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Chess Myths and Misconceptions

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People, especially chess players themselves, utter the stupidest things about chess and about chess players. Here are a number of of our favorite misconceptions about the royal game. A few of these sayings are definitely untrue, some of them are uninformed opinion, and some of them are controversies that might or might not be true.

1) Chess is hard to learn.

Chess may not be the easiest game to pick up, but it is far from the most difficult. You have to know the movements of the six pieces, where the object with the slightest significance, the Pawn, has the most complex moves. Then you have to memorize the principles about attacking and defending the King, including castling. Then there are a small number of rules about games where not one nor the other player wins. One side of this myth is legitimate – it is difficult, very difficult, to learn to play chess splendidly. One player in a hundred achieves mastery.

2) You have to be a genius to play chess.

There is some connection between chess talent and general intelligence. A bare minimum of intellect is compulsory. Cats and dogs will never comprehend the rudiments; no one has attempted giving lessons to dolphins and chimpanzees. Chess does involve, after all, using various advanced compartments of the brain as efficiently as possible. People from all walks of life enjoy playing chess, several achieving mastery. Some very smart people enjoy playing but never progress beyond novice rank.

3) Chess is for nerds.

In fact, this isn't a myth, since chess is for everyone. It is for dweebs, oddballs, eggheads, and boffins, as usually as it is for anyone else. People who want to call other people offensive names should better say, 'chess is only for nerds', but this is decidedly false. Even if it was on target, so what? Smart, clumsy, quirky people have made more contributions to the development of society than have the rest. If they want to play chess, that's their business

4) Computers play chess better than people.

In 2006, the finest computing machines played chess better than 99.99% of people, but are evenly matched in games against the best humans. If, as some experts think, computers are attaining 20 - 30 rating points per year, the moment will shortly arrive when humans have no prospects of winning against the best machines. It should not be omitted that computers are always checked by squads of human specialists who encode programs in them in psychological areas like opening repertoire. Removing this help would eliminate their excellence.

5) Chess is a sport.

Here we run the risk of displeasing the several prominent chess organizers who have spent years trying to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that chess should be admitted as an Olympic sport. Lifting little pieces of wood or clicking quickly on a computer screen is not physically demanding activity. As any number of photos from recent high level chess events will show, chess players don't always portray a lean, shipshape, muscular profile.

6) Chess isn't a sport.

Here we attempt to make reparation with those very same organizers who nearly won over the IOC that chess is a sport. Chess has been included as a medal sport for the 2006 Asian Games. A contest between two extraordinary chess professionals is replete with tension, where good nerves can make the difference between a victor and a loser. Grandmasters have been known to lose a lot of weight during the action of a month-long contest.

7) Women can’t play chess as well as men.

To date it is true that women have not performed as well as men in chess events. There are numerous conceivable reasons for this. One may be that male players are habitually adept at making female players feel uncomfortable at chess events. The Polgar sisters have gone a long way to convince the chess world that women can play very well. Perhaps one day we will discover that women can even play better than men. No one really knows.

Article Source: http://articles-at.smartnetworld.com

James Bryant is a researcher and writer working for www.sports-megastore.com, for the best sports equipment at the best prices. Visit us for all your sports equipment needs.

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