There are 4 choices, 8 votes for Molzahn's debate

Am I playing Chess?

A man sits down at a table and sees a chessboard waiting for him, which he and his finance had set up nights before in the spirit of their usual week-long games that came from their bizarrely off-kilter shifts.

She worked the evening shifts at the bar, and he worked the morning shifts at the office.

As he loosely slunk against the tabletop with a bowl of two day old stew at one hand, and a brew in the other, dryly gazing at the chessboard across the table in limboing contemplation of his next move. "If I don't move another piece ever again, does that mean that I'm not playing chess right now?" The man ponders in existential madness.

Surely, at one point, I was playing chess. And if I move another piece, I'm am still and always have been playing... So how do I know if I'm going to decide to move another piece or not?

Am I only playing chess when I am in physical contact with the pieces? What if all of this is just in my head, am I justified in determining something by what I interpret as tactile contact? Is playing chess determined by action, or emotional states? Can I really be playing chess if I have moved nothing at all?

So I am, or am I not playing chess right now?
  • There's a more important question to be asked...
    ... what the hell was in that stew?

    IMO, as long as you're contemplating a move, with the intent to make a move, you're playing chess. Regardless of whether you make a move or not, strategy is a part of the game.

    Oh, and just my personal peeve here; the "is it all in my head?" question pisses me off. Solipsism is the worst.
    62%  Voted for by NoeL-, Weydon, SenseiRidgway, GinryuStargazer, Xelgaroth.
    View 8 comments
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  • My opinion
    At the exact moment in time where the man stops thinking about the games and start wondering about other things, he stops playing the game.

    So, no, he is not playing chess.
    Voted for by Oblivion Kitty God.
    View 1 comment
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  • hrmm...
    The question is "who are you playing with?" lol. idk. I don't think your officially playing unless you have someone sitting across from you to move the other colored pieces.
    Voted for by Rhapsody.
    View 10 comments
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  • One comment
    Thanks for the headache.
    Voted for by GinryuStargazer.
    View 2 comments
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