Hello,

I've been playing only online for a couple of years now.  I went to a chess club meeting at my school and I couldn't play!!!!  It was like a whole different game.  I couldn't see combinations and stuff the same way that I can on the computer.  Has this ever happened to anyone else?

You just need to get used to the board, I think.  When I play on new boards, it takes me a second longer to notice what the pieces are, and that can throw me off.  Same thing?  I think so...

I know what you mean Haze I had the same problem.  I'd been playing 2D chess on computer monitors for years and almost never played in real-life since my friends and family weren't interested in chess.  Anyway on the rare occasion I got to play a real-life game my visualization was awful since I wasn't used to seeing 3D pieces and calculating in 3D.  The only way around it was to keep playing OTB until my brain adjusted and got used to it.  So don't worry just keep plugging away at OTB your visualization will come around and once it does you'll never think of the problem again.

I think we old timers have the opposite problem ! 

I agree with Reb

just last year sart play at compt but still felt like its other game

and when back to the board started look at him above insted of normal seat ...

Absolutely this has happened. Hey, what's he doing? Where's my analysis board? Can I come back and make my move - like tomorrow sometime?

I played OTB for many years, and now am enjoying chess.com.  However, my concern is that I have become completely dependent on the analysis board; if I ever do return to serious OTB this will undoubtedly hurt my ability to calculate variations.

This happens to me as well but to a lesser extent. When playing otb I seem to me more prone to "halucinate". Overall I still play a strong game but I feel I play more confidently on a 2d board especially at blitz, premoves are great :D.

i have the opposite problem too, for me its much easier using a real chess set, imconstantly fiddling with my 2d board trying to get a setup that suits me :-)

mistermax, chess.com's "Live Chess" with slow time controls and a small increment is closer to OTB chess than correspondence chess. So there are ways to brush off most of the cobwebs short of participating in an OTB event.

over  the  board  tournaments  are the  real  thing , although it   becomes  very   inconvenient   sometimes   travelling   on  the highway  or  even  airplane to  get  to   a good  tournament   , never mind  that  they  always  like  to  do  it  in weekends  forcing  us   to choose  between playing  chess  or  spend  time  with  family ???