New Love: Chess

Love, obsession, call it what you want. I will deny it is an addiction.

I usually don’t get addicted to games, or anything for that matter. At least not more than a week or two, I usually either finish it or lose interest. I know the latter one is not the best character trade.

However Chess came into my life at the end of January this year, and this winter had a toll on me. YouTube likes to suggest me new content to watch which is mainly True Crime stories and horrible murder cases due to my research for a game. So seeing something like Gotham Chess between all of it was a fresh site so I clicked on it. There goes down the Rabbit hole! Then I found Anna Cramling, the Botez sisters and others. I also registered to checss.com and later to lichess. Bought some chessboards so I can bring them to the meetup or just in a park to play. And of course, I bought some books or got them from friends. Some are much higher level than I’m now but it’s nice to have them around. I also created some real space in my house for the bigger board because in chess size matters and sometimes I like to be able to see a game that I’m playing on the board in front of me.

I play with everybody mainly with people waaay above my league. But to be honest I have to learn not to beat up myself for losing against someone who has played since he/she was a kid and I only play for like 2-3 months. I noticed I instinctively make good moves right before I blunder 1-2 pieces away. 😀 Also joined a chess club or am in the process of joining. I try not to ask Stocfish for too many hints in my games but I’m still bad at losing games. 😀 At least I admit it.

I noticed some things which chess does to my brain. First, finally, I was able to “escape” my racing thoughts of everything wrong in this world and concentrating on these 64 squares helped me focus my mental energy and empty my mind. Almost like a meditative state or some sort of trance. When I “woke” up from it then the world returned around me more vividly than ever. It’s almost always when I play “on board” games online less so. The second thing I noticed is how it is predicting certain things. Usually, migraines and panic attacks are undetectable by me but I see patterns in how my games became much worse just right before them. Like usually a 700-rated cehss.com bot I can easily beat but not before my brain chemistry decides to fail on me.

All in all, I think Chess is not the worst obsession to have in my life. 🙂 I gained some new friends and I believe it’s also good for my mental health.