Chess: What I learned from 2000 games

— This is an Archive post from 2022 —

Back story

Half way through my second year of university I opened my own personal Pandora’s Box. Besides one game when I was a child, in which I got checkmated in 4 moves, I had never played a game of Chess. That changed when a small competition started between me and my flatmates. I lost horribly in all of my games, but my interest was piqued. The game’s determinism and deep calculations combined with its sheer complexity morph into a perfect game for a STEM student. Therefore, my interest quickly turned into an obsession.

Measurement of achievement

I created my Chess.com account in April of 2021, and today I played my 2000th game.

Throughout this journey my feelings towards Chess have had their ups and downs. The attached graph of my rating over time demonstrates this clearly. There are several discrete segments with the same properties: consistent play with rating increase; rating peak and decline; play become sporadic and ceases. After a short break, usually spent reading Chess books or pursuing other hobbies with my spare time, I come back to Chess with a fresh set of eyes. Every one of my breaks has been followed with an explosion in my performance, measured by my rating. Most recently, I took a 1 month break from playing online Chess, and since in 27/28 games I have either won or drawn my opponent.

I believe this phenomenon exactly follows my experience with burnout. After a period of focus, performance begins to degrade and frustration increases. After a rest and a change of pace, productivity comes roaring back, surpassing the work lost by taking a break.

Going beyond productivity, Chess has given me newfound intuition on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The world-famous match between Garry Kasparov and IBM’s DeepBlue, as well as the general learning demonstrated by AlphaZero by Deepmind, both demonstrate phenominal feats of inginuity by the machines and the humans that created them.

I plan on embarking on a summer project soon with a simple goal: make a Chess robot to beat myself.

If I was to give one piece of advice to a new Chess player it would be: play alot, and analyse more. The 21st century is the best time to play Chess in history. Much like Mathematics, Chess is much easier to study when you have the answers to refer to. We have the benefit of engines on our home computers that could compete with grandmasters. They, of course, should not be used in the game, but should be utilised liberally afterwards.

Chess is a great game for anyone to play. Sitting down with a friend to have a mental sparring session can provide hours of fun. Beyond fun with friends, Chess has even been shown to have positive effects on memory, development, and mental health.

Learning Chess has taught me so much about Learning itself. From avoiding burnout, to unlocking a new area of study, Chess has given me general insights that I will apply to my field in the future.

All in all, I am endlessly pleased with the positive effects Chess has had on my health and my studies, and I look forward to having it as a life-long passion.