Chess is Life and Life is Chess
Is Chess just a mere sport played for fun and relaxation? or does it have anything more to offer to the person playing the game?
Well, it offers both the things and that too in loads.
Chess is one of the most ancient and most popular games being played since the 6th Century A.D. The game, said to have been originated in India, had spread over to many countries across the world, and since getting popularized since 1475 and developed as a professional game in 1900s, the game is now played worldwide by many players.
The advent of Internet has made it possible to take the game a bit more to the masses through the concept of online chess. By playing chess online, one can satisfy his need to play the game whenever he wants, without waiting any further to go in search for a partner or ideal time.
What is life? – It is a sport meant to be enjoyed and played with spirit and passion. In life, sometimes you make the right moves and win and sometimes you end up miscalculating and lose. In order that you increase your success percentage and minimize the losses, you should be alert and stay one step ahead. You should have a plan in place, strategy to achieve that coveted plan and the alertness to stay on top of the plan and ensure that you do not make a mistake. For example, if your intention is to become a doctor
In chess, a player has to do a lot of thinking and deploy a number of tactics and strategies in his effort to gain advantage over the opponent. But, unfortunately all the tactics or strategies need not end up in success for the player. Some might yield the desired result, while many may not yield the desired result. Just because, the opponent also sees the same board and the pieces, and he can visualize the plan behind your tactics and nullify the plan by a defensive move or a counter attacking move.
When your attempts fail in life, one does not get dejected, lose heart and kill himself. He consoles for a while, and then gets along with another plan or strategy. In chess, if the opponent nullifies a tactic or strategy to occupy the central square, then the chess player need not or will not lose heart and resign the game. He regroups his forces and starts looking for other viable options.
This is yet another vindication that there are some things that are common between the two things – the game of chess and the Life.
Now comes the interesting part in the game of chess. By playing chess games on a regular basis, which is now possible with online chess as well, one can exercise his mind and stimulate it adequately to cultivate the virtues of attention, concentration, planning, staying alert and visualization.
Not only will he be developing these important traits, but will also improve his intelligence. When faced with a critical situation in life, he will be matured enough to look at the problem in different angles, assess the options, think more than once about the possible repercussions and then take a wise decision. He will not be bound by his passion, haste or anger that occasionally leads to wrong decisions in life.
Playing chess frequently and playing chess online now frequently will definitely refine the thinking capabilities of a person and helps him lead a quality life.
Do you lack analytical skills? Play chess online
One of the important traits that every person should have and develop is the capability to analyze the things in the right perspective and take appropriate decisions that will finally yield the desired results.
What is analytical skill?
In the strict sense, analytical skill refers to the capability of a person to visualize or foresee complex problems and concepts, understand clearly those problems, assess alternative solutions to solve those complex problems and take informed decisions based on the information available.
In simple words, a person should take into consideration all the aspects of a situation before taking any decision. Logical thinking is one of the aspects of analytical skills that comes into picture while visualizing the possible alternatives and also in devising plans.
This is all about the concept analytical skills in simple terms. Without dwelling more on the intricacies of this trait, let us try to exploit what connection this analytical skill has, if any, with the game of chess and how playing chess online can help in developing analytical skills.
Chess is a mind game or a thinking game that requires a player to concentrate on the game, think deeply before making any move and devise a series of tactics and strategies to corner the opponent’s King and say checkmate.
The game, having been played since the 6th Century, is quite popular even today and will continue to challenge the brains of many people in the years to come, simply because it is the ideal means to exercise a person’s brain and stimulate his mind.
The game is a fair one in that there is no room for chance or luck for any one of the players against the other player. So, it is the player who decides the fate of the game himself. If he makes a wrong move, or makes a move without applying his mind, then he will be punished for the same by the opponent. Some mistakes can be rectified while some blunders cannot be rectified and the person who committed the mistake may have to lose the game as a result of a mistake or a blunder.
Now, the onus lies on the chess player to make moves after deep thinking. He has to take stock of the situation, visualize the opportunities and threats, chalk out a plan in his mind, play out the same mentally under different combinations, and then finally take a decision to make a move.
Let me just give you an example. The dark colored bishop and the rook are stationed in their usual positions at “a1” and “c1” respectively. Pawns are guarding all the three pieces, including the Knight at “b1” from the second rank. If a player wants to open up the bishop, he has the option of moving be pawn at “b2” a couple of squares, which will then provide the option of moving the bishop at “c” to either “b2” or “a3”. Here, by opening up the pawn at “b2”, the rook at “a1” gets exposed to the “a1-h8” diagonal. AS such, before deciding to move the pawn from “b2” to “b4”, the player has to pause for a while and ensure that there is no threat to the rook at “a1”, and also have a plan to defend the rook if the opponent tries to exploit this weakness.
