Team matches: Slow Down guys! Must read!

I have noticed a lot of members in our team matches are playing their match games very quickly. You may win, and you may lose as a reuslt of hurried play, but....you will not improve your game as I have explained in my lessons course.

Remember, when you play the opening, you look up variations and play them over, see what types of positions arise and choose ones that you like the looks of. this way you learn openings.

When you play the middle game, try to consider at least 3 candidate moves, and analyze them out to the best of your ability. If you're not happy, look harder, or for more candidate moves. I'll tell you right now a lot of good games are ruined because you play impulsive and reactionary moves as a result of playing quickly.

when you get to the endgame, do some research, find the plans and strategies that go with each type of ending so you will learn endings! You may beed to invest in a few specialized books, but this will improve your chess.

If you insist on playing quickly, you lose opportunites to improve your play. The whole goal of my course is to improve your play, at least up to master level. 

You should not move more than one time in a day in any game, except on obvious, forced replies. Some of my new admins will be sending you reminders advising you all to slow down and follow my program. If you wish to play quick chess, I suggest you try Live blitz games instead and forget about improving your play.

Thanks for your time.

thank u......... i am doing same but books which i used is not enough can u suggest?

Google search "Free online chess database" That iwll get you plenty.

What does 'Candidate move' mean?

I lost 2 such games that way. I should have just stuck with the Benoni Defense and Portuguese Opening as I am accostumed to.

I definitely know not to rush into things, even if they are lower rated than me the opponent cannot be underestimated.

Candidate move is explained in my promotions video on the main page of my website... It is a move that you are considering playing....it is a candidate for selection.

Example, on move 1, you have 20 playable moves, and probably 8 decent candidate moves; e4, d4, c4, f4, Nf3, Nc3, g3, b3.

when you get out of book, you may have 40 playable moves, 5 of which are worth a look, the other 45, a waste of time. Those first 5 moves are your candidate moves, then you begin analyzing them. Hopefully, you pick the one that gives you the most afdter you have compared the resulting positions. Again, see my promotion video mentioned above. A computer looks at all moves in an instant and makes its evaluation. Humans must do the work on their own, and this process of analyzing and choosing candidate moves is what chess mastery is all about. If you don't identify and analyze your candidate moves, then you are making implusive and reactionary moves that are suited to Blitz chess, but not for much improvement in your ability. See Lesson008 for more about impulsive moves.

My current record in online chess is 41 wins, 2 draws, and 0 losses. I owe most of this to the weaker opponents I was paired with while my rating was new and low, and most importantly to the fact they all moved too quick. I won several drawn positions as a result. The remaining games I have now are much tougher because these guys are stopping to take their time.

That's one of my biggest problems right now is playing too quickly. I need to start having more discipline when playing these games. I make too many impulse moves. Most times they're ok. But its the main reason why I blunder

Well, according to my lessons program, you have identified one of your weaknesses. Now, slow down and think!

Okay, I will do it. Right now, I have a tournament with 3days time control and I have been paired of a stronger opponent. I will think of a move for about 3-4 hours if possible and try to calculate all the variations. And then If I'm not yet sure of that move I will play, then I will leave it a blank and will analyse again tomorrow.

Thank you Aww-Rats

This is awesome advice to slow down.  I myself have now adopted a paper and pencil approach, which is really excellent as one has a tendency to flip through moves on the analysis board rather too quickly, the effect of this is, that moves by ones opponent are very rarely missed and as aww-rats states in his video series, the more that one sees of the position, the better our chances of success will be :)

Yes it was. That's why I prefer to play more on Correspondence Chess than Blitz game.

good advice, im guilty of going too fast and not focusing but will change that from now

You say one move per day, but what if I am working out continuations as the game goes on. My point is I'm not making reactive moves, I still look at candidate moves and play through the variations in the analysis tab of the game before. To quote what you said in one of your videos, you should take  atleast 3 hours per move. Well I think that's a little too long unless the position is very complicated.

Do you mean sending conditional moves? Go ahead, as long as your sure they are your best moves.

The 3 hour per move rule is from former correspondence world champiion Hans Berliner, recommended for master class. I included the rule just to show you serious players take their games seriously.  You're serious too!

By the way, I have invested 30-40 hours into a position before, both on the move, and while awaiting for a postcard to arrive....Result? I played better chess and learned a lot!

If you slow down, eventually more of your "Aha!" moments happen before you hit the Submit button than after. - great way of putting it. I am so much better than my record reflects because I am playing about 30 to 40 games at a time with a mixture of correspondence and blitz. I make aha AFTER hitting the button all the time. It's like I press the button and become enlightened, instantly I know what I should have done, in place of what I did.

It's like you have an invisible opponent waiting to see if you do what you should or not. He hides the move from you until the proper effort has been exerted. If you move to quickly, well he just hasn't let you see the move yet and you will make errors. If you bare him in mind and put in the effort YOU believe you should... Then y defeat him, see the move and play your best Chess. I am bringing my number of games right down. Currently about 10 correspondence games (working this right down still) and like every other chess click addict that want to kick the habit... I shall endeavour to slow down and take more time.

Well said! I suspect a lot of people can see themselves in your shoes.

Rats is right.  I am playing way to fast,  I think It's just because I am bombarded with too many games.  I am trying to clean up and slow down with less games.

I'm finding it really hard to slow down, most of the time I click on a game and make a move in 30 seconds or less