I was a low-level recreational player as a kid, got freaked out when I beat a state-ranked player, and have never been able to finish a game since then.
That's not chess per se, it was a reaction to perceived stress. Plus I know that if I really got in to it it'd take over. Chess scares me.
>> champions are afraid of losing, everyone else is afraid of winning [1]
I found this to be true of myself. Chess afficianatos probably know better than me, but wasn't Bobby Fischer a big proponent of alternative rules for chess that removed the advantage of "merely" memorizing strong opening games and mid game strategies, something the soviets of his era trained specifically for? please correct me if I've got that wrong.
Yes, Fischer wanted the back line to be drawn such that the order of the pieces was not set in stone but still imposed some limitations to retain castling and bishops being on alternate colors (instead of having two bishops on black)
The chess benefit from memorizing openings reminds me of two amazing articles reporting that many Scrabble champions are non-English speakers who've simply memorized the word list without having its contents in their vocabulary:
That's not chess per se, it was a reaction to perceived stress. Plus I know that if I really got in to it it'd take over. Chess scares me.