If there's one thing that seems to get in the way of my chess learning, it's frustration.  I know that it's just a game, and I know that I should "calm down," otherwise I wouldn't be creating this post.  I'll play over and over against a computer, making stupid mistakes and losing my concentration.  Some of this is just becoming mentally tired, but a lot of it is aggrevation.  Now in some games I can simply tell myself to calm down and breathe deeply, but sometimes I become very impatient with my own apparent lack of progress and amateur mistakes.  There is nothing more annoying in chess than making a mistake that, at least to you, is far below your chess capabilities.  For instance, normally thinking three or four moves and then hanging a pawn.  As a side note, this happens most frequently in openings...against many programs, if I start out (first 5 or 6 moves) staying in book I'll win.  Otherwise, it's a downhill battle the whole game.  Does anyone have any advice?  Does anyone else feel this frustration when trying to improve?

I've been told that if you flip the board, it's a draw

Seems to me, that you are over reaching yourself. It is always good to play opponents that are better than yourself, because you learn from it, but losing all the time will cost you motivation.

Also be aware that chess programs do not play like real people, even at lower settings. They can sometimes pull off amazing tactical combinations eventhough they are set as playing a person with an 1100 rating.

My recommendation, play more correspondance games here on chess.com. You have more time to think about each move, so if you really take the time, there should be fewer frustrating errors, and pulling a few wins against real people will add to the enjoyment of the game.

I agree with fluffy rabbit, though I'd say that 1100 players can find brilliant tactical blows in reality too - only not that often.

 my concern with computer software is that in general the programs don't make weak moves unless they are making 'a mistake', which is basically a really bad one. Human players make mistakes too, but weaker players tend to play weaker overall - not just on those one or two mistakes. Where a win against the pc recquires accurately exploiting the mistakes to a win, against a human player it would more often be grinding him down through somewhat better moves.

 As for openings - staying in the book is nice and safe, but you have to understand the point behind openings to play really well. Often I'll play a game against a human or chessmaster and find that I went into main lines for like 5/6 moves. Common sense is really powerful if you stay alert for trap!

I find that most of my blunders are a direct result of poor time management. If I play at the pace set by my opponent, either faster or slower than my own, I tend to miss things much more frequently.

  If his pace is faster than mine I'll frequently give away matierial. On the other hand if he plays slower, I'll see three to five moves ahead. when he finally does make his move I'll forget the set up moves and make one of the middle moves witout laying the proper foundation and often find myself in unsalvageable positions after that.

  so for me the best protection I have against myself is to play at my own pace. As strange as this may seem it holds true both OTB and in corospondance games.

one tip i use with my students is to only allow them to play one move per day in a game. this forces them to look at the game more often without moving and start to see more and more possibilities in the game

PerfectGent wrote: one tip i use with my students is to only allow them to play one move per day in a game. this forces them to look at the game more often without moving and start to see more and more possibilities in the game

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This might be good training for postal chess but not for otb chess.

Sounds like a case of competitive stress more than lack of ability. Try learning some relaxation techniques to do before playing. Trying these out against the computer will be a good test as you won't be arrested for hitting your computer. Also my rating is usually about 15-1600 yet a comptuter set anywhere around 1250 always destroys me.. so I would not worry about performance vs the micro chip anway.