| I love chess, and own these books. It was a pleasant (if a little bewildering) surprise to find this submission on HN. One thing I don't love about chess is how eager everyone seems to be to apply concepts and principles from chess to non-chess situations, implying that an understanding of these principles within the game will provide a better understanding of their analogous situations outside of chess. People tend to claim that being good at chess will make you good at other things too, but I've always found that being good at chess makes you... good at chess, and that's about it. Edit: My favorite article on chess is from an 1859 Scientific American, and can be found here: https://books.google.com/books?id=90hGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA9&dq=%22... An excerpt: > ...chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while at the same time it affords no benefit whatsoever to the body. Oh, if they knew the kinds of things we spent our time on now... |