The love for chess

My first big competition itch in non-sports, was when PVP (Player vs Player) was introduced in World of Warcraft. I was instantly hooked, I left the biggest Guild in my server which focused on PVE content (Player vs Environment), to join a specialized PVP guild. I reached Lieutenant Commander, the 5th highest rank you could achieve in the game. But this took an enormous amount of grinding that I later had to quit because it was affecting school and work.‌

Years later I filled that competitive void with the release of StarCraft 2. I did not play the original a lot but I was instantly hooked with the new version. Friends joined the frenzy and I found myself following every big tournament and joining small ones. Eventually the community felt stale and it started decreasing rapidly with the release of MOBAs like League of Legends.

What I loved about StarCraft is that it was no longer the grinding what mattered. You had to improve your skills, yes by grinding practice, but not by the sheer amount of hours played like it happened with World of Warcraft.

Later on, I filled that competitive itch with Overwatch, but with Blizzard making all the wrong decisions in the past years, the game got stale and repetitive.

I left Overwatch telling myself that I would never put serious time into another competitive video game because you are left hanging after they go out of fashion and their communities start dwindling.

I couldn’t shake that competitive itch though, and that is how I ended up with Chess. Before the pandemic I followed Chess as a casual fan. Limited to following events results where Magnus Carlsen was participating. But with the pandemic I started doing puzzles regularly, following more tournaments and eventually liking it enough in order to get enough confidence to play online myself.

Chess filled every competitive itch while at the same time not suffering from the downsides:

• This is a hobby that will not die before me. People have been playing it for hundreds of years and will continue playing it after I am gone.
• It is accessible. You can find people who loves Chess everywhere. Play it on the phone, the computer, or find your local chess clubs.
• It is inclusive as they come, you will find all ages and backgrounds. There is no common “persona” like you will find in other events, for example engineering meetups.

I have heard people talk about how Chess is too much about memorizing nowadays. But this is not a problem at all unless you are a top Grand Master. Ignore whoever says that. The biggest danger is probably online cheating, but I haven’t found it to be a deal breaker at my level.

I strongly recommend it. I liked it so much that I have been taking classes for more than a year now with an amazing coach.

I still suck at it. But I love it.