I really couldn’t come up with a good title…
My Wife and I started playing chess 5 years ago. I taught her. She wanted to learn. We now also play cribbage.
We play ~8 games of chess and ~6 games of cribbage a week. No set schedule. We just do because we enjoy it so much. We will give each other mulligans in a chess game now and then, but we are quite competitive.
We’ve been married 27 years.
It’s very interesting. I’m a GIS programmer. GIS is maps but more importantly spatial analysis. I see the relationship between pieces very quickly. Chess is a good game for me.
My Wife is a Real Estate appraiser. That’s all math and comparable properties. And an eye for detail. She is better at Cribbage. My Wife is a former IronMan, so she likes competition.
It’s very interesting and weird. After 27 years of a close and loving marriage, these games have pealed away a layer that shows each other how we each think at some different level.
Cribbage does have some luck involved with the deal and turn of the cards. It still takes a heck of a lot of skill. Chess does not have luck involved, though my Wife disagrees (I think that’s why I usually win at chess).
Both are games of strategy and planning. Cribbage takes a lot better memory of what your opponent may or not be holding. While with chess, everything is clear. It’s right in front of you but you need to try to predict what your opponent might do. And be ready to change your plan.
We play almost nightly. Turn on some classic rock, grab a few beers, and we are ready.
Our jobs keep us sharp. But, you get tunneled into one way of thinking. Games like Chess, Cribbage, Gin Rummy (often called 500) breaks your brain away from what you do day after day. It’s wonderful.
As said above, it’s been very interesting to see how my Wife and I think a little differently at a very basic level. This is why I put it in MPSIMS, and not the Game room (whatever you want to do Mods, I feel it’s more of a social life sharing thread)
If you don’t have a partner or friend to play with, play online. It’s a great way to remove yourself from your grind for a bit.
There are lot’s of ways out of the ‘grind’ of course. This is a good and cheap one.