India's first chess features print magazine published quarterly from Lucknow since 2004 by Aspire Welfare Society.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Chess is a Total Waste of Time in Life! (ChessForums Link Updated)

A Black & White reader has sent us something about chess that's 'thought-provoking'. We leave it upon our readers to comment on this. Send your comments from anywhere in the world to editor@blackandwhiteindia.com and we would compile an article with the best comments. You could even win a prize.

Chess is no good
by N.Dharmeshwaran,
Guduvancherry, Chennai
  • Chess serves no real purpose outside itself
  • Chess uses time and effort, and displaces other activities which might be better than it in some ways
  • Chess is inherently unconstructive. While the theory can be intellectual and academic in nature (though inherently unimportant), the purpose is fundamentally to defeat the opponent. It is possible that chess causes unconstructive patterns of thought by a process analagous to transference. i.e. in chess you are fighting alone against an opponent, so other things can seem like that even if they are not, which can be unhelpful. Of course, there are ways in which this could be considered a pro - perhaps in certain areas like business the fighting aspect of chess could be well-channeled. [This point is based both on my own experience and what I have observed in others]
  • Very few chess players can earn money from chess, especially with the large number of GMs in the world these days. Professional chess has very limited income streams from non-participants. Of course this is not a con at all to most people, who play chess as a hobby and have no interest in chess as a career
  • While some types of chess are cheap, playing in frequent OTB tournaments is expensive and takes a lot of time, with a large impact on the rest of one's life.
  • Chess can be obsessive, which can be damaging to other areas of life.
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What would you say to  N.Dharmeshwaran?


Since we first posted this, there's an awesome discussion going on at the ChessForums

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