by surprise. I don't get much time to visit the club these days but do drop in now and then.

I play against my computer program Rybka and it thrashes me 9 times out of 10, which is demoralizing. I beat one particular person at my chess club 5 times in a row and he started wiping his eyes crying and then left the club..... and he was in his mid 50s. Chess is a really strange game people can take it VERY personally. I remember reading an article online that in Russia one man threw his opponent out of a window after a game of chess and killed him! Lucky we only have one floor at our club. Chess rage or people playing with "The Hate" is very amusing.

[musicluvr49]

I Like the game, but I'm horrible at it.

I'm not really a strategic type person.... 

[nystul]

What do you think of this game? 

It seems to be very 2 dimensional and the graphics are extremely pixelated, and what is up with everything being black and white?  There is no sound and only a very shallow (and cliche) back story.  Balance between the units is terrible... the more mobile units simply dominate the game.  This is an inevitable result of the simplified combat system.  The only sense of balance comes because both sides have the exact same units, how lame!  Not only are pawns incredibly weak and slow, but they won't even get out of the way when your more powerful pieces want to attack.  You can spend the whole game trying to build your wussy pawn into a powerful queen only to get captured by a stinking bishop as soon as you promote.  The ending is very anti-climactic as it ends abruptly before the king is even captured.  Frankly I don't see how this strategy game ever became popular.  They were lucky to release it before Starcraft came out....

[ch101]

I love chess.

[Bob]

Some people can't handle chess.

[invictious]

I used to play chess competitively. I was known for my extremely aggressive style of play, as characterised by my opening.

I also love to use sacrifices, especially those big risky multiple sacrifices. Once my friend told me that, it is easy to win me if you don't capture any of my pieces.

[thebuchertrain]

I used to play competitively too, when I was in middle school and high school. I like to think that i was kind of similar to the kid in Searching for Bobby Fisher. (but maybe not . also, i never had a teacher haha) I would play in the State Scholastic championships and usually did pretty well. I quit after high school, to spend more time playing piano  I've been getting back into it lately though.

and that's really cool lostinidlewonder, that you beat someone that good! my rating's like 1740... no way i would beat you haha

[mediumwell]

when people ask me if i play video games, i say yes, only if chess (and solitaire XD) counts.  <3 chess.

[lostinidlewonder]

I was going through my old files and found one of my old favorite games. Here is a position where a real pretty mating combination ends with an amusing fianchettoed bishop mate The game was played 5 minutes a side, there are blunders but black made some strange moves in the opening which I exploited and thus my pieces where just so much more active.


White to move mate in 9.

Here's the game if you are interested:

1: d4  e6
2: e4  d5
3: e5  c5
4: c3  Nc6
5: Nf3  Nd7
6: Be2  Nf5
7: 0-0  Qb6
8: dxc5  Bxc5
9: b4  Bf8
10: Bd3 Nd7
11: b5  Nb8
12: Be3  Qc7
13: Qa4  b6
14: Nd2  Nd7
15: Rac1 Ne5
16: Nxe5  Qxe5
17: Bxb6  Bb7
18: Nf3  Qh5
19: Be3  Nf5
20: b6+ Kd8
21: Ne5  Ke7   position above

22: Bg5+  Qxg5
23: Qd7+ Kf6
24: Qxf7+ Kxe5
25: Rfe1+ Kf4
26: g3+ Kg4
27: Be2+ Kh3
28: Bf1+ Kg4
29: h3+ Kf3
30: Bg2++       1-0

The funny thing about the position is that if black had his pawn on g6 (instead of g7) this mating combination would have not worked because then whites Queen would not be able to cut off the Black king on the h5 square (after white plays 29 h3+). This is one of the best mating combinations I ever played.