Chess fans?

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Any chess fans here?

Sometimes I play on Lichess, I am on an average skill level.
Chess is probably the best game, because it has no random chance elements (like RNG), or anyone you can blame for losing like a referee or a teammate.. if there's any interest I could add you on Lichess and perhaps we could play some games

I've only ever gotten to play it twice in my life but it was a fun game. I wish I had people to play it with.

I've registered as Feyokien on lichess.org. Anyone can add me if they want to play me. Are games quick or are they multi hour up to multi day matches? Either works for me though I'd have to plan a window of time for a quick game

I'm intermediate at best. I played a bit as a kid against my brother and I still occasionally play him every few years.

I love chess! A game of patience and intellect.

Hey Fey, I have added you, my name is Joseph_Lamb on there^^

Personally I enjoy Rapid games the most (10 minute), the perfect balance between not being too non-sensical (e.g bullet is just blind moves without thinking or having a game plan) and classical which is too lengthy and tiring.
Let's play when you're online. It is hard though to schedule games I think because we have to be online at the same time and that's not easy to achieve based on chance (and time zones may be taken into consideration here too)
So I am open to suggestions..

Successful first set of matches . I'm definitely rusty .

My time zone is U.S central time. I think it would probably easiest going forward just to post here when one wants to play and to provide a window of time that offer is open?

Anyone else that wants to play, just make an account on lichess.org and post your username here so we can play at some point.

We were also talking about playing GO. This is the website I've used in the past:

https://online-go.com/overview

Well tbh I don't check the site that often... I am at the time zone of GMT +2 (central Europe)
scheduling individually may not be so convenient as staring a Lichess group for WP, but I'm not sure there are enough people and Lichess doesn't have a good follow friends system etc. (however, it is the best Chess site when it comes to actual playing)/ had some good games with Fey

btw I'm watching this show called Queen's Gambit on Netflix. Really nice so far! and if you know chess you can clearly get the hang of the positions on the board which are often clearly seen during scenes. , I'm only halfway through the show and I think the main character 'Beth' is definitely modeled after Bobby Fischer, although not being as obnoxious and anti social as he was , still... there are similarities with her having the lone, indifferent, "bad at social situations" personality type. And she also have a similar thought process and playstyle to him! (opening E4 as white and Sicilian Defense as black!) and she's the only American in a Russian dominated 60s-70s era... yeah
go watch it!

I'm a board games fan generally. I find chess fascinating, but I can't seem to improve in it at all. My opening's OK, but at some point during the middlegame my attention span burns out and I start making utterly stupid moves! Possibly doesn't help that my friends who play are all either a lot worse or a lot better than me- I've played very few really equal games. At one point I was looking into some of the other variants of the game. Chinese chess is apparently much faster and more aggressive. It's missing a few of the standard pieces and has odd extra features like cannons, elephants, palaces and a river. Trouble is, the pieces are just flat discs labeled in Chinese characters- I may have to make my own set if I want to actually play the game with anyone.

I like chess. I haven't played much lately so I'm out of practice. It's something I have been meaning to get back into.

The most important thing for you BY FAR is to learn the end game and not openings/middle game since those can be played by "feeling" to a degree as well. For example, how to checkmate with Rook+ king, 2 bishops or Queen+ king, gaining king opposition, et cetera such concepts are going to be far more useful than remembering the correct move order of opening lines.
Gary Kasparov has a brilliant (and very interesting) video masterclass about chess which can be purchased (or pirated). It is for beginners and intermediate players but even people at my level (which is still not high) learn something from it. And Kasparov knows how to capture the audience when he talks about chess, so very recommended.

I'm not good at it, but my older half-brother is a major chess fan, it's his number one special interest. He's quite good at it too, from what I understand.

I'd agree that opening theory is over-rated: I seem to fare better when I dump it after a couple of moves. For me, though, the endgame isn't the problem- with fewer pieces on the board I find it a lot easier to keep track of the possiblities! I can mate a weaker player, no problems. Against a stronger player, I'm usually too far behind on material to win, but I can sometimes claw a stalemate out of it.

But there is a time in the middlegame where the tension between multiple different threats and lines of control rises to a point where one move can drastically affect the state of the board. That's the point where my brain conks out from the strain and comes up with a "brilliant" move which is just my queen committing suicide. Every. Damn. Time. Perhaps I'd be better off with a strategy that forces a lot of exchanges early on? I've always been wary of doing that, but I suspect my instincts are wrong.