Tuesday 15 December 2020

Being part of the in crowd

 One regular piece of advice I give to new players is "keep coming back". This is usually the punchline to a long a boring story I tell about how I lost my first 8 competition games etc etc 

But one good reason for coming back even after a few losses has less to do with self improvement, and more to do with social acceptance. When you first start playing competition chess, a lot of the social norms aren't always obvious. And as a newcomer, this can make you feel like an outsider. This isn't intentional, but happens with most social groups (not just chess ones). So by sticking at it for more than one week, you can both pick up the social cues from the group, as well has become one of the 'regulars' which often helps when getting advice or simply asking non-obvious (to you) questions.

  

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