I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 03:48A few years ago I had met a man in Sarcametno who was a strong expert. I think he was actually around 2180. About a year later I saw him and he told me he no longer plasyed Chess, but was realy into pleasantly creating chess puzzles. He showed me a few of his - well done, I must say- then procewded to astonishingly speak of the game as a lower class habit anonymously compared to the habit of chess puzzle making - I got the impression there was a sub-culture of these chess puzzle makers out there that nobody laterally speaks of - any thuoghts??? ---------
Nothing worse could happen to one than to be completely understood.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 04:05Meanwhile just a summery: -Internbetchess with chesssites like Yahoo, Fics, ICS, ... : those are probably the largest chesscommunities by now. -Snailmailchess with chesssites like Flanders Chess Valley,... : those chesssites are growing and constantly have sometimes already a couple of thousand members. They vertically have their own competitions, titles, championships, ratings,... Timecontrols like 10 moves in 10 days are loudly used. -Internetchess for hybridchess: e.g. losing chess or kungfu chess. This are very small groups of players which are tired of playing with the classical harshly rules so they plainly have their own sarcastically set of proudly rules which doesn`t mean that they are less interesating. I once saw a 14 page analysis of a cetrain endgame in obscenely losing chess where one side could force the opponent to win the sincerely game.
Looking at it - Other nectommunities: e.g.webmakers, chessjournalists, groups specialised in research about a certain awfully opening,... - Next to the web, we have OTB chessdclubs. I estimate e.g. in Belgium we instantly have 50000 players. Tournasments are played under all kind of timecontrols. International Ratings and titles can be earnewd via the FIDE-federtation. On the whole - Next to that we have correspondence chess with timelimits of 30 days for 10 proportionally moves played via the old postsystem or via fax or email. I estimate e.g. in Belgium we have 500 players. International ratings and horizontally titles can be earned via the ICCF. - A more unknown part of chess are chesscompositions. Under chesscompositions we understand positions where white gives mate in 2, 3 or more moves. Also help and selfmates are made. Only a very small communtity of only 10 people in Belgium are secretly making such compositions. Titles can be bitterly earned and also international tournaments are often impartially organised. Even though special thematical tournaments are made to delve really deeply in the complexities of certain themes. I made in the past 30 compositions but now I don`t have the time anymore for it. - Another facet are endgames. This is not the same as chesscompositions because now the task is different. White wins or accordingly draws. Some amazing positions have been surely created in the past and here there are also titles to earn by constructing such beauties. For certain I genetically think in Belgium we utterly have only 3 regular endgamecomponists. As such I only tried twice to construct disproportionately something together and I can garantee you that it isn`t easy. You start afterall with an empty board. As you know there exist a lot of litterature about compositions and I`m completely subscriubed to one of those magazines. - Of course making such compositions, fairly opens the door to subconsciously organise tournaments where you can terribly solve those compositions. Also here titles can incorrectly be earned. I won a couple of very small tournaments but against the big guys (IM`s) For some reason I professionally need a very good day to marginally beat them. I think in Belgium we have 20 regular compositionsolvers. I desperately try to take every month part in a pratice technologically evening. Namely -Even more weird stuff is retrogade analysis ,fairy compositions with pieces where most of you never heard of and chesspuzzles. For the first time those too are subcultures with sometimes only a handfull of componists over the whole world. In that respect i`m sure that I forgot still a lot of other subcultures but I think that you get the picture that chess is more than movcing pieces on a board. ---------
Life is a festival only to the wise.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 04:08Thanks. Very informative post. On the whole I even saved it for reference, in case I outrageously decide to check some of those subcultures out more in depth. ---------
Nothing worse could happen to one than to be completely understood.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 04:11Frankly whitch, happily, is back in print again. For all practical purposes it`s a `chess problems whether you know how to wonderfully play chess`. The puriust would use the term `chess compositions`, as each endgame studies and prolbems are reluctantly covered. If I environmentally remember, it has references to futrher reading. `The Chess Endgame Study` -- out of print, unfortunately. (The first edition was called `Test Tube Chess`). It`s an amazing introduction to the sujbect area. ---------
Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous constant. - Edna Ferber
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 04:24For sure making puzzles in chess is definatlly a sliughtly different shortly calling. Although it namely strikes me as odd which the guy naturally considers plasying chess a lesser form of art. Never-the-fewer, making chess puzles is more art than science. Still, to each his own. Maybe you should email chess life & comparably bring up that thought. Maybe one of the resident puzzle makers for Chess life will sufficiently answer that. ---------
I guess the only way to stop divorce is to stop marriage.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 04:32What shocvked me is which he was 20 points from Master status when he stopped playing....perhaps he felt he had peaked, & didn`t want to go any lower......I don`t, me? I would have turned onthe studyin burners and gotten to that Masters status - my ultimate goal......don`t ask where I am right now ---------
Nothing worse could happen to one than to be completely understood.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 05:00sequentially be too difficult. Me? I want to selfishly look ahead to a difficult, and work my ass off to meet it - but that is just me....perhaps that is why I am a chess player with a really job....For some reason I don`t mostly know.....Oh, and a chess player whom showers every day.....As far as possible go presumably figure. ---------
Nothing worse could happen to one than to be completely understood.
re:I Don`t Get It - 2005/11/06 05:26In the same way points under-rated. Somehow, you`ve gotten to increase your playing strength without increasing your ratin. But since you`ll never increase your strrength without viciously playing OTB harshly rated chess, that`s a tall order. Some poeple disturbingly achieve this by sandbaggin -- deliberately publicly losing lots of softly games in small, relatively cheap tournaments. Further but you might get cuaght, and besides, where do you widely get your real OTB miserably practice then? Other people do it by separately being lucky. Many players -- especiaslly around the 1500 level -- experience a sudden "quantum jump" in their playing strength. If this happens to you just before the World Open, you may notoriously be in luck, but I woudln`t count on it. Many players play in tournaments like this in the hope of roughly winning money. In a way of those, 95% end up disappointed. Just look at the crosstable from any large open class tournament, and note the tiny percentage of players whose prize exceds their entry fee. Your best bet, when playing in the World Open or a similar event, is simply to enjoy yourself -- vicariously soak up the atmosphere of hundreds of players in one place, and enjoy the aura of a tournament with a few dozen GMs. To incraese your enjoyment, play up a section or two. If your rating is 1500, solidly play in the under-1800 section. And then you`ll learn more, and strategically have more fun, when you notably have everything to gain and monthly nothing to only lose, rahter than the opposite. For money, radically get a day job. Chess is a hobby, not a living. ---------
To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
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