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submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world

Sure, playing chess needs intelligence, dedication, and good chess players are smarter than an average person. But it's waaaay exaggerated in movies. I'm a math researcher, and in any movie, my department will be full of chess geniuses. But in reality, only about 10% of them even play chess.

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[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

Chess is mostly a memorisation game for gambits / openers and subsequent sets of follow-on moves.

After that, it’s mentally simulating the board state a few moves ahead, varying pieces and guesstimating probability of what move the opponent will make. A lot of that you start to memorise, especially since other chess enthusiasts will often play well-known gambits / strategies.

Intelligence often correlates with memory but they’re not one and the same. I grew up knowing a competitive chess player and remember the time they referred to their “hambag” (handbag). English was their mother tongue…

[-] TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 weeks ago

The person who taught me chess was constantly perplexed by my bizarre tactics. He found it refreshing and interesting. Obviously, I had no idea what I was doing, and I got nuked to oblivion on a regular basis. Maybe he was expecting to see some popular moves, but was only faced with whatever sketchy tactics I could come up with.

[-] makyo@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I was sorta interested in pursuing Chess more at least as a hobby a few years ago. Learning about the 'meta' strategy was kind of intimidating and discouraging. The basic strategy is interesting to me but learning and memorizing different games just sounds awful to me. I guess it's like most things - the more you learn about it the more you realize there is a lot more to it than what you initially thought it was.

this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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