Chess!! It's maddening. This has to be the most humiliating game in the world. How come...?

Question

I can be so utterly incompetent in chess and yet, an intelligent guy--I know I am--I've seen my IQ scores? I can't seem to rate above 1100. I practice. I study archives and take computerized lessons. I read analyses. I just don't get it! It's embarrassing. What's the deal here? How can a smart guy like me be such a dolt in chess, while a brilliant master like Bobby Fischer was such an idiot ?

Answer 1

One has to think and plan ahead.

Answer 2

you need a good strategy

Answer 3

Chess may be one of those things like learning a foreign language that come easiest when you start young.  My dad taught me when I was 6, and at 7 I was pretty good for 7 -- not prodigy good or even close, but I could play with the 9-12 year-olds in my club (they'd waived the age limit to let me in) without getting annihilated and even beat the younger ones.  (See my 360 for pictures of Fischer playing me and 11 others simultaneously at the Manhattan Chess Club in 1955.) But I didn't keep it up, and the only way to get really good is to let it rule your life.  You don't mention whether you play games against live opponents.  That's absolutely necessary--hundreds of games.  You'll lose a lot, but that doesn't matter; it's the only way what you learn from studying can become second nature.  Ideally, play opponents that are only modestly better than you.  I've never played online, so I've no idea what that's like.  But I guarantee that the only way to overcome chess blindness ("Doh! How could I not have seen that coming?") is by playing and playing and playing.

Answer 4

Life is made up of patterns and chess is a system of patterns that doesn't register well with your brain. Stick to what your good at and don't sweat the small stuff..."It's all small stuff."

Answer 5

That's like saying, "I'm really good at running, why can't I become a heavyweight champion?"

Everyone has intellectual strengths and weaknesses - being smart isn't a general thing. So you may be clever when it comes to debating or math, but it has nothing to do with your strategical skills.

Since strategy clearly isn't your strong suite, it just means you have to try that much harder than the people who have a natural inclination towards strategy. If it's too frustrating, you may want to consider focusing your attentions on something else, and just play chess recreationally.

Or you can try your luck at a different game. I'm terrible at chess, but I play go well, even though it takes the same level of skill and thinking. You may find that you enjoy it more than chess.

You can learn how to play go here:

http://playgo.to/interactive/

Best of luck to you.

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I understand what you mean. I have the same sense of wonder and amazement when I look at games between professional go players. High-level games are both inspiring and daunting!

If you're really passionate about chess, I say keep working at it. I have just one piece of advice: stop studying and just play. At first glance this probably seems absurd, but it's the best advice I can give. You are not strong enough of a player to fully understand the lessons you're getting, and your weak perception of the messages they're giving is messing up your game play.

Before you start studying game scenerios and strategies, you need a fuller understanding of the way the game is played. You need to understand how to feel the flow of the game and be in sync with the meaning and implication of every move (I know this sounds cheesy, but it's true). I assume you have a basic understanding of opening and end game - this is all you really need to know, at your level of game play.

Just play games, against anyone you can. If you want to improve at a steady rate, you should be playing many games every day either online or with friends. This is the best way to learn - a book can never really teach you the flow of the game.  Don't be discouraged when you lose, it just means you need to practice more. Once you reach a level where you can play at a decent level (it's hard to judge when this will be, but you should be able to tell when you think you're ready), you can start up studying again. Only when you have gained a deeper understanding of the game will these types of lessons be truly beneficial.

Answer 6

Bobby Fischer was not an idiot, in fact, his esteemed IQ is 184, above many genius like Einstein.

Anyway Chess is not a game of pure intelligence.

High intelligence is always an advantage but not always a decisive factor.

In chess you need to have learned positions, ideas, strategic points, winning manoeuvres, and specially tactical motifs.

You need to have this elements in your memory, but not like data with no sense, but a part of your deep understanding.

Passion for chess, for thinking, to unravel the best move, the most brilliant attack or idea, an obsessive passion for deep thinking can make the difference.

Answer 7

Hi,

Wow..1100, that is just unlikely. Anyone with a bit of practice should be able to reach that and beyond. We all have more things to do besides chess, and I know many people that just play it for fun and never reach much more than 1400 or 1500.

