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Chess Myths and Misconceptions

People, particularly chess players themselves, say the darnedest things about chess and about chess players. Here are some of our favorite myths about the royal game. A few of these sayings are definitely untrue, some of them are uninformed opinion, and some of them are arguments that may or may not be valid.

1) Chess is difficult to grasp.

Chess may not be the easiest game to learn, but it is far from the most prohibitive. 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 learn the rules about attacking and defending the King, including castling. Then there are a few about games where not one nor the other player wins. One side of this myth is legitimate – it is hard, very hard, to learn to play chess well. 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 tried teaching blackfishes and chimps. Chess does involve, after all, using various advanced compartments of the brain as skillfully as applicable. People from all walks of life enjoy playing chess, several achieving mastery. Some very clever people delight in playing but never progress beyond novice rank.

3) Chess is for nerds.

As a matter of fact, this isn't a myth, since chess is for everyone. It is for nerds, geeks, eggheads, and boffins, as much as it is for anyone else. People who need to call other people unpleasant names should better say, 'chess is only for nerds', but this is plainly untrue. Even if it was on target, so what? Intelligent, clumsy, offbeat people have made more contributions to the advancement of humanity than have the rest. If they want to play chess, that's their concern

4) Computers play chess better than people.

In 2006, the best computers play chess better than 99.99% of people, but are evenly matched in games against the best humans. If, as some experts consider, computers are attaining 20 - 30 rating points per year, the time will soon come when humans have no chance against the best machines. It should not be overlooked that computers are always trained by squads of human specialists who program them in psychological areas like opening repertoire. Taking away this advantage would erase their superiority.

5) Chess is a sport.

Here we run the risk of upsetting the many outstanding chess organizers who have spent years trying to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that chess should be included as an Olympic sport. Hoisting light pieces of lumber 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 cut a slim, trim, athletic profile.

6) Chess isn't a sport.

Here we attempt to make reparation with those very same organizers who almost convinced the IOC that chess is a sport. Chess has been admitted as a medal sport for the 2006 Asian Games. A match between two top chess masters is full of tension, where superior nerves can establish the difference between a winner and an also-ran. 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 unquestionable that women have not played and achieved as much as men in chess events. There are many possible reasons for this. One may be that male players are often expert at making female players feel uncomfortable at chess events. The Polgar sisters have gone a long way to persuade the chess world that women can play very well. Maybe one day we will find out that women can even play better than men. No one truly knows.

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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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