If I like playing chess does that make me a nerd?
No it means you value your intelligence.
Because i can play chess am i a nerd?
LOL, according to people in your school that don't play or got beat by you, then sure you may be a nerd to them, but all that matters is that your smart, and stratigically cunning so just let them think what they want to (if they do at all) and know you can go somewhere with your smarts :)
Why am I so bad at chess? How dumb am I?
Chess is not a measure of intelligence. Chess is a game with extremely complex rules that measures your ability to think at least four movies ahead for each piece - yours and theirs - on the board. It's a really hard game. I am considered extremely smart if not in the least academic and while I can play chess on a good day I am, also, REALLY bad at it. I have also known some people who couldn't tell you the capitol of their state and/or country if you told them five minutes ago that are REALLY, EXTREMELY good at chess. It's a game. If people tell you you can't be smart unless you can win at chess, and you believe them? To the point of saying, "Oh, I'm not smart, I can't play chess." and BELIEVING it yourself? That is when you become an idiot. So! Tell yourself that chess is a game, a game it takes a certain type of thinking to play, and say, "I am bad at chess! It's a game! Now, this thing? This thing I am good at. This thing is something I can be proud of." When you can say "I can't do that but I can do this" and be proud of it, you are smart. The only one who can call you an idiot is yourself.
How do i play chess in Safe mode?
Safe Mode isn't intended for running programs. Safe Mode is intended for fixing your computer so you can run in normal mode again. In other words, Safe Mode is the tiny spare tire in your trunk that's intended to get you to a service station but not much further. The screen is that big so it doesn't need special programs (drivers) to run it, in case the drivers are missing. It also may not have any of the fancy graphics we've come to expect these days. Your sound may also not work. Hope that helps.
Is there a best chess opening?
Let me start of by saying there is a lot to this question. The best opening move you can make against your opponent is the opening you are most comfortable with AND the most your opponent is thrown off by. Your comfortability in an opening relies only on your ability to anylyze positions within the board and your ability to shift from attacking to defending and vice versa at whim. Some people are very comfortable with an open game (where many exchanges happen in the beginning), in this case you should closed the game up and play on their weaknesses. Historically E4 is best by test. I prefer to play D4 just because many are comfortable with playing against E4 opening. Also D4 are commonly played by modern grandmasters now.
What has been the internal reaction at Yahoo to Marissa Mayer's no-work-from-home policy?
Another current and longterm Yahoo developer here, who is extremely happy that the WFH shenanigans are being put to an end. I too have seen this abused far too often, although IMO it's usually not by full time WFH, but more often the San Francisco city dweller who just happens to spend two, sometimes three, days of the week working from his house because "the commute to Sunnyvale is too tiring". Hey, clue people.. nobody made you live in San Francisco.A lot of the negative commentary from external sources has come from non-developers. People who work in solitary jobs doing rote-work with little need for new knowledge acquisition are fine candidates for WFH. In fact, the biggest complainers on the internal mailing lists seem to come from Operations types, which, given my general experience of Ops at Yahoo, unfortunately does describe their typical role -- a poor reflection on the way Ops has been managed at Yahoo.But developers, at least in my experience, understand there's a difference between working hard and working smart. Yes, you may be able to work hard at home and get a lot of coding done, but it doesn't help if you're coding something in an inefficient way because you didn't overhear the conversation at lunch about this neat new open-source library someone in your team found.Or, you decide to code up a new utility package at home, only to find someone else in your team has already done an equivalent, only you don't know about it because you were not in the office on the brownbag lunch day where they described it. I think (and studies show) full-time WFH people may be more "productive" in terms of raw output, but whether that output is the "most effective" output for the company/team is a whole 'nother question. The other shoe that I also expect is about to drop is a deliberate move to colocate project teams in the same office, rather than having distributed teams across different offices. The amount of time wasted going back and forth with 12 hour differences is a huge drain on everyone in a project. A recent high-profile project within Yahoo included physically relocating core (Yahoo pun intended) engineers from Beijing to Sunnyvale for 2 months to sit alongside the developers on the new personalized Frontpage. Expect to see more of this.
What is a draw by stalemate in chess?
In chess you can offer a draw by stalemate anytime you want, but if you believe you are winning you don't have to accept the draw but continue playing. I don't what computer program you are using. But it sounds like it knows it has lost so is offering a draw. The definition of a draw by stalemate is when one player whose king is not in check has no legal moves left. Are you certain you are winning or have you placed the computer in a position that it has no legal moves left? It doesn't matter how far ahead you are in the game if the computer is not in check and cannot make a legal move then the game is a draw.
How can i get people to join chess club?
A lot of people don't know how to play chess anymore. Have you thought about offering free lessons when they join. In other words, selling it to people who do no know how to play but want to learn. That might help. Mentor people who are learning to play as well as playing other skilled chessplayerss. It is just an idea but that worked in my Yeshiva a few years ago. Good luck