Scholar or idiot?

[MarkShot]

(posted wrong thread)

[Gusington]

Unfortunately The Wife and I only play chess...I have been unable to get her interested in gaming with me but my daughters appear ready to start.

[MarkShot]

I've been taking Jim's ratio to heart. I've been doing mentor and tactics from chess.com. Lot's of practice, but only played one game tonight.

[FarAway Sooner]

I'm a scholar, but a casual one. 

What always limited my interest in chess is that there's only one game to learn--and it's the infinite complexity of that game which makes it seems so repetitive to me.  I like most TBS computer games, because they are typically composed of far more finite mini-games.  It's the interaction between those games that makes it interesting.

In Civ and almost all the 4X games it has since spawned, you have multiple games--a strategic map, individual city-building choices, research choices, etc.--that all influence and interact with each other.  I like not just taking apart the individual games, but trying to arrive at an intuitive understanding of the relationship between those games, as well as the killer combos that might work best.  (e.g., "If I'm playing the Dwarves in Master of Magic, and I find an Adamantium mine, then as soon as I start producing the heavily armored Hammerhands, my movement up the power curve explodes.")

I don't like building nuclear reactors in my spare time.  Just paper airplanes.  But when I start to see and manage the complicated interactions between the paper airplanes I'm building, that's when I love a game.

[MarkShot]

Well, I found the balance between mentor and tactic exercises between fun and learning. Books and lectures can be too much like school.

Chess is now a good choice, since I'll be sharing the iPad2 and laptop with my wife. But I have chess everywhere. Also, I think I am going to be in the hospital for a week. I wouldn't want to leave an iPad around the room, but a little handheld chess computer I could afford to lose.

[bob48]

I eventually found a link showing the largest Shogi varient. Take a look, guys, its really something!

http://history.chess.free.fr/taikyokushogi.htm

[MarkShot]

I wonder how long a game lasted? Was it the WitP of its generation?

[MarkShot]

Ouch!  Idiot!

[Windigo]

I'm a morosoph.  8)

we must be related, as I am a moronosaurus

[bob48]

I wonder how long a game lasted? Was it the WitP of its generation?

lol - yes, but only if you're a Tibetan monk!

[MarkShot]

It seems no matter how much I invest in exercises, I still play like an idiot. Chess, that is.

[bob48]

Maybe you're trying too hard. Best way (IMHO) is to just play and enjoy the game, you will find you get better without realising it.

[Windigo]

Maybe you're trying too hard. Best way (IMHO) is to just play and enjoy the game, you will find you get better without realising it.

give it time MarkShot, it takes more than a few knights to master.

[bob48]

...was that a gauntlet i heard hitting the floor......?

[Windigo]

...was that a gauntlet i heard hitting the floor......?

I wouldn't want to rook you into it