ON CHESS
Online competition OK but unsociable
Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:58 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN
Technology has transformed some individual sports, such as golf, but had relatively little effect on others, such as tennis.
Perhaps most profound has been its effect on chess, especially through the medium of online play.
One can find an opponent at any hour of the day on easily accessible server-driven Web sites. The games are usually abbreviated — 10 or fewer minutes each.
One chess site claims to host 100,000 games daily, with as many as 3,000 in progress at a time.
Internet chess includes beginners as well as grandmasters who relish the chance to enhance or maintain their skills, or play anonymously for fun.
Garry Kasparov is known to play online, as is the top female player, Judit Polgar. Bobby Fischer is rumored to have played.
What’s most remarkable is that a very sociable game has been turned into a largely impersonal one. A list of my recent opponents includes Ladymacbeth, Blunderpuss, Herrtrigger and Mighty Pawn.
Who they are and whence they come, I don’t know. It’s unlikely that we shall meet again.
Source: http://dispatch.com
Yeah but that’s the future. You can’t stop the growth of internet chess.