Tag Archives: games

Seeing the game

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When it comes to seeing the game, while also playing the game, I’ve already shared my story of thinking Wayne Gretzky was an overrated player, until I watched him play live. In a professional sport, being able to play, while analyzing the play, is an amazing feat. To do so day after day comes from years of dedicated effort, and also a gift of perspective that not everyone has… because if everyone had it, the person with the most time practiced would always be the best, and that’s not always the case. That said, hard work and hours of committed practice can’t be underrated, and most great players put more time in than average or even very good players.

Such is the case with playing Chess. The best players have played so much that they are able to see the game in a way that regular players simply can’t. They can see many moves ahead, eliminating unlikely moves so that they can see the likely position of the board 8, 10, 12, or more moves ahead. Meanwhile I struggle to see past 2 moves.

I like to do chess puzzles. They are challenging, and yet they don’t take nearly as long as a chess game. I can stare at a puzzle for a minute or two and then solve it. Or I make a mistake then it’s another 1-2 minutes of studying the pieces and I try again. Sometimes I take a hint and see which piece I’m supposed to move. But seldom does it take me longer than 5 minutes and sometimes I can do 3 puzzles in 5 minutes.

But then I watch the masters play and I’m simply amazed. Their ability to analyze the board and play the best possible moves, knowing what their opponent will do next, is so brilliant it seems like magic. And if you want to have your mind blown, watch these chess gurus play speed chess. I can’t think that fast much less play a strategy game that fast.

It’s simply incredible what these players can do, how they see the game, and how they can still stump each other and not have every game end in a draw. Meanwhile I’ll keep having fun with my short puzzles, challenging my brain but never getting close to seeing the game quite like they can.

I blew my streak

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I started Wordle with a perfect attempt, but it was a cheat. My daughter was trying to solve one and I looked at the 3 attempts she had and declared that I knew the answer. She said, “Don’t tell me”, so I went to the puzzle and tried the answer, and it was right. What I didn’t know was that when I started to play a while later that this first attempt would show up in my game history. So while I have one correct first-guess attempt on my stats, it’s not real.

What was real until today was that I was just days away from a year-long streak… and I blew it!

I lost today after a 361 day streak:

I share my Wordle daily in a couple WhatsApp chats, one with my Mom, sisters, nieces and nephew, and one with a couple friends in Toronto. I have one friend that I share other puzzles with and we occasionally share Wordle, but usually other games. I don’t share on social media, and so for some people this sad post will be the first indication of my chronic habit of playing this puzzle.

Tomorrow I’ll start a new streak. I have a weekday morning ritual: Wordle, Daily-Ink blog post, meditation, 20 minute cardio, stretch, and then a quick workout of at least on body part before showering for work. I go off script on weekends, but still start with Wordle. It’s fun, it gets my brain going, and it connects me to family and friends on WhatsApp.

But I’m quite disappointed this morning that I didn’t get to a full year streak. Hopefully I’ll share better news one year from tomorrow! #Optimism

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Spoiler alert, here is my failed attempt for Wordle #1,037 (click here to see it).

Good game

I love when sportsmanship shines through. I walked up to a student during lunch and he was playing chess on Chess.com. My daughter gifted me a paid account for my birthday and so I told the student my username and said he could challenge me if he wanted. He said he would. I told him that I wouldn’t be making moves during the school day so the game might go fairly slow.

The game was quite even with him being up a minor piece for a bit, then I made a lucky move that put me a piece ahead. I say it was lucky because when I made the move before it, I didn’t realize how good the move was… so it wasn’t like I was seeing ahead and planning it to work as well as it did. He never recovered and I won the game.

But what I found interesting was that even when he was down to two pawns blocked by my pawns that were fully protected by my king, and I had two knights hunting his king down, he didn’t resign. He played the game out until he was checkmated. Then, the next time I visited his class, he came up to me and extended his hand for a handshake. “Good game,” he said shaking my hand and looking me in the eye.

I’m sure he wanted to beat his principal, and I think he might in a future game, we are pretty even in skill. And when he does, I’ll be sure to not resign and allow him the complete victory. And I’ll be sure to shake his hand, and congratulate him on a good game.

Chess strategy

I am in awe of great chess players.

