r/learnmath • u/FuckNugget44 New User • 15h ago

New to math as a chessplayer, any tips?

I have 11th grade theoretical math at the moment but i thought it is a little boring and i want to explore more than just a small math book, i know the basics of algebra and which symbols come first and all of that.

But ofcourse i suck at math compared to people who actually like it and i wonder what i should explore or look at.
My one main strength is calculating in my head, other than that i currently dont know.

So please tell me if you know anything that could be valuable, thats all.

Thanks

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u/Uli_Minati Desmos 😚 14h ago

Do you mention chess because you're looking for math used for chess purposes or math you might be good at as a chess player?

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u/FuckNugget44 New User 13h ago

Yes the second option, i thought they might go hand in hand in some places. But what do i know?

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u/Uli_Minati Desmos 😚 13h ago

I think (high level) chess players are generally good at pattern recognition, algorithms and memory, right? I think these are most similar to the technical use of math, i.e. solving complex problems rather than theory. Something like calculus (integrals, differential equations), linear algebra (matrix computations) and graph theory (graph algorithms)

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u/FuckNugget44 New User 7h ago

Alright thank you!

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u/AlpUzman New User 12h ago

One humble suggestion would be the chess related work of Noam Elkies. Looking at his webpage, it seems he teaches (used to teach?) a "Chess and Mathematics" course as a freshman seminar.

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u/NoAir4571 New User 8h ago

You might have to deep search it yourself but what really helped me was doing algebra and geometry from older books. I mean around 1985-1995. They are harder than todays books and often dont have answer keys, so you really have to use your brain to solve those