The Truth About Chess

People, particularly chess players themselves, saythan 99.99% of people, but are evenly leveled in
the darnedest things about chess and about chessgames against the top humans. If, as some
players. Here are some of our favoriteexperts think, computers are gaining 20 - 30
misconceptions about the royal game. Some ofrating points per year, the moment will soon
these sayings are unquestionably off-target, somearrive when humans have no chance against the
of them are uneducated impression, and some ofbest machines. It should not be overlooked that
them are controversies that might or might notcomputers are always trained by teams of
be valid.human specialists who program them in
1 ) Chess is difficult to grasp.psychological areas like opening repertoire.
Chess may not be the easiest game to pick up,Removing this benefit would eliminate their
but it is far from the most prohibitive. You haveexcellence.
to know the moves of the six pieces, where the5 ) Chess is a sport.
object with the slightest significance, the Pawn,Here we run the peril of upsetting the many
has the most complex moves. Then you have tomeritorious chess organizers who have spent
memorize the rules about attacking and defendingyears trying to prevail upon the International
the King, including castling. Then there are a fewOlympic Committee (IOC) that chess should be
rules about games where neither player wins. Oneincluded as an Olympic sport. Lifting light pieces of
side of this myth is legitimate - - it is difficult, verywood or clicking rapidly on a computer monitor is
difficult, to learn to play chess well. One player in anot physically challenging work. As any quantity of
hundred achieves supremacy.photos from foregone high level chess events will
2 ) You have to be brainy to play chess.demonstrate, chess players don't always cut a
There is some link between chess talent andlean, trim, muscular profile.
general intelligence. Minimum smarts are required.6 ) Chess isn't a sport.
Cats and dogs will never make out the basics; noHere we try to make amends with those very
one has tried giving lessons to dolphins andsame organizers who nearly convinced the IOC
chimpanzees. Chess does involve, after all, usingthat chess is a sport. Chess has been included as
numerous advanced compartments of the braina medal sport for the 2006 Asian Games. A
as skillfully as applicable. People from all walks ofgame between two extraordinary chess masters
life have fun playing chess, several attainingis full of tension, where superior nerves can make
mastery. Some very clever people delight inthe difference between a winner and an also-ran.
playing but never progress beyond novice.Grandmasters have been acknowledged to lose a
3 ) Chess is for nerds.lot of weight during the action of a month - long
In fact, this isn't a misstatement, since chess iscontest.
for everyone. It is for nerds, geeks, eggheads,7 ) Women can't play chess as well as men.
and boffins, as usually as it is for anyone else.To date it is unquestionable that women have not
People who want to call other people unpleasantperformed as well as men in chess events. There
names should better say, ' chess is only for nerdsare many possible reasons for this. One may be
', but this is plainly untrue. Even if it was on target,that male players are often expert at making
so what? Intelligent, awkward, quirky people havefemale players feel uncomfortable at chess
made more contributions to the evolution ofevents. The Polgar sisters have gone a long way
society than have the rest. If they want to playto convince the chess world that women can play
chess, that ' s their business.very well. Perhaps one day we will discover that
4 ) Computers play chess better than people.women can even play better than men. No one
In 2006, the finest computers play chess betterreally knows.