15 Reasons Chess Is Actually The Coolest Game Ever

1500 years old and still going strong. posted on

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15 Reasons Chess Is Actually The Coolest G...
Sam Parker

So you probably think chess is old and boring, right.

Something best left in the dark old days before Playstation and Angry Birds?

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Buncha people looking frickin’ miserable crouched over a board for christsake!

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Not sexy. Not sexy at all.

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Chess is fun and sexy and cool - just like these guys! And here is why…

1. People have been playing it for 1500 years.

Since before the 6th century AD, when it originated in India. That’s longer than just about any game ever invented (except for checkers and backgammon).

2. “Boring?” Pah!

That’s how many possible outcomes there is during a game… OVER THE FIRST FOUR MOVES THAT IS. You’re far more likely to win the lottery than ever play the same game of chess twice. So much for it being a ‘boring game’.

3. It’s the ultimate competition.

Because there’s no luck involved. Chess can’t be won or lost on the random roll of a dice, or the whim of the wind, or because your equipment broke, or because the ref missed a foul. It’s just one brain versus the other - no outside factors, no excuses.

4. You don’t have to play it sat at a table.

5. And who said chess players don’t have a sense of humour?

6. Chess helps “build a better society”.

According to Armenia, the first country in the world to make the game mandatory in schools.

“Chess develops various skills - leadership capacities, decision-making, strategic planning, logical thinking and responsibility,” education minister Armen Ashotyan explained to Al Jazeera recently. “The future of the world depends on such creative leaders who have the capacity to make the right decisions.”

7. Judit Polgár.

Hungarian Judit Polgár became a Grandmaster aged just 15. Challenging the game’s ingrained sexism, she refused to play in ‘lesser’ female only events and was demolishing male Grandmasters by the time she was 6 years old. She went on to whip nine current or former world champions, demolishing the idiotic myth that boys were naturally ‘better’ at chess than girls.

8. Age is no barrier to success.

American Samuel Reshevsky was whipping several chess masters at the same time when he was still only 8.

9. Now let’s talk about the kit. There are some seriously cool chess sets out there.

And some very posh ones.

10. But if you don’t own a set, you can make your own using just about anything.

Stones n’ shit…

11. And even when you’re not playing chess, the pieces can still be great fun.

Even if not everyone is sure what they look like.

12. Still not convinced chess is cool? Heath Ledger loved it.

In fact, he was a Western Australia’s junior chess championship when he was 10.

13. Dre digs it too.

14. Bob loves a game.

15. But let’s give the final word to Benjamin Franklin.

So what are you waiting for? Grab a board!

And get playing the coolest game in the entire world.

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