I've just recently started playing chess and I've noticed how a lot of tactics in chess can somehow relate to certain things people do in real life. The people I'm referring to in this are people with power, political or money power. It's like the people running the world are all thinking at tactical levels, all the time, to screw the rest of us. I'm trying to learn chess to think like they do (so I can avoid being screwed).
Does anyone else think like this? Also, do you think chess can really apply?
I don't think chess, in itself, is so broadly applicable. The characteristics that it assists you in developing (strategic thinking, patient observation, attention to pitfalls) are, however, very transferable. Chess, in my view, also assists in developing mental stamina - the raw ability to be able to think through problems without fading away.
It won't stop you from getting screwed.
No.
I understand why chess teachers argue that chess study yields transferable skills. It's probably not *completely* false. Concentration helps in a bunch of areas, obviously. However, you need to remember that chess authors, GMs, and teachers are interested parties (i.e., biased)...
My own view, based on no research whatsoever, is that skills learned in one context are probably more easy to apply to a different context when the two contexts are pretty similar. In other words, skills are "transferable" when you don't need to "transfer" too far away from the original activity.
Even if we use terms like "tactical" or "strategic" thinking in chess, real-life tactical/strategic situations tend to be really different than the chess board.
So, no. I don't think studying chess will turn you into a great businessman, stock market prognosticator, politician, legal mind, etc. There may be a relationship between chess skills and high-performing individuals, but the relationship is much more likely to run the other way: high-performing individuals like chess, so they study it.
Of course, this doesn't mean chess has *no benefit* for kids. For instance, it might be better for them to hang out with friends and interested adults after school, rather than watch TV or hang out with a BMX gang.
To become good at chess is a time-consuming endeavor for most people. Because of that I think to whatever degree chess yields transferable skills that benefit is eclipsed by the effort required to be skilled at chess.
"The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life." - Paul Morphy
It is appalling to see how many (good) chess players voted for and support a reality tv star with the intellectual and social skills of kindergarten kids as their president. Therefore, I assume chess does not propel any 'common sense', an very important life skill.
For starters, there is no proof that chess skill enhances cognitive ability or academic skills.
More research is needed according to the only meta analysis that has been done:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1747938X16300112I think its helps in real life too. Most of the chess players are wise people. Coincidence I think not.
chess is a great tool for dealing with computers which are a part of life, but for someone who has to take care of a donkey, does not need chess at all, so It depence what ur life is about, u dont need chess to be a barman either but for intellectual jobs it can be helpful although it has its shortcomings
Just think of it as an ability or a tool out of the many that are in life.
Imo politicians"manage" power, but dont create power,
they usually waste it, the real power is in engineers and scientists, politicians come and go but science and technology stays forever.
If u create a light bulb, u have a light bulb for the next two centuries, or an aeroplane or a bicycle, that is real power and it can be chemical power it can be whatever, like creating (searching) new materials titanium, or an underground transport, most politicans dont have vision, they are puppets that have to smile and lie to support their lives, they dont have skill like a doctor or a janitor or whatever, its usually the most uneducated and naive that arrive to politics.
In chess u are rewarded for playing good moves, in politics ur career can be over, if u say ur country is bankrupt, corrupted and with full of debt.
So to play chess u need to follow principles, while in current politics u need to say that everything is fine, even if the country is collapsing
It should not be that way but It is how it is.
Imo politicians dont care about their country, they only care about their state, Its like an endogenous activity but its not their fault, the fault is of the masses who vote whoever It is,
since they hate to think by themselves, so its like a pact where everybody has agreed to be stupid and everybody is ok, since they are unable to foresee or predict the future, and only when they are homeless they start complaining like suddenly a state or whatever could be changed in a matter of seconds.
Most people are quite rational but not in politics since they would accept whatever It comes, its like they surrender that type of activity, but then they want healthcare education and all that type of things, they want the benefits but they dont want the responsability, they dont read books they dont do anything, Its like a giant blank mob, in my country like 80 years ago there was a civil war, so I dont trust anyone of them, thats why I am living in Portugal, since in my opinion they are all nuts.
When half the people hate the other half the people, the only logical choice is to leave.
@FelloTransit #1
I know that the other way around can be true.
Years ago I completely stopped with chess for more than a year, and then started playing again. And I was very surprised that my results and games were better. Self confidence and optimism, fresh ideas can be good for your chess, though being over optimistic has its pros and cons :) If feeling good, the chess games can become nice jewels. When feeling bad, distracted and not being able to concentrate one can deliver blunderful or "boring" and mediocre chess games.
