just a random question can you play chess. do you think been good at chess should make it easier to learn and get better at poker. are you good at chess or do you think it is a stupid game old men play?
Joined: Mar '12
Location: Romania
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 640
Well , I play chess, and I think I'm pretty good , at least between my friends , don't know if being good at chess improves my poker game , but still , chess is a good way to exercise your brain.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
I for one love chess. I've won a few city championships so I would say that I'm a decent player at least.
I don't really think that being a good chess player means that you're gonna be better at poker since they are just to different from each other. For one, in chess, you don't need to read your opponent, only try to anticipate his next move.
Although, being a good chess player would mean that you at least have a sense for strategic thinking and planning ahead which is a part of poker as well.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
That's one game I wish I would have taken the time to learn and actually get good at it. It's always seemed to be a game of strategy and one has to use their thought processor to fair well. I'm not sure how it would make one a better poker player and since I can't play I probably shouldn't even have replied, but I surely wish I'd have taken the game up.
Joined: May '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 1372
Never too late to learn Green. The rules are simple, you could write them down on one side of paper, which is more than you could say for something like Monoploly or Risk for instance.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
I haven't played chess in at least 10 years but I used to like the game when I was younger. I can't say I was really good but I used to own a computerised chess board and I could beat the computer. I also had a Simpsons board for Christmas one year so I must have been a big fan when I was around 8 or 9, maybe younger. To be honest, I can't say I would ever play a game with my friends these days for the following sad and rather lame reasons: games can be quite long and my attention span has been ruined by the internet, the world has moved on, socialising with my friends very rarely entails anything challenging, the fear that I would lose therefore confirming my friend was smarter than me and at the same time the difficulty in finding a friend of equal intelligence who would provide a good competition. So in conclusion I will probably not play chess again until I am an old man by which time I will presumably be no better or worse at chess than I am now.
And I don't particularly think that chess or poker players would benefit from the other game. They both require a sense of logic and strategy so perhaps certain players would be naturally good at both games but mastering the skills in one will not help you with the other. Chess is more spacial maths I think while poker is numerical as in probability. And learning instinctively how to recognize behavior in chess is different to reading the behavior in poker. It's like driving a car and playing basket ball, both require coordination, mulitasking, spacial awareness, quick reactions but they both need to be learned.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Slovenia
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 109
Im also an amaetur chess player. I do find it pretty difficult to beat medium setting in Win7 chess game (ChessTitans (tm)).
But otherwise, I plan to get better at it. There exist some strategical similarities with poker and chess, so it never hurts to know both games. Many professional pokerplayers, like Dan Harrington for example, were also great chess players.
Joined: Jan '13
Location: Belgium
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 23
I don't think there are real similarities between poker and chess. But it's still a very good braintrain and it helps you to think faster. The behaviours at the table are also very different between chess and poker. They both require practical skills but have not so much in common.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Slovenia
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 109
- observing your opponent/getting to know him(her) - adjusting strategy to his(her) playing style - being able to predict the next most likely move - being able to approximate the longterm result of one action - thinking LOGICALLY - mental strength - not being emotionally involved - the list could probably go on...
Anyone who has something to add to it, please do it. This was just what i brainstormed when I read oliv1's post. I believe I have found all of those ingredients in a game of poker, as well as chess. Or maybe I'm retarded to find such similarities?
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by awood88: following sad and rather lame reasons: games can be quite long and my attention span has been ruined by the internet, the world has moved on, socialising with my friends very rarely entails anything challenging, the fear that I would lose therefore confirming my friend was smarter than me and at the same time the difficulty in finding a friend of equal intelligence who would provide a good competition.
hehe
last time I had a friend that I played chess regularly with was about 4 or 5 years ago, guy was my neighbour, we used to take amphetamines together and stay up for days, usually by about day 2 or 3 without any sleep we would start playing games for money.. usually either chess or a card game (rarely poker interestingly). Anyway, we played a hell of a lot of chess, if I am honest, he was slightly better than me, which did bother me a little.. Although the games could get pretty funny, like sometimes we would have been awake for 4 days or something ridiculous like that and we'd have $100 riding on a game, then we'd realise that all the bishops are on black tiles or something stupid like that!
On topic more: I think there is definitely a very heavy cross-over of skillsets involved for chess & poker, but in terms of a poker or chess players ability to move into the other game, I would say all that cross-over is largely invested in potential rather than directly transferable skills.. So somebody who is a world-class chess player, probably has the mind-potential to become a fantastic poker player, but they wouldn't immediately move from being a winning chess player to crushing poker, but they would have the potential to become great, I believe.
Joined: Feb '13
Location: India
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6
I THINK CHESS IS ONE OF THE BEST GAME TO EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN. I AM PLAYING CHESS SINCE I WAS 6. AND IT'S NOT AN OLD MAN GAME BRO.ii THINK EVRY ONE SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 1646
i used to play in primary school all the time. from when i was about 6-10. I wasn't brilliant but i could be most of my classmates. I didn't bother when i got into senior school tho. It's a pretty good game to get the old grey matter working
, don't know if being good at chess improves my 
