Who are your favourite living thinkers / intellectuals?

The answers so far make me feel a bit dumb as I haven't heard of any of them.

The only brainy person I can think of who I admire is Garry Kasparov - I enjoy chess but I'm not very good at it, and the Grand Masters amaze me.

I've never understood chess, do you think it's one of those things where you either get it or you really don't?

Probably - I like the shapes of the pieces and the patterns that they move in across the board. I'm usually a natural problem solver, but there are so many different permutations to take into account when playing chess that I find it difficult to plan ahead. I now occasionally play it against an AI on my Xbox and can set the level of difficulty.

Kasparov would probably fall about laughing if he saw me play chess!

I used to enjoy playing chess when I had someone to play with and I was in the school chess club. My next door neighbour taught me how to play. I am really attracted to the chess piece characters; the knight being the favourite because it is represented in the form of a horse, and because of how it moves. Like you, I am drawn to the patterns of the moves and of the board.

I don’t enjoy playing a bot online so much. No matter what standard you set it up to play at, the game seems weighted in its favour, so it’s not much fun. 

I used to enjoy playing chess when I had someone to play with and I was in the school chess club. My next door neighbour taught me how to play. I am really attracted to the chess piece characters; the knight being the favourite because it is represented in the form of a horse, and because of how it moves. Like you, I am drawn to the patterns of the moves and of the board.

I don’t enjoy playing a bot online so much. No matter what standard you set it up to play at, the game seems weighted in its favour, so it’s not much fun.