Recently I’ve been playing a bit of chess online on chess.com. I do the daily puzzles, and occasionally I play a game or two against the AI at a level I can sometimes beat. I also play a long slow game against my daughter’s boyfriend. We make a few moves a day, and right now he’s kicking my butt in a game.

I’m not very good, but I am getting a bit better. However, I get fixated on making aggressive moves and end up leaving myself vulnerable to attacks. I can’t see too many moves ahead, and when I try my opponent seems to find moves that I just didn’t see.

On the other end of the spectrum is Hikaru Nakamura. He moves so fast and sees the game so far ahead that I can’t even follow his play. For example, when I watch clips like this I have no idea how he can see so far ahead?

I’d love to be able to see the game like this, to understand so clearly not just what I plan to do but what my opponent will do as well. But I’m not a grandmaster and never will be one. I just hope that I can improve my play a bit and enjoy some competition that’s just slightly better than me. My limitations and lack of years of practice won’t stop me from marvelling at the strategy of incredible players, or at how people can play speed chess and see so many implications of so many moving pieces simultaneously. It’s simply amazing to watch!

Yes, I Wordle

But I don’t share my results publicly. I have two places that I share results like today’s…

On a family WhatsApp chat with my mom, sisters, daughters and nieces, and on a text message with a couple good friends in Toronto. What I don’t do is share my results on social media. There’s nothing wrong with choosing to do so, it’s just that I share in the context of other people wanting to see my results rather than a blanket share with anyone in connected to on my socials. That’s my choice.

It’s a fun thing to do, and I normally do it just before writing this daily blog post in the morning. I find it an enjoyable way to get my brain going in the morning.

Here are my stats, with a false solved-in-one solution.

The reason for the false solved-in-one is that before I started my routine of regularly doing Wordle my daughter was stuck on one and showed me what she had up to the point. I said, “I think I know the answer”, to which she replied, “Don’t tell me.” So, I went to the Wordle for the first time and punched in my guess, solving it in one try. I did not know Wordle tracked your progress without an account and so my first ever try now shows up as a 1 without the context of me working off of my daughter’s 3 or 4 attempts on the same word. I have had 3 or 4 fails, 2 of which were in a single week.

When I first saw Wordle I only saw the solutions shared and thought it was a silly game, but I’ve grown to really enjoy doing them, and I love that it creates conversations and connections with two groups I otherwise wouldn’t connect with as frequently. So while you won’t see me sharing my results on social media, I have become a dedicated fan of this word game.

Who isn’t playing Wordle?

I am not someone that keeps up with trends. Never have been. Right now it seems that many, many people I know are playing Wordle daily. Not me.

From what I understand, you are trying to find a 5 letter word, you start with a guess, and if you get a letter that’s right, but in the wrong place, you get a yellow square over that letter. If you get the right letter in the right place, it becomes a green square.

Basically this is the game Mastermind with letters in instead of colours, only the setup of the hidden pieces isn’t random, it has to be an actual word. And your game card is only 6 words long.

It looks like fun. People seem to be connecting over it. I have nothing bad to say about it… I’m just not adding it as yet another digital distraction to my day. At least now I have enough knowledge about what’s going on so that when I see something like this, I actually understand it.

If like me, you aren’t playing along, now you know a bit more about it. For those that are playing daily… I saw a TikTok that said IRATE was the best starting word, but no! According to a computer scientist that did the calculations, it’s LATER. You are welcome, and have fun!

Puzzled

Today my family went to an Escape/Breakout room. A fun place where you work in small groups to solve puzzles and escape the room(s) before time runs out. Along the way, you can ask for help a couple times.

We asked for help, we didn’t break out, we ran out of time.

I find that I enjoy puzzles, but I’m not good with time limits. I slip down rabbit holes and spend a long time on cold trails, hoping they’ll get hot. I will spend way too long looking for clues where they are none, while oblivious to the clues right in front of my face.

Sometimes I can solve complex puzzles and sometimes I miss the simple solutions to easier puzzles. Sometimes I can get stumped again and again and persevere without success. Other times my perseverance is rewarded. I’ve learned that there are certain puzzles that captivate me, and some I have no patience for. But I do love to be puzzled, and I get a lot of joy out of solving complex puzzles, or at least trying.