Exercise Your Mind

Thus far I have played a total of 3,709 games of online chess all my opponents were rated in the lower rated category.  I've concluded that to reach the more advanced ratings in online chess one must possess a remarkable memory and as I have noted some of the more advanced chess players can reproduce play by play each and every move of a game.  This reminds me of humans who have this photographic memory and can recall a list of names merely by looking at the list for a brief second and holding this memory for the entire list.  Most humans cannot do this.  I question whether this is real intelligence.  You might note my confidence when I'm on a winning streak but yes I have broken the losing streak to an extent and have begun at least a minor winning streak.  They usually don't last that long sad enough to say.  For senior citizens I'd say online chess is a good game to test for dementia the win to lost ratio may indicate a person's state of mind.  Look at chess as a good mental exercise as you can pace yourself at your own rate and comfort level.  Please make note of the super power nations that possess the top grandmasters in the world certainly a prestigious position to be in.  As a tennis player I had helped train unknowingly a top grandmaster of chess although I was not his official trainer but my interest in his chess game when he was number one ranked in the United States inspire me to write this blog on chess and introduce online chess where anyone in the world can be at the opposite end of the chessboard and no you don't have to be a world class chess player.  More often than not it makes me feel important even though I am far from being a competitive player.  Why not you?

The Slump In The Game Is An Irritant At The Very Least

As we get older we must get bolder and are ability to sustain ourselves becomes more difficult all we can do is try our best and that may not be good enough.  The best ranked player is a very young fellow fresh and alive as is the contestants in the singing talent show American Idol.  Magnus Carlson just sings his heart out no not in harmony and words but in making the right moves of his chess pieces.  I could quit this game at any time and it  appears I draw nearer with each day.  I will not know for sure.  Call a it death of a recreational chess player online.  It is going to happen.  Taking a slump in the series of  games  is never a fun thing to do but we must a face the music and wait it out until the fill of this losing streak is over at least for the time being.  I should know by now I've lost enough losing streaks to realize that I am coming with a vengeance to make good my loses with a series of wins.  Even Joe Montana former quarter back  for the San Francisco Forty Niners had told me over the air on a radio talk show where I was a caller what was on his mind when faced with limited time when a win or lost looked imminent and he replied that if you hate losing more than you like winning…yes I know easy for him to say as he was and is the champion.  Let me think was not Bill Walsh one of his bosses yet Bill Walsh never excelled in football as a  player but as a coach?  I will go out in the game of chess not as a champion but I can say I know something of the game of chess.  Be prepared to win but if you do lose more than you can win you don't have to take the game so serious it is only a game as fellow human chess player Edgar Mapoy once explained to me when he killed me once in a game.  He was and is one of the best players  I have played.