Glenn Michael Morley

Checkmate

Chess - for those aficionados amongst you I am certain you already know what I will say here about this intellectual adventure - the allure of chess is undeniable - for some not all - it is certainly available to everyone but HOW you approach the game will likely result in whether your appreciation for it is just in passing or deep - the great thing about Chess - and there are many - is its accessibility to all - that there are no directions on HOW best to play - certainly there are suggestions but no matter how closely you stick to these the game almost always results in a "new position" that you either do not know or even one that has never been known to have been played before - and it is at these times when the good and not so good players become evident - I think it is close to oil painting in that while you can study art and take countless lessons there is no guarantee you will ever be more than an average painter - chess players are certainly developed but to some extent they are born - some say you need a good memory or calculating abilities - strategy - tactics - memorised lines of play - others argue for positional play and certain practices that should be adhered to - none of which can guarantee you success - countless chess prodigies have surfaced over the centuries and countless more have faded into obscurity - one thing that chess demands more than any other is I think consistency - most players can have a good game now and then but top elite players maintain that level game in game out - the World Champions tend to be the strongest players mostly because they are the most consistent - their level of play rarely drops off - the effort required however is astonishing and this is why I think so many chess prodigies fail to develop into Champions - year after year they cannot maintain or improve their level of consistent play - the advent of computer chess has of course had a huge impact on the game as computers can now play at 3300+ FIE ranking levels while the greatest human players flirt with 2900 - new and intriguing strategies are being uncovered and no doubt the resurgence and boom of chess is attributed to the computer access between individual players and also with others around the globe offering unprecedented enjoyment for millions - I recently followed the Candidates Tournament which was postponed - a group of (8) top players hold a round robin competition to decide who will play the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen - for myself my acquaintance with chess is to play a single game each morning against the computer Level 10 which is comparable to a GrandMaster 2600+ FIDE ranking - I have lost 334 straight games - I have taken no lessons but have relied on metrics - I monitor what the program considers to be Best Move and Blunders - my approach has been not to focus on playing better but on reducing my Blunders - I soon witnessed a dramatic improvement - next I focused on increasing the number of moves each game that were played before I was check-mated - here too I have improved - there is a website agadmator.com who reviews top level games and I started to watch how the GM played the game - I have never studied the game formally nor read any books on strategy or tactics - but using these methods I have definitely improved my game CONSISTENCY - I still lose but I am losing less worse than I did 334 games ago - I am making more Best Moves more often and fewer Blunders as well as pushing the computer to longer games - it is quite rewarding exercise and I recommend this fascinating game to everyone - the history of the game is abundant and you can observe games from the past and see how strategy has changed - I do not have any memorised openings or middle and end game strategies - I simply play positional chess ensuring defence-first - completely opposite to how I played at the beginning which was full out attacking style - I guess 334 losses will do that - hopefully I start to win some games soon - consistently so