In 2024, I played a lot of in-person chess.
My biggest impediment to playing more wasn't how well I did, it was how unhappy chess made the people I played.
And it didn't matter if they won! They still seemed pissed off.
After starting this thread, I realized I was putting zero energy into making chess fun. I'd sit down, try to be creative and come up with bad-ass chess moves, but direct all of my attention at the board.
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But there were a couple good moments too!
A few games with Gabriel. Gabriel is a music composer who worked at a garden nursery. I was so into getting to know him that the conversation was naturally super fun. And when he got a sneaky sacrifice-pawn checkmate, I was delighted! Losing to that checkmate was the happiest I was at a chessboard all year.
And one night with my neighbor/surf-buddy Matt. We'd had a couple drinks and he was thrashing me with the Danish Gambit. I told him we needed to make the Bramish Gambit, with the Cuck Variation, and we started riffing on all sorts of stupid chess-names. That was the hardest I laughed in a chess game.
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Obviously, chess is just one example. Anything come to mind in your life?
Being Good At Something vs. Being Fun to Do It With
Moderator: Dux
Being Good At Something vs. Being Fun to Do It With
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. — Nelson Mandela