Playing chess against yourself..

Did you still shake hands with the other guy?

When I play with myself, the other me always cheat

I always play against another person.

It's like playing with an opponent and discussing each move over and over again, sometimes taking back, the final result is a draw.   Boring.

isn't that just like talking to yourself

Check out the great short story "Fool's Mate" by Stanley Ellin. It features mild-mannered George, married to the shrewish and narrow-minded Louisa, who one day receives a chess set from a friend. This being the era before computers or the Internet, George tries to persuade  his termagant wife to play--but she has no time for silly games.

So George tries--thousands of times--to play against himself, always taking the black pieces and trying to "forget" what white is up to. He finally succeeds, but is the price worth paying?

I wish I could provide a link, but it appears it's only available in print form. I read it in one of Irving Chernev's great anthologies.

When I play with myself I sometimes surprise myself with my moves because I think differently in both sides. 

Really? At least you expect playing a person.

The same way I expect you being still alive and able to read this after 4 years.

does playing against myself benefits (for starter) or no , means does it give to me a good level ??  

I see this is a very old thread, but playing yourself/visualizing the chessboard helps with board vision!

@6, @11--agree.

I honestly love the idea and also I don't see any problem of knowing what I'm up to from the other side of the board bc I'm not expecting to outsmart myself yet its still possible to have a better game perspective from the other side of the board and even play better as black against myself just because the game performance is not constant during games(by default you will have swings ; make better or worse moves than expected)

Playing by yourself is almost synonymous to multitasking. Thus, it is not productive. Try to play against other player of equal strength instead.

Play a position out vs. yourself, then analyze it with an engine.