3 ms·

Yea played myself for a while but didn't want to remember 300 openings for both colors. Chess is only fun if both people are equally bad at it.

by zwnow 2y ago

oneeyedpigeon 2y ago
You should probably pick one or two openings and focus on those rather than trying to learn every opening right from the beginning. Like almost every game, chess is more fun when the two players are equally matches. Playing online (chess.com or lichess.org) lets you play an opponent who is perfectly matched to your level.
bluGill 2y ago
You don't need to remember 300 openings. Remembering openings is the most straight forward thing to study - you just need to remember them and then select in game as your opponent gets a choice as to which of those 300 you are playing as well. That is hard to do in practice, but it is easy to explain. For most people you are better off ignoring all that though. Instead you should train tactics and endgames. Both are easy enough to explain, but it isn't useful to just memorize them. You have to see when they apply even though there are other unrelated pieces on the board. You have to see when they apply even though the pieces are in slightly different positions from what you studied. You have to see how they will apply after complex sequence of moves even though they don't apply yet.
sigbottle 2y ago
I never understood this complaint outside of pure snark. Over the years I've noticed many games have pretty bad tendencies, simply because they've floated to the top through what essentially amounts to luck (also modern games have "balance changes" that often push novelty + profit over actual fun). However, most bestselling games always have that one core part that's pure beauty, and that's what people keep coming back to. If you don't like opening theory, that's fine. There's plenty about chess to be enjoyed outside of memorizing theory. I play chess tactics or alt gamemodes exclusively because of this. Not planning to be a chess professional. But the creativity is vast in this space. If we want to make better games, first start by breaking down the core parts that are good and the core parts that are bad, then iterating on it, just like how many disciplines (both scientific and artistic) operate.

Yea played myself for a while but didn't want to remember 300 openings for both colors. Chess is only fun if both people are equally bad at it.

by zwnow 2y ago

Yea played myself for a while but didn't want to remember 300 openings for both colors. Chess is only fun if both people are equally bad at it.

oneeyedpigeon 2y ago

You should probably pick one or two openings and focus on those rather than trying to learn every opening right from the beginning. Like almost every game, chess is more fun when the two players are equally matches. Playing online (chess.com or lichess.org) lets you play an opponent who is perfectly matched to your level.

bluGill 2y ago

You don't need to remember 300 openings. Remembering openings is the most straight forward thing to study - you just need to remember them and then select in game as your opponent gets a choice as to which of those 300 you are playing as well. That is hard to do in practice, but it is easy to explain. For most people you are better off ignoring all that though. Instead you should train tactics and endgames. Both are easy enough to explain, but it isn't useful to just memorize them. You have to see when they apply even though there are other unrelated pieces on the board. You have to see when they apply even though the pieces are in slightly different positions from what you studied. You have to see how they will apply after complex sequence of moves even though they don't apply yet.

sigbottle 2y ago

I never understood this complaint outside of pure snark. Over the years I've noticed many games have pretty bad tendencies, simply because they've floated to the top through what essentially amounts to luck (also modern games have "balance changes" that often push novelty + profit over actual fun). However, most bestselling games always have that one core part that's pure beauty, and that's what people keep coming back to. If you don't like opening theory, that's fine. There's plenty about chess to be enjoyed outside of memorizing theory. I play chess tactics or alt gamemodes exclusively because of this. Not planning to be a chess professional. But the creativity is vast in this space. If we want to make better games, first start by breaking down the core parts that are good and the core parts that are bad, then iterating on it, just like how many disciplines (both scientific and artistic) operate.