This is not just a particular instance. For each and every move, a chess player has to do all these things, calculate the possibilities and visualize them before making a move. He has to do a lot of thinking, which can be categorized as creative thinking, logical thinking or critical thinking. The player does not know all these things. He is only rooted to the game and thinking about the moves. Indirectly his brain is involved in serious exercise and stimulates the mind.
This exercise of logical, creative and critical thinking, which a chess player does, is all that we call it analytical skill in management parlance. By playing chess regularly, a person can master these skills and train his brain to foresee, analyze and take informed decisions.
Now, with the help of Internet, any person, fond of playing chess, can do so by just visiting the online chess site, register for free, and start playing the game with any of the players available on the Internet or with the computer. This online chess not provides the much needed relaxation and fun, it stimulates and exercises your mind and rejuvenates you for fresh challenge.
Merits of playing chess online
Online chess is the latest trend that is fast catching up with the chess loving people across the world. There are many reasons for this latest trend.
More and more people are using the World Wide Web or the Internet as it is otherwise called in common parlance. Despite being played since the 6th Century AD, this ancient game of chess has fascinated the computer programmers and engineers and they are coming up with innovative ways of playing the game of chess, however, without altering the basic structure or rules of the game. The fun, excitement, and the challenge the game poses to a player has increased manifold in online chess.
Why one should prefer online chess than conservative ways of playing chess with another player in front of a chessboard?
In conservative form of chess, the two players should be physically available with lot of time at their disposal. They should then sit at a common and quiet place and start playing the game. One interesting aspect of chess is that either it can be completed in less than 5 minutes or it may take more than 4 to 5 hours to complete the game, depending upon the skill set as well as style of play of two players. I am talking about the game of chess, played at home or in a club for the purpose of practice or enriching your skill set. If you were to play in a tournament or a FIDE-rated championship, then the rules might be slightly altered where timers will be there and other people or spectators might be there.
For conventional chess, you should get hold of a friend or a relative, finalize the time and place, and then start playing the game. One more disadvantage of conservative chess is that a person can play with a specific set of people at any point of time, friends, relatives or such other known people. Over a period of time, the style and approach of the opponents will be familiar to you and the scope for learning new things, exploiting new ideas and implementing the same is much limited, unless you are more passionate about learning the game in its entirety. Secondly, there will tend to be a mismatch between the talents of the two players. Either you will be winning all the time if the opponent is novice and will always be hearing checkmate from your opponent, if he is more experienced and skilled than you. In either of the ways, the urge to excel might start waning over a period.
Now, in online chess, you can play the game whenever you want to play or feel like playing. All you need is the personal computer or laptop and Internet connection with reasonably good broadband connectivity. It is immaterial whether it is early hours in the morning or late in the night at your place, you can connect to the site providing online chess, register yourself, (many sites do not charge at the initial stages), enter into virtual chess rooms, invite player to play or choose any one of the waiting players to start the game. Online chess sites offer the game to all types of players. If you register yourself as a novice, then you will be given a certain basic rating. Depending upon the number of games you play and the number of games you win, your rating keeps on changing. Starting from the basic reading of say, 750 points, you can increase your score to as high as 2700 – which is around or equal the grandmaster’s cadre. Depending upon the number of games you played in the site, your rating will be assigned and displayed against your name. For example, you got a rating of 1100, and you want to choose a partner in online chess site. You can find a player having a rating between 1050 and 1150 and then invite him to play chess with you. In that way, the game between both of you will be an even one and will be interesting enough.
This feature of choosing a player based on his ranking is possible only on online chess. The type of players you will be playing there will also be different. People from New Zealand in the east to people in the northern part of Canada or in Alaska can be found in the online chess site. You can play with people from different countries or places and engage in healthy exchange of ideas. The approach to the game of chess by a Russian player would be quite different from a player coming from Chennai, the home town of Vishy Anand. However, the language of all these people is only chess and that language is more than sufficient for a game.
The only disadvantage is that interaction will not be there between the two players.
These are some of the major reasons for online chess than the traditional way of playing chess across the chessboard.
Chess Links
Killer Chess Tips
- 12 chess tactics and how to use those to gain advantage – Part 10, 11 and 12
- Endgame Lessons From Game Twelve of the 2010
- 12 chess tactics and how to use those to gain advantage – Part 9
- 12 chess tactics and how to use those to gain advantage – Part 8
- 12 chess tactics and how to use those to gain advantage – Part 7