Why is Chess Easy to Learn but Hard to Master?
Chess, a game that has been around for centuries. It seems so simple, just moving 16 pieces across a 8x8 board, it is anything but simple. Chess originated in India, although Russia currently has the most titled players. Chess was played by millions of people in history, even some as young as 5 or 6 years old. We all learned chess from somewhere, whether it was a parent or grandparent, to a friend from school. But why does it take years to really be good at chess? This is because chess is a game that's "easy to learn, but hard to master". It takes critical thinking, puzzles help with that, planning ahead, memorization, patience, time, practice, calculation, planning, and much more. We all play good and bad games, take a few of mine for example:
A really good game
And very bad games..
Grandmasters and beginners play good and bad games, this is because of their condition (mood, hunger, thirst, stress, even screen time.)
Mood affects how you play, if you're angry you may blunder because you were just trying to attack, and attack. You may miss an attack from your opponent, or you don't think to make a plan before charging blindly. Chess is war (quote by me lol). Rooks - battle towers, queen - general (strongest piece), king - leader/the one who doesn't fight until the end, pawns - soldiers, knights - knights riding on horses/fast, bishops - snipers. Just like in war, you need a plan, in no successful war have they just charged into enemy territory with no plan; same goes with chess.
Hunger and thirst also affect how you play, it distracts your mind and causes you to lose focus on the game. Eating or drinking too much while playing chess is also bad, because your body has to spend its energy digesting, and you may have to go to the washroom sooner.
Chess has many tactics, and not even Magnus Carlsen has mastered them all, everyone who has played chess for a month or longer has blundered a game or hung a piece at least once. Remember, every grandmaster hung their queen and wanted to throw their carrier just like us.
There're so many chess sites for learning, here's all of the ones I use: (no, this is not advertising)
And practice on lichess https://lichess.org/
There's others like Chessable, if that suits you. Back on topic:
No one can learn everything in chess, but the best we can do is just have fun, I doubt anyone here is a GM who makes 100k and one game can ruin their life. So play and have fun, tilts are a sign of improvement..!
