No, I don't, but since it's free, if you have been deleted, you've alreadry received your refund.

Ed Yetman, III
YetmanBrothers.com

Do you know anything about cheating on FICS, as compared to a server like Playchess? Is it prevalent? Is it rare? Do they have effective measures in place to deal with it?

In the immortal words of Sergeant Schultz, "I know nothing! Nothing!" I never play on those sites, so I have nothing to add.

If I started playing chess online it would consume my entire life....

Ed Yetman, III
YetmanBrothers.com

A few months back, I wrote a letter to myself thinking about this. Here is part of it and in the right thread too (i.e. the nothing thread)

What would you be doing with your spare time if you didn’t have a chess hobby?

I think chess can be beneficial. You may opt to watch less tv and work on chess instead. If done properly it can keep your brain active. And getting together to play chess with people you like is quite enjoyable, and perhaps a surprisingly sociable activity for a one-on-one game. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the people at the club, and I have to admit, part of my club enjoyment comes from being able to win most of my games because of my increased understanding/calculation ability from the time I’ve put into studying these past two years.

I’ve improved my play, I understand more about the game itself, I’ve learnt some history and learnt about some of the personalities, past and present, within it.

I’ve embarked on small chess organizational projects. Using the games and analyses in my chess books I’ve made a database with game header information, book title and page number. Name an opening or a game and I can locate analysis and thoughts of that game or opening in any of my chess books or downloaded articles.

But, does chess detract from other things you could or should be doing? Lately I’ve had more free time than usual and have done a few more productive things (languages, publications, take a forensics/DNA university course). However, there is quite a lot I didn’t do which I wanted to do. My sweetie and my family keep asking how my book is going (it isn’t), how my fictional short stories are going (they aren’t), have I sold any of my pictures yet (haven’t even marketed them). And my plans to write a whole series of teaching biology PowerPoint presentations for a wide variety of audiences (neophytes to university level) have not come to fruition either.

I’ve had more than enough time to do it, and would have done it except for chess. Like some temporal sponge chess has absorbed my free time, and I’m wondering if it has become a vice instead of a virtue. I keep thinking, “I still have time…”, but will I one day open my eyes and realize I’ve frittered away years of spare time on chess instead of doing all the things I’d planned to do?

In 1992 I was able to walk away from chess because I started a new career/obsession, gave away most of my possessions and moved to a new city. Twelve years later I began dabbling in chess again, and I'm wondering if it is again time to walk away from it?

Even as I write these chess thoughts, I realize I should be proof-reading a friend’s 8 page job application/resume, reviewing western bird calls, studying sonograms, and checking a nearby provincial park for new spring migrants (birds)...and yet I’m still planning on finishing this chess thought, heading to the coffee shop at 3 to play chess, and listening to a chess lecture at 6.

Day’s young. I still have time...

How do others, presumably more balanced and less obsessive individuals, deal with chess taking up too much time? If it isn’t a problem, why is that? Do you feel like chess is a waste of time, but you enjoy it anyway? Do you feel that you could be doing something more ‘productive’ if you didn’t have chess as a hobby? What would you do instead of chess? Perhaps a summary question of all of the above is, how do you balance chess and the rest of life?

I feel like this quite often as well, Ken. At times chess does feel like an obsession, but I don't know if it ever becomes an obsession to the detriment of other parts of my life. Ultimately it's about balance. Everything in moderation, right? Provided I take care of my family and my job and my friends and myself, there is nothing at all wrong about playing or studying chess for several hours on any given day. As addictions go one might even say it's relatively beneficial...

Barring professionals, I probably spend more time on chess than just about anyone here, and I suck at it. I'm playing in two Canadian Correspondence Championships, I publish a small magazine and monographs, and I play a lot of OTB, all without stellar success.

Frankly, I cannot imagine life without chess. I've played all kinds of games, and none of them give me the same aesthetic pleasure that chess does. I think I would rather play chess than do just about any other leisure time activity, but alas I lack the stamina to do that. After only a few hours of play and analysis I need a lot of time to reacquire the appetite to play.

I took up the study of Greek because my profession required it. I suppose if I played chess professionally (and made a living at it--a fantastic proposition!) I would learn other things to help me with that. Nevertheless I enjoyed studying Greek and I wish I had more time for it. Alas, Greek will take away from chess, so Greek must wait.

Chess too, alas, must wait. I must spend too many hours of my life fixing the educational crimes committed by others. Once I wretch myself free of that tiresome chore I turn almost at once to chess.

I know that most people do not play chess and find themselves living full lives. I do not know how they do it.

Ed Yetman, III
YetmanBrothers.com

Indeed, "Amen!" to that, brother!

Sometimes, when I just ponder the absolute beauty of the game of chess and just how everything in chess just seems to "fit together so very well", I just have to wonder if chess was "Divinely inspired!"


Chess Fan

Considering how long it took chess to emerge from Chautauranga to shatranj to chess, I would say it more likely a product of evolution.

Ed Yetman, III
YetmanBrothers.com

Huh, evolution??!!

Ed, I thought that you said that you were not an enemy of Christianity!!


Chess Fan

I'm not. But chess evolved from earlier games. It didn't spring forth on the first day.

Ed Yetman, III
YetmanBrothers.com