Chess Blogging

William Grosso @ October 7, 2006

If you’re at all interested in the current world chess championships, I highly recommend Susan Polgar’s Blog. I would also have recommended The Kenilworthian, but it just went on sabbatical until 2007.

In any case, it’s fun to watch the games. I play chess badly and what I realized is this: for those of us who play chess badly, watching a world championship chess game is like watching a great movie. The pieces move around, and we have just enough knowledge to understand the local implications (both on the board and in time) of the move. It’s a lot like at the beginning of a movie, where you know the character archtetypes, but don’t deeply understand the characters. And so the characters do things, and you have a vague idea of why, but also are taking a lot on faith.

And then, as the chess game progresses, things become clearer (by move 30, I can usually understand move 10. At least in the context of the current game) and a unity emerges. Just as in movies.

Analogies only go so far, and following world-class chess games is far harder than I’m letting on (as in, Ow. my head hurts now) but I’d still recommend everyone try (or, at least, read Polgar’s commentary).

P.S. The article’s not on line, but I also highly recommend the Dec 12, 2005 issue of the New Yorker. In particular, the article “Your Move: How Computer Chess Programs Are Changing the Game” is fascinating.

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