One move away from disaster!
On my first move, I always play the best move or 2nd best move when playing white. After that, I'm always one move away from disaster. Black's moves are debatable as to which is best, I suppose.
I can't even imagine studying games and chess tactics at the upper levels. I do know the Morphy Defense for the Ruy Lopez and perhaps a dozen other well known lines, but even though I admire the chess masters, I have no desire to move my pieces for them.
I'd much rather bumble along (to a certain degree), finding my own mistakes immediately after I play them and learning the hard way when I come up against someone who plays better.
This is not to say I don't occasionally click through a game, now that chess.com and others have made it so easy. I do. And I marvel at some of the openings and some of the moves, but I make no attempt to study them. The best I can hope for is osmosis.
Some of my best playing is when I'm recovering from an error. I like the quote from Alexander Alekhine:
“(My first tournament victory) endowed me with a curious psychological weakness which I have had to work long and hard to eradicate - if indeed I have eradicated it! - the impression that I could always, or nearly always, when in a bad position, conjure up some unexpected combination to extricate me from my difficulties. A dangerous delusion.”
http://www.chessquotes.com/player-alekhine
The stress level at the grandmaster level must be incredible. But we would all do well to remember, when playing chess, no one has ever won every game! I realize that when I make a good move in a game, I'm probably following some line that has been played before. The same is probably true of my bad moves.
With every brilliant move I make, I wonder; “Did I just lose the game?” That's what makes it fun!
jamesing
Wed 21 Mar 2012 00:09:35 CDT
