I used to play a lot of live chess on this site and didn't pay much attention to or think much of the online portion. Well... I started playing online and my ELO has increased by 80 in a week. I think it's because I have more time to ponder my next move. Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon. I also have added discovered checks with the moved piece that created the discovered check attacking other pieces, preferably major ones. I pretty much started using more than forks. That was my only weapon for a while. I am also less aggressive. I have also increased my pins. Anybody else experience this phenomenon?

My online rating is much better than my live rating, simply because I'm not pressured by time.  It seems that once I can see that clock ticking in the corner, my brain shuts off...

Same here, I don't put too much thought (if any on some moves) and have around 1200-1350 on my games on Live Chess, but Online I have gone over the 1500 several times.

it's normal to have a better combinatory vision when there is no time control, practice and training will help you achieve the same results in rapid chess in time, however it is not possible to improve your game just by playing fast games, you need to memorize the mechanisms, it takes time........

The old adage that practice makes perfect definitely applies to chess. The more you play, the greater will be your experience as you will have seen both good and bad moves on your part and hopefully learn to avoid making mistakes that you might have made in a previous game(s).

Aww... when I read the topic of this thread I thought chess.com had given you X-ray vision or something :(

Unfortunately, I personally have other factors which much more strongly contribute to how I play (mostly mental and psychological ones) which tends to mean I have good runs and bad, but I think overall my chess knowledge, if not my ability, has increased slightly since being here, and plus I've had a lot of enjoyable games against people which is kind of the reason I joined anyway.

I notice that Live Chess ratings are much harder to come by than in Online.  Granted, I haven't played a lot of Live, but while my Online rating is over 2000 and still climbing, I've found it difficult to pass 1600 or so in Live because I've run into some pretty tough competition in that range.  And it's not an isolated phenomenon -- even the strongest master-level players in Online (ratings 2500-2600) seldom have a Live rating over 2100 or so.

While it may have a little to do with having the time to play carefully, that can only go so far -- chess is a zero-sum game.  I suspect it really has more to do with Live Chess being fairly new.  Any ratings system suffers inflation over time, and Live probably just hasn't had the volume of games to do that yet.

Good point but I think you mean Online hasn't had the number of games to do that yet?

I think it's because people who focus on Online Chess more tend to use the anaylsis board as a crutch and are lost at times when they cannot use it in Live Chess.

 No, I meant Live chess.  I haven't been a member here for very long, but it seems that Online was in place long before Live.  And don't most people find that their Online rating is noticeably higher than their Live rating?  That seems to be the subject of the thread.

I don't use the analysis board... I am also going to go and see what that is after I type this. If I like it I still wont use it. I want pure unadulterated chess skills.

watching the clock, just tick, on and on, incesintely, does something to my head

I try to use an actual board for analyzing online games - trying to see if it'll help my OTB play more than if I used the online board. I've always been better at visualizing on an actual board than in 2d, but it's hard to think 10 moves ahead when you have to move the pieces to do so :\

I have a love hate relationship with live chess.. I love to be able to play a quick game but I never put my brain into it as much as I do in online chess, for that reason I make blunders and I hate it. My rating live is 1300-1400, whilst my  online rating is 1600-1800 - a huge difference. That said, I do feel it reflects the fact I take seconds to make a move on live as opposed to (up to) an hour for online chess.

playing fast blitz chess is still the most fun on this site correspondence chess takes to long