Chess is an isle of sanity in an absurd world...

[smatovic]

Pondering about Camus and his Absurdism, about Baudrillard and his Hyper-
reality, it seems to me that chess is an isle of sanity in an absurd world,
chess per se makes sense, it might be an own world/dimension for itself, but I
guess that is the beauty in it.

--
Srdja

[lithander]

Most popular forms of escapism have that property, that they are inherently based on very simple rules. The black and white of chess finds it's match in the good vs evil of superhero fantasies which basically all blockbuster movies and crime-novels are a variant of.

I think we humans constantly try to find models for the inherently chaotic world around us and those models never really fit perfectly. So we entertain ourselves with fictional systems and universes where a lot of comfort is found in the fact that those systems were designed after our favorite simple models (like good and evil) and thus get rid of all the unpleasant uncertainty and ambiguity of the real world.

[smatovic]

...the beauty in computer chess for an programmer is that is combines all three planes, theoretical computer science, applied computer science and technical computer science, and the beauty in chess as own world/dimension is that it is independent of actual political, economical or religious matters, holy ground, so to speak.

--
Srdja

[shadyantra]

Pondering about Camus and his Absurdism, about Baudrillard and his Hyper-
reality, it seems to me that chess is an isle of sanity in an absurd world,
chess per se makes sense, it might be an own world/dimension for itself, but I
guess that is the beauty in it.

--
Srdja

I also agree with this great qoute. Chess in initial historical dates, was invemted to simulate the war on board. Though peace is the main objective, but many decisions were taken just on tables.

Todays players play the game but People with 1000+ rating are able to understand the move. But just but getting 2700+ elo with experience of 20+ yrs, dont make a GM smart enough to beat Army Majors or Generals. These real life Battle chess players are real heros.

[smatovic]

...from the Buddhist/Hindu concept of Maya, the great illusion, chess is an exit, a drop out, not for the soul or body but for the mind.

--
Srdja

[shadyantra]

...from the Buddhist/Hindu concept of Maya, the great illusion, chess is an exit, a drop out, not for the soul or body but for the mind.

--
Srdja

So True. We all say we exist and after 100 yrs, we cannot prove our existence.. Just by documentary evidence if aliens understand, if all earth gets destroyed after thousands of years.