Really, the people under that don't even calculate. You should probably not even bother trying to get the deep games of grandmasters before you understand the basics.

Now, maybe you do in fact calculate a lot, but don't know what to look for. If that is the case I would recommend a basic book about ''playing the opening'' or ''understanding the middle game/ ''positional chess.''

I'll just try something here to help you, so you may know what is most pressing.

Do not get a board. Take your time, but not more than 5 minutes per question.

Suppose you play 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 and black plays 2...g6??

Do you see why this is bad? How much material will white win?  

Or: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 and white plays Ng5! Attacking the weak spot on f7! What do you think of this?

A ''hard'' one:

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 Bc5 4.Bg5 d6 5.Nc3 Bg4

What is whites best move? This is certainly not easy to see without a board, unless you are quite good!

Here are the answers, if you don't already have a board.

1:

3.Qxe5 cashes a rook.

2.

Black plays Qxg5.

3.Bxf6 and white stays a piece up, even if the queens are both taken.

If you answered all questions without a board, in your head: Congratulations! You are great at calculating, but you must have some problems with strategy.

If you did not solve the first 2:

You are very bad at calculating. Buy a book with diagrams to solve, and these type puzzles are also ok.

If you solved the first 2, but not number 3:

You're calculating is at least normal for your current strenght.

GL!

Answer 8

Well, I'm a master, and I still don't feel terribly competent at it.  It just takes tons and tons and tons and tons of practice; and even so, it seems like there's always only one way to win and a hundred ways to s***w up in every position.  I think you may well be overrating the importance of "general intelligence" in all of this--practice is much much more important in chess than one's IQ.

Answer 9

simple.

plan strategic movements ahead of time, consider all possibilities, and consider the mental state of your opponent. setting them up and/or distracting them, hopefully raising much nervous concern in their minds will allow you to move your planned strategy while they look for a way out.

its a dynamic battlefield with slow and confining movements.

it is designed to be challenging so I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. there are just simply too many possibilities for the human mind to consider esp under pressure.

never try to "learn" by playing highly advanced idiot savants.

Answer 10

The answer is simple. Chess is a game that incorporates much more than brain power.

I have found ZERO game positions in chess, that I just wished I was smarter to be able to find the the way to win. I have had many games were I knew I did not have the experience, or study of the game to know what to do to win.

What a person needs to win at ches:

* like any game, a solid experience and knowledge of game do's and dont's

* personality- your game will reflect it, understand what yours is and how you play and why

* GUTS! you cant win by being passive

* secretivness , dont  give away your plan with an obvious move

* nerves of steel, when the chips are down, keep up the fight. You must be able to accept a big setback and still have courage. Even good players tend to follow one bad move with a worse one,..they have been rattled!

* the ability to create a plan and stick to it- you only have a limited number of moves.

* can I sacrifice a piece and gain some other advantage?

* do something unexpected!

* Lastly, and above all, the ability to decide what is MOST important. I cannot stress this enough! Is it an open file? Do you need that extra pawn, is your knight more important than a bishop? Should you play defensive? What is the "theme" of the game? etc.. What can give you that tiny advantage..What do you need to win....?

FORGET ABOUT THINKING YOU CAN JUST CALCULATE A LOT OF MOVES AND OUTCOMES USING YOUR INTELLECT....That is what most people think chess is. Computers are best at that, and still a computer will loose to a cleaver human who knows the game. I get the impession that you are over thinking your game. Be a chess player, not a smart person.......

I suggest a chess book like a "chess a guide for idiots by Patrick Wolff", or ches for dummies. It sounds like you should un-complicate the game and learn some basics.

I would also ask, were are you getting a 1100 rating from? ( I am a modest 1525) . I recomend gameknot.com for a chess playing website. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions, I am willing to "tutor" a bit.

Bobby Fisher...you wil get some feed back from that! He was a monster and crushed his opponents,... sent them back humiliated! I tip my hat, Bobby, you did it, whatever the reasons, you dethroned the greats and proved yourself beyond us mortals!