Chess and AS

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I was wondering if someone can help me here.

I have only been dx with AS for 8 months and I am learning v quickly indeed, and I am v interested to keep on learning.

I was playing chess today for the 1st time since I was a child, and it was not long before I realized way I had avoided the game for so long. I was hopeless.

I have a very high IQ and would consider myself a man of high intelligence, yet I have no ability at all to play chess. (or patience for that matter, my 7 year old boy beats me every time)

It was interesting, the whole experience today left me feeling just like I did as a child, in that I wanted to scream, I felt overwhelmed with my inability to work the parts of my brain that need to work in order to give my opponent a match. I felt like I was back at school, resigned to failure, overwhelmed and shut down. I did not give a hoot for the match, but was left very curious.

As a child I was bottom of the class in every single subject, and yet my IQ was so high.

I am aware of my information processing difficulties, so clearly that has something to do with this. But there are some people with AS that are highly advanced chess players.

Could someone help me with what might be underpinning my difficulties? And are the difficulties that I have expressed characteristics of ADD?

I would appreciate your help

I also lack the ability to play chess, and my IQ is 137, people have tried to teach me, but I am very poor at the strategies involved. Poker is another game I cant play, because it involves strategies, I am terrible at reading faces and I am easily bluffed. I don't really think IQ would be an issue for these games, considering some of my friends who are very good at chess and poker, have normal IQ's.

I too have a very high IQ and yet a complete inability to play chess. I mean, I know all of the rules and can work in their framework, I know where to put my pieces, and I can look a couple of moves ahead to see what might be endangered if I make a certain move. But I focus on the details - I can't see the general strategy of my opponent, and so I invariably lose.
Poker, as the other poster mentioned, is the same way - I know the rules and I play within them, with all of my moves based on statistics and probabilities. I don't bluff or fake, though I do try to keep a blank expression, nor do I even attempt to read others' faces, because I just don't know.

Its funny because I can play 21 with no problems

I had a hard time playing chess at first my self, but the funny thing is I got stubborn and sat and played my self a few times, after that I seem to have a hard time losing to other people, he-he.

For those of you with chess problems:

it may be the 'grid' the chess game is set on. the color scheme has you processing color information as IF it had any relevance to the move. It does not. 'information overload' you can call it.


While silly, try this:


buy a cheap plastic chess set.

Buy a permanent black marker and a permanent white marker.

Use the black marker to 'fill in' all the white areas so you have a fully black board. Use the white marker to bring the 'grid' back into view.

Now play.

A couple years ago, while I was in jail, I learned how to play chess by watching others. A guy explained to me, how the game worked, and the rest I learned by imitation. Soon, I was improvising my own strategies, and became the best player on my cell block. I'm not a pro, by no means, but in 3 months, I became a better-than-average chess player. But, if I didn't have those skilled players to watch, I think it would have taken me much longer to learn. You might want to try it. It worked for me.

In Vista Chess I can beat level 1 maybe half the time and level 2 none of the time.

Ok, supposed high IQ and horrible grades, can't play chess. But I second (third) that IQ and chess success or failure don't go hand in hand.
I tried to play once when I was a child. I know nobody who could teach me any more, sadly. But that one time, I couldn't concentrate at all. Staring the board, waiting for the opponent to make a move, thinking every strategy I find through, staring at a black-white board... that doesn't help with my already horrible non-concentration. I drift of, lose track and grow to bored that I move the pieces without a second thought.

I really love playing some other strategy games though, I'm really good at that, as long as it's much much faster-paced than chess.
Speed up chess and I may just be able to play.

I am not sure what my IQ is, but I had it tested a few years ago and I know it was over 140, I think I may have overheard my parents say it was over 150 once (I am sure it is over 140 because my dad told me that, but would not give me the exact number). Anyway, I am decent at chess, I used to be pretty bad but then I learned to play a few moves ahead, always plan and counter-plan for any possible move. I enjoy strategic games such as Risk, Chess and Monopoly.

I love chess. You have to practice a lot of scenarios if you want to get good at it.

I like chess, but I find that if I am not careful I attach myself to a plan of attack and fail to respond to what the opponent is doing. So I tried only following my plan of attack as a last resort when I didn't see any other move that would be more beneficial. It helped a lot.
I have not played chess in a long time. I did pick up Go for a while. I enjoy that a lot too.

Just a pawn in the game topic

I have never played it. I think I prefer solitary games, and so my mind might not be able to grasp it. My NT ex-husband and my NT son can play, and each is of average ability.

I don't know if I have AS or noe.

At the moment I have diagnosed myself with ADHD with strong hyperfocus and I'm not hyperactive.

I've always been really good at chess, ever since I first tried it. I get really drawn into it.

Interesting..

Chess is a pretty fun game that anyone can learn fairly quickly (more advanced strategies and tactics take longer though). I imagine many people here could get fairly good at it since much of the game is about logic and planning. Presently, I don't play very regularly (and when I do, it is usually against a computer), but I'd be up for a game if anyone wants to play.

I know what you mean, criss. I've been playing my co-workers for a while, and the glaring contradictions in my abilities can be a little reminiscent of all the previous examples in my life where I thought I might be ret*d/emotionally repressed in a specific way. While I can sometimes play a very impressive technical game of chess, I find having the dynamic vigilance needed to not get sucker-punched is a matter of concentration and how I manage to be doing that day. You're not the only one.

It could perhaps be seen as another example of the less abstract and more literal/visual thought patterns people on the autistic spectrum tend to have, so that you have a harder time automatically seeing the consequences of everything at once. So, I would suggest... do it manually?