Chess -Does it make you insane?

[raindancing]

Just a bit of random curiousness here...

I have this issue with playing chess, it makes me feel like I'm going insane. Trying to decide the next move, my brain starts looking at all the endless permutations, if I move this pawn here, then black moves here, then.... or move the bishop, then.... or or or or spiraling further and further out of control. THERE IS NO END. And it really feels like I'm touching insanity... my brain starts going faster faster faster faster, trying to grab all the possibilities, encompass them all, grasping frantically.
I feel totally incapable of making a decision. Anything I do will be based on incomplete data. I imagine myself slavering at the mouth like a dog with rabies. Must. know. all.
I think chess is bad for me.

Anyone else have this issue? What function(s) would this be?

 

[The Great One]

Chess just bores me to tears because it's the same damn game over and over. I prefer strategy games like, "Command and Conquer" more.

 

[RaptorWizard]

 

[raindancing]

cool pic I like the perspective

 

[UniqueMixture]

I like chess. I find it relaxing. Look up a chess program that shows you the permutations 5 moves out. It will help you visualize the possibilities better. Personally, I find Go much more fascinating (more permutations).

 

[Within]

If you ask the same question to Bobby Fischer I bet the answer would be; No.

 

[Forever_Jung]

People assume I am good at chess due to my squinty eyes and lack of social graces, but I actually have no interest in it. It stresses me out, having to think that way. I wish it would go away.

 

[Nicodemus]

If you ask the same question to Bobby Fischer I bet the answer would be; No.

Yet, if you look at his life, you need not ask the question.

 

[Mad Hatter]

Chess just bores me to tears because it's the same damn game over and over. I prefer strategy games like, "Command and Conquer" more.

Now there's a man after my own taste Even though I probably played the whole series to death.

Just a bit of random curiousness here...

I have this issue with playing chess, it makes me feel like I'm going insane. Trying to decide the next move, my brain starts looking at all the endless permutations, if I move this pawn here, then black moves here, then.... or move the bishop, then.... or or or or spiraling further and further out of control. THERE IS NO END. And it really feels like I'm touching insanity... my brain starts going faster faster faster faster, trying to grab all the possibilities, encompass them all, grasping frantically.
I feel totally incapable of making a decision. Anything I do will be based on incomplete data. I imagine myself slavering at the mouth like a dog with rabies. Must. know. all.
I think chess is bad for me.

Anyone else have this issue? What function(s) would this be?

Hell yes

Well, I (possibly fondly) remember a series of games I played with my ENTJ friend back then. We would play for hours and hours on end, taking minutes sometimes to consider the next move, because each one was too afraid to make a bad move, so we'd exchance pieces one by one without any gain for either party. - Quite exhausting, I can tell you. So far, the balance has been quite even though.
Eventually, one of us would either make a careless mistake that would be exploited by the other, or neither of us would have enoug pieces left for a checkmate, and the we'd end up with a draw (quite frequent).

Somehow in my mind, chess is less of a game than more of an intelligence test, and I don't want to run the risk of being bad at it. Being bad at chess makes me feel dumb, so I often just avoid the risk by not playing.

 

[The Great One]

[MENTION=8444]Mad Hatter[/MENTION]

Yes, that, Fable, and KOTOR. I love those games to death.

 

[raindancing]

N


Somehow in my mind, chess is less of a game than more of an intelligence test, and I don't want to run the risk of being bad at it, so often I decide to just not play (even though I enjoy it).

I think that is at least part of my problem... which, sadistically, makes me want to play more. (I hate finding that mentality in myself --I am who I am who I am who I am. Intellectual honesty above all. If I'm not as intelligent as I imagine, than I'm not. Laboring under illusion doesn't change reality. Unless you live in Discworld, of course.)

 

[Vasilisa]

It becomes a jungle
1h10m12s - 1h13m46

 

[highlander]

Just a bit of random curiousness here...

