On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 15:31:33 -0600 FemmeFatale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I don't usually ask for recommendations unless i'm stuck..and well I am. This will get somewhat personal so bear with me please.
At the end of the day, everything is personal. My preference for Linux over Windows, or Perl over python is personal.
I happen to have multiple learning disabilities. yehaw. made school fun. Thats beside the point though. All my life I've enjoyed chess. Problem: my logical skills suck and i have a spatial relations learning disability + ADD. Makes it extremely difficult to concentrate & figure out a spatial game like chess. sigh. To top it off, I have a math disability & chess is rather math oriented believe it or not...more logic but you get the idea.
Anyway to make along story short: I can't beat a 5 year old at the game. Simple as that. However it was suggested to me many years ago by a person who knows alot about LD's & my particular problems that chess is a good way to sort of work around my problems. Problem again: Every chess game assumes too much knowledge for me to get down to brass tacks & learn it. Its fine for hte game to teach me how a rook moves for example but extending that knowledge beyond that to figuring out how to capture with it safely is hitting another LD in my fucked up brain. :( So i've only frustrated myself by trying various programs over the years to learn the damn game so I can at least play well enough to combat my LD's.
On a side note, having all these stupid LD's doesn't make my chosen profession easier either... i'm a jewellers Padawan Learner & often spatial relations skills are necessary to do my job. Its time I learned to better myself & work around my problems rather than rely on others to do it for me.
That seems like a logical approach.
Ty for reading my rant... sigh... normally by now I'd be in tears over my frustration but i'm resolved to beat this & get on with my life... I just need a bit of help.
A heartfelt "Thank You" to all who come forward to reply & help. :)
Who could fail to respond to that one? Much nicer than "This app/distro/OS doesn't do what I want so it sucks, but if you developers write me the features I want I might consider using it"!
When I was a pre-teen, I was a real chess freak. I bought expensive books on openings, I subscribed to a chess magazine, I was the captain of the school chess team, I even tried to make my own chess set from an epoxy resin kit. I eventually realised that I would never be much good at chess - I had the strategey off to a tee (no one could beat me when it came to controlling diagonals) but in a match I would always make some stupid mistake, like leaving my queen unprotected. Chess has an obvious spatial aspect, but it's much more linear than it seems - you need to be able to trace lines of possible moves well into the future, and remember what you've just done at the same time.
If you're interested in developing your spatial abilities in an enjoyable way, I recommend Go. The rules are very simple, but the fact that it's based on geometric patterns on a 19x19 board makes gameplay infinitely complex. Back in the 1970s, when chess programs were starting to beat grandmasters, Go programs were still trying to make legal moves and learn basic tactics (around 1978, my brother wrote a Go program that could play legally and not do anything totally stupid on a reduced-size board, and he was very proud of it). Also as a padawan jeweller, I think you'd like the aesthetic aspect of Go- for reasons no one is sure of, the end result of a game played between two masters looks nicer than a game played between amateurs. The first Go-player I met said "Sometimes I make a move just because I think a point would look good with one of my stones on it."
There are Go programs and Internet clients available for Linux.
Sir Robin
-- "Some guy breaking into a government computer system and wreaking havoc makes for a more interesting movie plot than some guy writing device drivers. It's hard to work in a good 10-minutes car chase scene with some guy who writes device drivers..." - tjc, post to LWN
Robin Turner IDMYO Bilkent Univeritesi Ankara 06533 Turkey
www.bilkent.edu.tr/~robin
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