Team matches: Slow Down guys! Must read!

Good advice!

When it's my turn to move, I open up the Word doc where I'm keeping a record of my thoughts for that game, and then get a board ready. (I'm doing it on my computer, but I have the brain turned off.)

I make a note of my opponent's move, and general thoughts on what I think he's up to. Then I write down my "gut feeling" about which moves I should consider; this is at least two moves, usually three. 

Then for each of those moves, I play them out for a while to see if I notice anything. I flip the board to my opponent's view occasionally while doing this. While doing this, I make notes on which of my candidate moves is feeling the best. If I notice other candidate moves I should consider, I add them and then analyze them, too.

After all that, I go back and just focus a bit on his responses to my preferred move. Have I forgotten any obvious replies? Etc. If it looks good, I move.

It takes a lot of time, but I'm only playing 3 games this way, so it's not too bad. It's great exercise; I've never actually done this before, I hope I'm learning a lot. Eventually I'd like to be able to do all this in my head, but I'm pretty bad at visualizing.

Ipinadar, great post, I have been talking about doing this for about a month and only haven't because I know it will slow me down so much... Which only means that it's sage advice. I will implement it this month. Already got back 100 points by cutting my number of games down to 6 or so. If we really want to get better, I can't help but think slow down, is the number 1 thing to do.

wow I just joined this group and the first thing I come across is something that I can relate and totally understand I am very happy to join  this group and look forward to the benefits. 

Strange to think that you have to remind chess players to take their time and think while playing a thinking game known for its slow pace. I think GM_fishys's situation is common here on Chess.com.

I believe online chess has made blitz chess so available and simple to play that it becomes like a narcotics habit. People just mindlessly click click click; it becomes muscle memory, and pretty quickly this trains them to approach the game in the same thoughtless, fast-paced way. It's gotten to the point that I write off anyone who asks me to help them improve if they are unwilling to eliminate or at least severely limit their blitz/bullet play.

Online blitz is the crystal meth of chess. Just say no.

Haha.  This seems like sarcasm but it is so true.  And unfortunately I think I have to admit that I am an addict.  The ease of clicking on a 5 minute game and being able to play a quick game is so easy.  I find myself playing these games rather than the 30 minute time control because it is so much more convenient.  I do take my time when I play a longer time control, but I don't play em as much because of my addiction.  I wish chess.com had a 45 minute option in live chess.  Anytime I seek a custom time control it never finds a game and its frustrating.  Anyone know how to make suggestions to chess.com?

Not sarcasm at all. I help a number of sub 1400 players, and when I first saw their games archives, they were littered with dozens of blitz games every single day. Worst of all, the games often looked like they could have been played by two random number generators. Players at that level simply do not have the necessary knowledge to play blitz well, and more importantly, they haven't yet developed their thinking process, and blitz is actually actively counter-productive in that regard.

My first recommendation to anyone below 1600 USCF who wants to improve is to stop playing blitz immediately - G/30 or 15|10, popular here, should be the fastest time control played, and that only for casual games. G/90 (45|45 is almost equivalent by my calculations, but it seems faster when I play it) is the bare minimum for a real chess game, in my opinion.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but saying online blitz is the crystal meth of chess definitely sounds like sarcasm to me lol.  

Are we even allowed to use websites for the games

I try, but I am too bullet- jumped. 

Not sarcasm ... metaphor, or analogy.

Sarcasm is saying exactly what you do not mean for effect ... I was saying what I meant.

Yes playing slowly after much thinking really helps a lot..Thanks aww-rats

Yes....Rats is right on. I have noticed that the more games i play at one time...(around 40-50 at one point) the more my rating went down. The fewer I played, the more my rating went up. The reason is simple...only so much time to spend on the games, that time increases with fewer games. Now I am at 15 games and will take that down to where i am only playing 8-12 games at a time, giving me much more time on moves.

Based on the suggested move times, I guess a corollary would be to limit the number of games we play.   It I have time to really spend quality time on 2 moves / day, then with a 3 day clock, I should probably have no more than six games going at once.  Maybe a few more if a couple of the games are in the opening or a relatively easy end game that require a little less time.   I know that occasionally, I lose track of tournaments I've entered and a couple of them start at the same time resulting in 20 games going at once and inevitibly, the result is a 50 point rating drop.

I usually spend 1 hour of real thinking per move except book, forced or obvious moves. I play a max of 4 games at one time all at 3 days per move. Works very well.

I'm just coming back to the game after a year long unplanned abscence from the game (no, not prison or rehab). My first thing, before touching the pieces, was to read cover-to-cover a tactics refresher (I chose Heisman's "Back to Basics: Tactics"), as I knew it was my tactical ability that has declined the most.

I then played some blitz, rationalizing it as a way to get some rust off, and really think I did no more than demonstrate to myself that 10 0 is just way to fast for me these days - but I also used to think of blitz as no more than a video game, so no loss there and no more blitz.

Right now, I'm working my way through Capablanca: A primer of checkmate by Rosario. Even though the thematic focus is the different mating patterns, he stresses many fundamental points in his game annotations. Some relevant ones:

- there are no "equal" exchanges;

- when deciding on where to attack, divide the board in halves separated by the d and e files. The side where you have material superiority is the side to look for a focal point of attack on (Kasparov);

- the tip of a pawn chain points to the side of the board for attack (the white pawns, in most variations of the French Defence, for instance, point toward the black king). He attributes that to a GM I can't remember;

- exchanges generally tend to favour the defending player. Exceptions are when the exchange removes a key defending piece;

- its rarely worthwhile to move a piece 3 times just to exchange it for a piece of equal value that has moved once, due to the loss of time involved (there are of course exceptions, but its a consideration to have in mind);

- an exchange of pieces is more likely to be favourable for the player whose capturing piece has moved forward.

- opposite colour Bs are desirable for the player hoping to draw an otherwise lost endgame, but otherwise tend to benefit the attacker during the middle game.

Those are a few of many points, just from memory, but the key idea is that even for a simple "even exchange," some real thought and concrete analysis should be put into it, rather than the auto-pilot capture and recapture. I've, many times, been guilty of simply exchanging Bs of the same colour without much thought put into it because "they are both just Bs of equal value" (or so my reasoning before went).

That is not an option.

Well at least you helped your team.

Too bad he did not make a few moves in one or both games you could have got some free rating points.

You are absolutely right.  Thanks for the reminder!