I have this issue with playing chess, it makes me feel like I'm going insane. Trying to decide the next move, my brain starts looking at all the endless permutations, if I move this pawn here, then black moves here, then.... or move the bishop, then.... or or or or spiraling further and further out of control. THERE IS NO END. And it really feels like I'm touching insanity... my brain starts going faster faster faster faster, trying to grab all the possibilities, encompass them all, grasping frantically.
I feel totally incapable of making a decision. Anything I do will be based on incomplete data. I imagine myself slavering at the mouth like a dog with rabies. Must. know. all.
I think chess is bad for me.

Anyone else have this issue? What function(s) would this be?

I used to be pretty good at it in middle school and high school. I still have the trophies and medals. The funniest thing I ever got for winning a tournament was a football.

To get really good at it, you have to read books, memorize openings, study end-games and stuff like that. There is a lot to know and the best players think ahead probably six moves. I tried but just didn't have the motivation and was more interested in girls. So when I went to college, I quit playing. I haven't played for years.

It is pretty challenging intellectually and there is a lot of strategy as well as tactics involved.

 

[raindancing]

I used to be pretty good at it in middle school and high school. I still have the trophies and medals. The funniest thing I ever got for winning a tournament was a football.

To get really good at it, you have to read books, memorize openings, study end-games and stuff like that. There is a lot to know and the best players think ahead probably six moves. I tried but just didn't have the motivation and was more interested in girls. So when I went to college, I quit playing. I haven't played for years.

It is pretty challenging intellectually and there is a lot of strategy as well as tactics involved.

Yea I know study is needed to be good. My husband was pretty into it at a certain time, that's why I started playing. It's not something I have much desire to do, many other things are higher on my list of priorities. I just find it interesting how it makes my brain go haywire.
There are other things that have similar effect, but chess seems to cause the most craziness.

I guess in some ways I could see myself studying it just so I could play casually without it being such a damnable stressful experience.

 

[highlander]

Yea I know study is needed to be good. My husband was pretty into it at a certain time, that's why I started playing. It's not something I have much desire to do, many other things are higher on my list of priorities. I just find it interesting how it makes my brain go haywire.
There are other things that have similar effect, but chess seems to cause the most craziness.

I guess in some ways I could see myself studying it just so I could play casually without it being such a damnable stressful experience.

What are the other things that give you the similar effect?

 

[xisnotx]

Play some poker...
it's all that plus the fact that your decision actually can lose you money.
i've had moments where i just stare blankly into the abyss of all the information that's coming at me and just blank.

then you go on blind instinct and lose all your money...

on second thought, don't play some poker. it isn't good for you.

 

[raindancing]

What are the other things that give you the similar effect?

Damn it! I knew someone would have to ask that.

My brain is being uncooperative and refusing to pull up any examples. This always happens. Like going to the doctor...

Um um... Ok just thought of something. Recently built a house (I mean had someone else build it...) and when I was designing the thing, well it was this total blank canvas. I could do anything. Oh god it was crazy (but in a good way, not like chess). So many possibilities! Endless variations down to the tiniest detail, then one little change and the whole balance fluctuates with cascading repercussions... I'm doing some landscape design, from a total blank slate, turning a 2 acre paddock into a garden. Kind of similar. So design things can have a similar feeling, maybe? But it's still not the same as chess. Not so overwhelming. Actually I don't even know if it's the same at all. So those examples kind of suck.

Hmm.. I know there are other things that have been more similar to that feeling I get from chess, I just can't think of them right now. Other strategy games, I think. Which is probably why I avoid them. MATH. Yes Math does it. *shudder* Part of me finds it fascinating and the other part feels like spiders are trying to eat my brain.
But in a way it's different with math, not all the spiraling possibilities that get out of control. Something about the thought process feels similar though.

Apologies for the terrible answer

 

[raindancing]

i've had moments where i just stare blankly into the abyss of all the information that's coming at me and just blank.

!!!! Yes. What a perfect sentence. Such a weird feeling when someone expresses something from my mind so perfectly. I love it.

 

[Coriolis]

What are the other things that give you the similar effect?

Shopping.

 

[Orangey]

Just take some adderall and then play. You'll be much quicker on your feet.

I'm usually good with or without drugs, but I've been known to get impatient and just wing it during games. That usually costs me big time, as you can imagine.