Chess

[David N. Snyder]

Before computer games, chess ruled the world. It was the "game of kings," the ultimate and best game. And then you computer hackers came and chess got relegated down to the point where recently the winner of the last world chess championship was on something like page 20 of the newspaper.

Chess also has some of the features discussed in the other thread on computer games and kamma. For example, in chess if you go after a material advantage too much (greed), you usually fail and end-up not defending your king and then lose. Many times people assume that it is the side with the material advantage that wins, when in fact many games have a victor with fewer pieces than the opponent. The object of the game is concentration and a strategic position to trap the opposing king, not to win the most number of pieces as in checkers, go, etc.

Recently, retro and I played a game and here was the final position:

After 23 moves . .



Are there any other chess players here?

In the future, maybe we could have a Dhamma Wheel tournament.

I have a chess website:

http://www.d-chess.com/

[Ben]

Hi David
I play chess, but I am woefully bad.
Cheers

Ben

[Mawkish1983]

I sort of know how to play (in so much as I know how to drive but wouldn't dream of challenging anyone to a race) but I've never had friends interested in playing, so I've never had a chance to practice, learn and improve.

I think a chess tournament is a great idea though I'm game.

[David N. Snyder]

Hi David
I play chess, but I am woefully bad.

Hi Ben,

If we ever play a game together, I'll play you left-handed (since I'm right-handed).

[Ben]

Thanks David!
As an aside, did you know I am left-handed? Perhaps it was sheer serendipity.
Ok, I'm up for a tournament.
I'm flying to Melbourne this afternoon and will be there until Saturday night. So I might be offline for over 24 hours.
I'm catching up with an old co-practitioner friend of mine and my daughter who has just turned 21.
So I won't be able to start straight away ...
Cheers

Ben

[David N. Snyder]

So I won't be able to start straight away ...

Hi Ben,

Have a good trip. I'm not thinking of a tournament too soon; first we could see if there is enough interest, say at least 6 of us or more. And anyway, I need to study some moves so that I don't get too embarrassed with any blunders. I also need to do some one-arm, left arm push-ups to get in shape.

[retrofuturist]

Greetings David,

And anyway, I need to study some moves so that I don't get too embarrassed with any blunders.

I can't see any blunders happening somehow!

As you know, I'm quite partial to chess.

Lately I've also been playing a bit of Scrabble via Facebook, and I'm sure I will do until I get "rubbish tiles" in a couple of consecutive games and then get sick of it.

The only other "games" are anything my son tricks me into, such as the Super Mario Flash Level Editor that I mentioned recently in the Lounge.

Metta,
Retro.

[David N. Snyder]

Greetings David,

And anyway, I need to study some moves so that I don't get too embarrassed with any blunders.

I can't see any blunders happening somehow!

As you know, I'm quite partial to chess.

Thanks! Too kind! But you did give me 1-2 days to think about each of my moves.

Me too, I'm partial to chess, but then again growing up the only video game was some monochrome crappy tennis game, I think called pong.

When my kids were younger I played a little of the race car games with them, but didn't even try and figure out any of the more sophisticated interactive war games.

[Dan74]

White resigned?

I used to play back in the day. Took up chess partly to improve focus and concentration - my mind used to go in a dozen direction at the same time, which was not good for life in general (and my law lecturers were not too impressed with my essays either).

And it did help. I never got very good (one thing that still needed much improvement was discipline) but I did play some tournaments and had some nice games. One thing I did notice was playing Chess Master was easier sometimes because you just focused on the game rather than on the competitiveness. But I only beat it two or three times on championship play (out of more than 20 games).

Anyway.... back to work!

_/|\_

Before computer games, chess ruled the world. It was the "game of kings," the ultimate and best game. And then you computer hackers came and chess got relegated down to the point where recently the winner of the last world chess championship was on something like page 20 of the newspaper.

Chess also has some of the features discussed in the other thread on computer games and kamma. For example, in chess if you go after a material advantage too much (greed), you usually fail and end-up not defending your king and then lose. Many times people assume that it is the side with the material advantage that wins, when in fact many games have a victor with fewer pieces than the opponent. The object of the game is concentration and a strategic position to trap the opposing king, not to win the most number of pieces as in checkers, go, etc.

Recently, retro and I played a game and here was the final position:

After 23 moves . .



Are there any other chess players here?

In the future, maybe we could have a Dhamma Wheel tournament.

I have a chess website:

http://www.d-chess.com/

[Hoja]

I'm not a good player, but I'm in for a tournment!

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Dan,

White resigned?

Yep. I'd managed to stay level to that point on piece count but my strategic position was gradually eroding throughout the game to the point where the impending doom was becoming unavoidable.

Metta,
Retro.

[Dan74]

Ah it was you!

I guess not even good Buddhists tend to showcase nice positions in the games that they lose ((The Dhamma))

How do you play online actually? Through TheDhamma's webpage? Is there a clock, etc?

[retrofuturist]

Greetings Dan,

We played it in the moderator forum using chess notation (excuse the rubbish formatting)

Retrofuturist TheDhamma
1 d4 d6
2 c4 e5
3 d4xe5 d6xe5
4 Qd1xd8+ Ke8xd8
5 Nb1-c3 Bc8-e8
6 e4 Bf8-c5
7 f4 Nb8-c6
8 Bc1-d2 Ng8-f6
9 O-O-O Nf6-g4
10 Ng1-h3 Be6-d7
11 f4xe5 Nc6xe5
12 Bf1-e2 Kd8-c8
13 Rd1-f1 Ng4-e3
14 Bd2xe3 Bc5xe3+
15 Kc1-c2 Bd7xh3
16 g2xh3 c6
17 Be2-g4+ Kc8-c7
18 b3 Ra8-d8
19 Rf1-d1 Rh8-e8
20 Rh1-e1 Be3-f4
21 Re1-e2 Rd8xd1
22 Nc3xd1 Re8-d8
23 Re2-f2 Ne5-d3
24 resigns


Metta,
Retro.

[Guy]

Hi David and All,

I like to play some chess every now and then, I will be happy to play a game online with anyone who want to.

With Metta,

Guy

[Dan74]

Greetings Dan,

We played it in the moderator forum using chess notation (excuse the rubbish formatting)


Metta,
Retro.

Thanks!

yep, this is what moderators should be doing.

_/|\_

PS I'm too rusty to say much about it from just looking at the moves without the board..

[Guy]

Here is a nice game I played recently in an online tournament, I was white...

1.e4 c6
2.Nf3 d5
3.exd5 cxd5
4.d4 Bg4
5.h3 Bxf3
6.Qxf3 Nf6
7.Nc3 e6
8.Bg5 Be7
9.Bd3 Qb6
10.O-O-O O-O
11.g4 h6
12.h4 Nc6
13.Be3 Nh7
14.g5 hxg5
15.hxg5 f5
16.Rxh7 Bxg5
17.Qh5 Bh6
18.Rxh6 gxh6
19.Rg1+ 1-0

[David N. Snyder]

yep, this is what moderators should be doing.

Yes, instead of administering:

Wow, great interest already! I counted about 7 or 8 of us already with some interest.

[appicchato]

How do you play online actually? Through TheDhamma's webpage? Is there a clock, etc?

There's a multitude of online chess sites...google 'online chess'...

The following link utilizes email... http://www.postcardchess.com/ccard.html ...so that one can take as much time as one chooses to mull over a move...

[Nadi]

I'm in! Used to play quite a bit when I was at school. But haven't really played in ages. So I'm probably horrible at it now. But a tournament sounds like fun.

[Dan74]

I am doing an internet fast till Thursday next week, so after that count me in!

_/|\_