Ironically, the theoretical limitations of chess are what make it so complex in practice.
Compared to a game like Starcraft, which has all the things Elon lists, the possibilities in a game of chess are rather finite. In any given game position, there are only so many viable moves for a competent player, and both players can see each other's positions at all times.
This makes it possible for really good players to exactly predict several turns in advance, something which is practically impossible in more "complex" games.
In Starcraft, you can only make predictions like "at around the 8 minute mark I expect an attack from around that area, so I'll put some defenses there to minimize losses, after that I will hopefully be in an advantageous position for a counter-attack."
In chess, you can predict the exact moves your opponent will make, exactly what tools you will have at your disposal and exactly what your position will be, for several turns in advance and for multiple different scenarios. And this in turn means that at the top, this is required of you.
tl;dr Chess being more limited and more predictable means in practice that chess grandmasters need to play 10 turns ahead at any given moment, which is what makes it so complex.
Chess ain't even a smart person activity. It's a board game. The best chess players on earth all started as children and got chess playing imprinted on their neurons. The hardest part of it is pattern recognition of previous positions and how they played out since finding useful novelties in a combinatorially large space is basically futile.
I wouldn't say its just pattern recognition though, another extremely important skill is objectivity, which is how you analyse a position without bias. During a game your emotions and past experiences will cloud your view of the position and flat out misjudgment will cause you to lose. Even if you were a computer and you could predict everything 30+ moves ahead you still need to judge the position objectively otherwise you'll just pick the wrong move/plan.
Top players talk about objectivity all the time, it is one of the most important skills and IMO it is definitely something that can be trained but also correlates with intelligence.
Me too, and especially the social aspect of that. If I objectively know the correct decision is to fall back, but I know that teammates are committing anyway, when is it right to go in with them and limit the damage? 5 players fully committing to a mediocre plan is sometimes better than 3 players half-committing to a good plan.
And also just, like, peer pressure. I've made decisions I knew were dumb because the alternative was getting flamed by a teammate
I only play Pokemon Unite anymore and I never would have agreed before trying it that having to opt into chat with other players is a blessing, some people manage to be passive aggressive with the preset alert messages but it's relatively rare.
Ironically, the theoretical limitations of chess are what make it so complex in practice.
Compared to a game like Starcraft, which has all the things Elon lists, the possibilities in a game of chess are rather finite. In any given game position, there are only so many viable moves for a competent player, and both players can see each other's positions at all times.
This makes it possible for really good players to exactly predict several turns in advance, something which is practically impossible in more "complex" games.
In Starcraft, you can only make predictions like "at around the 8 minute mark I expect an attack from around that area, so I'll put some defenses there to minimize losses, after that I will hopefully be in an advantageous position for a counter-attack."
In chess, you can predict the exact moves your opponent will make, exactly what tools you will have at your disposal and exactly what your position will be, for several turns in advance and for multiple different scenarios. And this in turn means that at the top, this is required of you.
tl;dr Chess being more limited and more predictable means in practice that chess grandmasters need to play 10 turns ahead at any given moment, which is what makes it so complex.
Chess ain't even a smart person activity. It's a board game. The best chess players on earth all started as children and got chess playing imprinted on their neurons. The hardest part of it is pattern recognition of previous positions and how they played out since finding useful novelties in a combinatorially large space is basically futile.
I wouldn't say its just pattern recognition though, another extremely important skill is objectivity, which is how you analyse a position without bias. During a game your emotions and past experiences will cloud your view of the position and flat out misjudgment will cause you to lose. Even if you were a computer and you could predict everything 30+ moves ahead you still need to judge the position objectively otherwise you'll just pick the wrong move/plan.
Top players talk about objectivity all the time, it is one of the most important skills and IMO it is definitely something that can be trained but also correlates with intelligence.
One of my biggest hangups in mobas is having a tendency to over extend even when I know it's a bad idea.
Me too, and especially the social aspect of that. If I objectively know the correct decision is to fall back, but I know that teammates are committing anyway, when is it right to go in with them and limit the damage? 5 players fully committing to a mediocre plan is sometimes better than 3 players half-committing to a good plan.
And also just, like, peer pressure. I've made decisions I knew were dumb because the alternative was getting flamed by a teammate
I only play Pokemon Unite anymore and I never would have agreed before trying it that having to opt into chat with other players is a blessing, some people manage to be passive aggressive with the preset alert messages but it's relatively rare.
I enjoyed Unite for a bit, but I find that, coming from League, I just don't find it as satisfying.
Even with all the flaming in League that actively pushed me out of playing the game, I still prefer it somehow lmao
This is also what makes chess hard for humans, but easy for computers. Once the hardware is there, you can just brute force the entire problem space.