How times have changed.
Practicing or studying moves. Chess people are a different breed.
Different breed indeed.
When you’re good at chess, it means you’re good at strategy and thinking ahead.
When you’re great at chess, it means you’re really good at chess specifically.
When you’re great you’re great at remembering moves.
I get the same vibe from upper-level chess as upper level Magic: it’s less about creativity and strategy and more about memorizing the meta.
Maybe the friend he usually plays with is out of town, so they’re playing together online
I choose to believe this
“Im at our usual spot in the park its like you’re right here with me bro”
He’s getting in a few easy online wins before some 80-year-old man comes and whoops his ass.
Or 20s woman, the chess community is surprisingly diverse 😉
He’s hoping that 12 year old kid shows up so he can get a rematch.
Could also be so highly habituated to playing at the park that it’s become integral to his mental game.
Or the friend hasn’t arrived yet and they are practicing.
An online opponent is better than an in person opponent who didn’t show up.
this is actually pretty sad
In which way? I can see a few begative or positive ones
in a sense it’s good he still got to play chess. but playing chess with someone in real life is so much more than just playing chess right? seeing each other, talking face to face, physical presence in the same space, etc. you can form human connections you wouldn’t be able to form playing online. so although the immediate need of playing chess is met, the emotional need of human connection is not. and it can be hard to realize this is what’s happening, because these two were always present at the same time until the internet came along.
more important the same thing is happening everywhere. having an honest face to face conversation is being substituted with shouting at each other online, enjoying time with friends is being substituted with parasocial relationships with streamers. and all this is having a detrimental effect on our society.
and thanks for attending my TED talk.
It’s called a LAPtop, not a Chessboardtop
Looks like he is waiting for someone to come play
Forever alone.
Modern solutions to age old problems.
