{"id":517,"date":"2015-07-27T16:38:21","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T15:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impro.org.uk\/?p=517"},"modified":"2017-07-28T17:08:52","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T16:08:52","slug":"chess-how-i-learned-to-play-to-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impro.org.uk\/chess-how-i-learned-to-play-to-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Chess – How I learned to play to play"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chess – How I learned to play to play<\/h2>\n

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\"5302854\"Chess is a win or lose game, psychological warfare. \u00a0As the wonderful saying puts it, ‘There\u2019s no such thing as a friendly game of chess’. \u00a0You crush your opponent or your opponent crushes you. There is no ambiguity or wriggle room. \u00a0There\u2019s a loser or a winner. \u00a0Occasionally a stalemate or a draw. \u00a0But unlike in a cricket test match or a football league game, a draw is not felt to be satisfactory and chess competitions are played to conclusions with blitz games – where players move at such speed that a definitive result is more likely.<\/p>\n

And so it has been for centuries, certainly up to when I learned the moves, beat my father and brother, then lost to all my more intelligent friends. \u00a0As it happened I was blessed or cursed with a disproportionate number of brilliant friends. \u00a0They all got scholarships to Oxford or Cambridge, where one is now master of his college. \u00a0The exception was my girlfriend who did teacher training at Sussex University, and was much sweeter than the clever guys. \u00a0She didn\u2019t play chess.<\/p>\n

As a competitive perfectionist, I gave up playing for many years, keeping a connection with the game only by reading the occasional newspaper column about a tournament or watching documentaries about Bobby Fischer or Gary Kasparov. \u00a0 When Kasparov lost to a computer, it seemed like something out of science fiction. \u00a0Humanity felt duly diminished. Thank goodness that although cleverer than us in certain narrow fields (chess!), they were hopeless at other things that any \u00a0child could do, such as balancing and walking. If they had made both Deep Blue and Kasparov walk around the room between moves, Gary would I’m sure have had the edge.<\/p>\n

I returned only recently when in an idle moment I noticed that my phone offered a pre-loaded free chess app. I suspected (correctly) that I\u2019d soon be longing for the days when phones were tethered to walls in buildings, or at least when their primary use remaining phoning people. \u00a0Because of course I was quickly crushed by the New Master. \u00a0Until I realised you could set the level at which it played. \u00a0I put it to looking only one move ahead and registered several confidence boosting victories.<\/p>\n

I found my level at the 2-3 moves ahead setting, and we have some good games. \u00a0The best bit is that if I make a real blunder or the computer surprises me with a move to which I have no answer, I simply take back my move – and have another go. \u00a0My winning ratio has improved dramatically.<\/p>\n

Some might find this shocking or feel that I\u2019m cheating. \u00a0But there is no one suffering. \u00a0The computer doesn\u2019t care. I\u2019m playing to play, and I\u2019m learning more by experimenting and untangling complicated \u00a0positions right at the edge of my ability, without any psychological ramifications such as losing painfully.<\/p>\n

That seems to me to be a good example of productively shifting my mindset from \u2018play to win\u2019 to \u2018play to play\u2019 and \u2018play to learn\u2019. \u00a0What do you think?<\/p>\n

A nice test of whether there\u2019s more to be learned from this method than from getting beaten time after time by a computer would be to set up a research experiment. \u00a0One group under each of those conditions. \u00a0I bet the play to players would learn more – and have a lot more fun while doing so.<\/p>\n

Paul Z Jackson
\nChief Executive
\nThe Improvisation Academy
\n+44 (0) 7973 953586<\/a>
\nwww.improvisationacademy.co.uk<\/a>
\n***************************
\nMy latest book\u00a0EASY: Your LIFEPASS to Creativity and Confidence<\/a><\/em>\u00a0is now available to download from Amazon.<\/p>\n

\"4637872\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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