Chess

[Lucius]

Chess has exploded in popularity since the Covid days, and the boom continues. I'm a fair-to-middling player, no more than that -- I'd say I like chess but I don't love it, and Caissa is a jealous mistress. There's a certain cultural fascination with chess, everyone in the West used to know Fischer, and now The Queen's Gambit's protagonist shares the spotlight with King Magnus...

It won't be easy to explain to an extraterrestrial visiting the Earth why such a seemingly cold and logical game involves so many emotions! It's interesting to consider the effects of chess engines on the game in the light of the another -- AI -- boom.

Do you like it?

[Vela Nanashi]

I enjoy chess, but I am very much not good at it at all, but I also don't mind losing, I find it funny but I might be too chaotic and boring to good players I suspect. I also enjoy 5d chess for how it adds two more dimensions to chess (not really 5d since no pieces fly, but they can travel in time and across timelines and the usual way they travel in normal chess), in 5d chess you must protect all your kings even the ones in the past, so you don't have a future queen or other long range piece snipe the past king (who can not be moved to safety as they already did not move at that point).

[Claire]

I created an account on chess.com a few months before the pandemic hit. I was a total noob, not having played since my father taught me the rules when I was a teenager. But I got into it during the pandemic and I think I've become a decent amateur player. The Queen's Gambit was also a great show.

I think I approach chess a bit like I also approach video games. And from a game design perspective I find chess (and go) very fascinating. I think the best games usually generate complexity out of a few simple interacting game mechanics. If you do that right you get games that are easy to learn but hard to master. And I think chess and go are prime examples of that.

[AdmiralPiet]

I have an account on Chess.com too. But it lays dormant for a while now.
I think I watched some chess related things on youtube and got hooked a bit.
I don't know if I was any good, but a few games I maneged to win.

I never played much when I was a child, but for I more than twenty years I have a glass chess game in my possession.
It currently is displayed in my living room.

[Lucius]

Oh yes, chess sets can be very aesthetically pleasing!

Well, awfully tacky, too.

[AdmiralPiet]

Well, awfully tacky, too.

Naw, this is very tastefull:

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[Lucius]

Indeed!

[Claire]

The candidates tournament starts today. And in the first round, the two favorites to win, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, have their first match already. I'll probably have a stream running in the background for many of the matches. Is anybody else going to watch?

[AdmiralPiet]

I had to google first what a "candidates tournament" even was, so no

But I stumbled over something that does not make sense to me: Why does Chess have divisions for men and women?

[Lucius]

The candidates tournament starts today. And in the first round, the two favorites to win, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, have their first match already. I'll probably have a stream running in the background for many of the matches. Is anybody else going to watch?

Yeah, why not? I sorta envy them, Cyprus is a lovely island.