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Normal Topic The voice of the pieces (Read 4704 times)
JEH
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #7 - 11/10/13 at 14:32:04
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Not sure about talking to the pieces, but they often give me funny looks  Cheesy
  

Those who want to go by my perverse footsteps play such pawn structure with fuzzy atypical still strategic orientations

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Bibs
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #6 - 11/10/13 at 12:48:21
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Never talked to my pieces.
But if they did they'd speak like Brian Blessed.
My 'style', if it could be called that, is not too refined.

Idle whimsy aside, for those interested, Vygotsky's work may be a place to look for an academic perspective on voice and regulation. Though guess more regarding youngsters (intermental to intramental to regulate behaviours on tasks).
Lack of speech development connected to lack of ability to regulate self, due to diminished mental capacities (one's 'inner voice') One of the angles for the interest in tragic Genie.

A roundabout way of saying that speaking to self is necessary and usually remains internal, but the odd lapse to the outer is no issue. When the inner is always voiced, that is likely the fast road to a padded cell.

But speaking to pieces? Frankly, that seems like bo*****s from any angle. But if it makes people happy, go for it. I am all for happiness.
  
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Jupp53
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #5 - 11/09/13 at 12:40:52
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Talking to yourself is naturally. Everyman does it silent and sometimes aloud. It has a bad reputation because mentally ill people do it in despair publicly and aloud. But it's the same mental technique like in praying or talking at a grave to your passed beloved ones.

So have another look at it. Talking to your pieces is a way to focus yourself to the concrete situation on the chessboard. You have to try it out and look at the results when and where it is useful and when and where it is damaging for yourself.

You have to do some work to decide individually about it.
  

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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #4 - 11/03/13 at 03:48:40
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I have never tried this method of "talking" to the pieces.  I kind of look at the entire position until some feature or possibility jumps out at me.

I just finished reading Jesse Kraai's novel "Lisa" and a lot of it describes the development of the title character who learns to talk and listen to her pieces.  Kraai is a big advocate of this approach in his instructional chesslectures also.  I never even tried it.  It just seems awkward to me.  I think of the pieces as superimposed vectors/patterns and for me the move selection process is at least 90% visual*, maybe similar to how an amateur artist would look at an unfinished painting and subconsciously decide where it looks like the next brush stroke should be.  Usually I can come up with a verbal explanation after the fact, but during the game it is very much non-verbal.

One of the most fascinating features of chess is the fact that different approaches may be more natural for different personalities and there is no single "best" style or approach.

*Obviously i mean "visual" in the loosest sense, which includes imagined constructions and not just ones perceived with sight.
  

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ErictheRed
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #3 - 08/08/13 at 09:20:16
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Ouch, that video excerpt was laughably bad.  A parody of itself. 

It kind of reminded me of these guys: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/pumping-up-with-hans-and-franz/n101....
  
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dfan
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #2 - 08/03/13 at 12:53:54
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Yeah, I like talking to my pieces (a habit I picked up by reading Rowson) but this seemed like a weird example to use to demonstrate the technique.
  
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TN
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Re: The voice of the pieces
Reply #1 - 08/03/13 at 12:36:52
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The sample video could be greatly condensed to: we have a passed f-pawn, and we can't play 1...f3 because of 2.Nxf3 Nxf3 3.Kb4 and our last pawn is traded off. Let's kick the h4-knight out of the way with 1...Ng6 2.Nxg6 f3...wait White can play 3.Kd2 f2 4.Ke2 and stop the pawn. 1...Nf3 2.Ng6 eliminates the f-pawn, but what if we decoy the king out of the square of the pawn with 1...b4? Then 2.Kxb4 Ng6 3.Nxg6 f3 4.Nh4 f2 promotes to a queen next move. Can White somehow get his knight to g3 or d2 when we play f1=Q? No, so let's play 1...b4. Oh, White just played 2.Kd2. But we can play 2...Nf3 3.Nxf3 Kxf3 and if the pawn ending is winning for Black we don't need to calculate other moves. 3.h4 Kg4 loses the h-pawn and 3.Kd3 Kg2 leads to a race - Black wins easily as his pawn is further up and we also queen with check.

The above could probably be stated in one minute, using 'trial and error' rather than 'asking the pieces'.
  

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The voice of the pieces
08/03/13 at 09:36:42
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When I talk to the pieces, they never ever sound like Karsten Müller. http://www.chessbase-shop.com/en/products/becker_mueller_ask_the_pieces

  

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