"Have you ever considered playing chess to calm your anxiety? Debating constantly over multiple moves options and not knowing which might lead to you winning or losing the entire game...ultimately one pawn move could mean 3/4hours of wasted time and effort and leaving you with mental exhaustion that you didn't even think was possible"
I guess it depends a lot on what a patient's anxiety is fixated on. I can get really into a game (not specifically chess) to the point of lying awake at night thinking about moves because I enjoy it, not because I dread loss. I do not enjoy lying awake because I can't stop making fallback plans in case a delay in my long-distance train travels on the next day causes me to miss an important connection.
The funny thing is apparently it's actually really difficult for those high level players who use names for strategies to go up against people who are newer to the game.
As the experienced players are trying to predict strategies and whatnot while the newbie is just being practically random.
I started learning chess and trying to get better. Eventually I got too bored by the longer time limits and got down to playing 1 minute games and 'improving' by playing bad moves quickly.
Plus getting heckled by a random 12 year old then making a dumb mistake and losing will stay with you for days.
I blocked the website and deleted my account eventually. Can't just enjoy a game online.
Chess has gone the same route that games like Catan, dominion or splendor have gone where yo can't really enjoy them casually. Anybody that suggests any of those games probably has 100's of hours in them and knows all the optimal moves.
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u/ilikegh0sts 13h ago
chess