I am having to deal with a chess supremacist in another thread so I thought I would create one about the attitude of chess players to checkers.

Chess is a more complex game than checkers.

The vast majority of chess players suffer from not being able to prevent their queen being captured by the other guy's pawns.

The point at which the greater inherent complexity of chess kicks in is so high that most chess players are hardly in a position to think that their playing chess says something special about them yet they do. Strange.

I'm good at chess but when i played my brothers' gf at checkers i lost 2:7. So i certainly don't look down at this game. Most of the time i didn't even know why i lost.

I have no feelings of superiority related to chess. I am, however much awesomer than some of you because I'm white. Oh, and I'd recommend putting carded on ignore. Life is much easier.

Chess players Mate better.

It's true.

"From checkers I learned that a guy on top of another guy who looks just like him is called a king. But life taught me that that's a queen."

- Demetri Martin

wtf does this even mean

I don't know of another comic who has more of a vendetta against checkers. Here's another from Demetri Martin.

"I heard this guy say to his friend, 'Man, I'm really good at checkers.' Which is the same as saying, 'Man, I'm not good at a lot of things. I (stink) at everything except checkers. King me, dog.' "

No way could that criticism possibly apply to chess.

the point a which greater inherent complexity of chess kicks in??? so you mean the starting position?

The point is that there's nobody good enough at checkers to need to switch because they've mastered the "simpler" game and need a challenge now.

It took you two attempts for a half decent retort. I guess chess players are not that superior after all.

Tangentially, did not Reti have the starting position entitled a difficult position on the cover of one of his books?

This is beautifully put.

LOL.

I think this kind of misses the point. Very weak players can appreciate beautiful chess tactics (nice queen sacrifices, for example). I've played maybe 100 games of draughts. I'm still very weak and don't have any real understanding of the game strategically, but I'm good enough to crush some weak players who have played much more than me just by superior calculation. Still I've never really seen anything in a draughts game I thought was amazingly complex and beautiful.

I'm trying to phrase this in a way that doesn't just depend on the complexity of the game, but can't express it possibly. I think there are games less complex than draughts where I would see something beautiful, and some more complex than chess where I wouldn't, but I can't think of good examples. What I'm trying to get at is that it's not unreasonable for a beginner to think chess is fundamentally superior to draughts.

Where do very weak chess players see beautiful chess tactics? Not in their own games but in published play by recognized masters. Have you studied published checkers play by recognized masters?

I think chess is a much more complex game than checkers, it therefore allows a greater edge for better players. Chess requires greater amounts of talent in such things as judgment, combinational play, long-term planning, etc. It is less demanding in some areas (one which you correctly identified being calculation).

I only object to the sneering attitude of chess supremacists.

"studied" is the wrong word, but I played through some online, or maybe in some computer program.

To try and prove myself wrong, I did a google search for "beautiful checkers games" and "beautiful draughts games". Sadly I got no results, compared to 198 for chess. When I removed the quotes there were hundreds of thousands, but they all seem to refer to beautifully carved wooden pieces, etc, whereas the chess ones mostly refer to beautiful moves or games.

I'm not a chess supremacist or even a chess snob, I'm just saying why I think even weak players can think chess is in some way a more complex game. However, they might also incorrectly (imo) judge that chess is a more complex or beautiful game than go.

You do not have to prove yourself wrong.

One man's meat is another man's poison.

Irving Chernev wrote a book on draughts and it were a number of games played by checkers legends which would qualify as beautiful. Chernev is one of the few chess and checkers maestros.

At www.jimloy.com/checkers/checkers there are a number of famous games from the 19th and 20th centuries, some of which, checkers enthusiasts would describe as beautiful. Whether you would or not is a matter for you.

Evil Steve saved this sad thread with his jokes.

Nh sir, made me lawl

how can one even begin to argue checkers is a more complex game is beyond me.....must be some good stuff your on

I heard both of those on Demetri Martin's "These Are Jokes" album. He gets compared to Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg a lot, so if you like that style of comedy check those guys out too.

I was 11 years old when I out grew checkers. Win or tie every game. The game is stupidly easy. Any chess players that can think 5 moves ahead should be able to master the game of checkers in about a month of play.

I've got nothing against checkers, but I like Demetri Martin a lot.

And I love me some Mitch Hedberg.

Here in Thailand checkers is the game poor people play with beer caps and gamble all their money on.

One of the local player once told me that they do not play Chess ( thai variant ) because checker is complicated enough and can be played anywhere even without the real pieces.

Superior is a relative term... Reminds me of jazz snobs, yes jazz is absolutely awesome but there are so many awesome music in the world... open your mind.

Have you tried playing against a computer lately?

Can you PM a mod to change the first letter of your name?

Dude, please stop disrespecting the best checkers player in the world. We're honored to have him here.