
How to Play Chess Like an Asshole - gk1
http://boingboing.net/2015/10/26/how-to-play-chess-like-an-assh.html
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geebee
Love it.

That said, I consider many of these "tricks" to be the absolute opposite of
playing chess like an asshole (though I understand that's part of the joke
here). But the reason I take the statement seriously is that I once tried to
genuinely play chess like an asshole, and there was a very intelligent guy who
was able to thwart it.

I read a book called "how to think ahead in chess" and discovered that I could
lock down the game against a computer by playing queens pawn, building what is
called a "stonewall" defense, and then slowly maneuvering along lines that I
understood. It was a good way to play against a computer, because it limited
the options to the point where I was better able to see one or two moves ahead
by reasoning only along a couple of lines, whereas the computer (this was back
in the late 80s, I think) still needed to crunch a bunch of unnecessary
numbers.

The guy who could beat me? When I played queen's pawn, he played king's pawn.
Go ahead, take it. One pawn sacrificed to blow the game wide open, and all of
a sudden, creativity, the ability to see lots of positions and opportunities?
Easy.

The reason I say _I_ was playing chess like an asshole was actually documented
in Martin Amis's book "the Information." There's a scene where one writer
decides to essentially crush the other's self esteem by beating him at all the
games they play (tennis, chess). He hires a chess instructor, and the chess
instructor, teaching him what I think is pretty clearly the queen's pawn
stonewall, reflects that what he is teaching almost feels more like how to
cheat at chess than really play it.

It works, unless your opponent is much better at the game and realizes that
giving up a pawn and a bit of position early on is a small price to pay to
take you out of a game that you know very well and throw the entire board into
chaos ;)

