Why do I play significantly worse online vs. over the board?

I'm not talking about wins/losses, because over the board I play significantly better players at my club(1500+ USCF)  but I play them tough while eventually losing late in the middlegame or in the endgame. My goal is to learn and improve, not win per se. Winning is for tournaments, learning is for going to the club and playing online. I continually find myself frustrated making novice mistakes online, when I rarely if ever make the same mistakes OTB.  I have a USCF rating of 1330 OTB, but I am over 200 points worse online. I make dumb mistakes like hanging pieces, creating simple forks for my opponents, and missing mate threats. What gives? 

This is a game I played against a 1550 last night(I am Black) at the my club I made some serious errors at the end but thought I played well until then, I just was trying to make something happen at that point. 

On the other hand, while playing online, I had this "gem" 

I just don't understand the difference in quality of play. I play so much better OTB than I do online, which is opposite of most people. What gives? 

What were the time controls?

When you play online, do you have anything else going on? (Music, etc., Other distractions?)

There can be many factors that distinguish the personal results OTB and online. I don't want to sum up all of them but like twain already mentioned two: Time and any kind of distraction.

Maybe, when you play online, you're already a bit tired or you need to see your opponent right into his eyes so you can stay focused on the game.

A little advice I can give you: Play slow matches, "sit on your hand" before you make a move and always be aware that your opponent is trying to play the best move because he wants to win. If you lose on time, no worries, you learn more by thinking about your plans and those of your opponents than playing nonsense and you'll improve.

Yeah man i have same problem i just cant focus online and keep hanging. But over the board i can better see patterns and are much more likely to win. A guy from my chess club is rated 1600 online. We played 2 games online and 2 OTB. I won them over board and lost the 2 online

This is a real problem for me too. Online chess just is NOT the same as OTB.

First big difference is the chess pieces. Online chessmen lack size differences. The King should always be the tallest piece, the pawn should be the smallest. Also, I prefer to look down on a chessboard not vertically.

Maybe some day we will have holographic chessmen sets and can play on table top display. But until then, I am using the 3D chessmen and play on a 10 inch tablet flat on a table.

I think some people cheat online

I can say that online I get worse and worse and worse. OTB I am an average player, but with a lot of fun. Here on chess.com I have 2400 tactic rating, so you can see, I am not a beginner. But playing online, I am the worst blunderer. On the screen I see nothing. I have problems to concentrate. I cannot study a position online and have a deep look on a virtual "board". Maybe I am too old (57) for online chess.

A second thing is the rating. Here you will always look on your rating. For example: I reached 2400 in tactics and then? I stopped it. I will never, never, never open this box again. Never again half nights to regain some points. Regain the points is the main aim, not to improve as a chess player. So I can say: I love playing chess OTB with beautiful wooden pieces. Online chess makes me - at the very end - hate the game. Sorry.

It's the same for me, bro. In the chess club, which i'm a member of, i played 3 games against another member yesterday, and it ended 1½ points each, and he is rated 300 rating points higher than me online, but still we were very evenly matched OTB, despite the rating difference online.

It may be that computer usuage is the culprit. This can be tough to prove, though.

Another cause for your problem which hasn't been mention yet is the quality of your computer screen. Make sure it is less bright than your room. You may also want to try to switch dark or bright theme of chess.com (button is on the lower left of the interface).

Other thing to consider:

- do you have a confortable sitting position on your desk?

- your eyes should be align with the top of your screen

- change the size of the window so the board appear smaller or larger depending on your preferences.

Hope this will help.

play 15 | 10 games and play with a real board, its fun and better that way, always do better that way, and win when i do that, i do so much better than just online. I it can also just be some distractions, but maybe cause its a 2D board. I normally play like a grandmaster OTB. online? oooooooooo its like a thousand according to the engine.

well...not exactly. True but not true, cheaters get caught real fast. Rule breaking on chess.com gets karmad for really fast.

At the first game your opponent played you a closed sicilia and this wants deep knowledge and analysis. These skills are virtues of 1800+ player. You must be patient and never surrender!

At the second game I think this player is stronger than that evenhow he tried to move e3 pretending to be an amateur! Lets bot forget that He didnt make a mistake.

For me is the time controls are so much faster online vs classical chess of 90/30.

15/10 is a time scramble for me and I don’t think it’s worth bending my OTB skills just to increase my rapid rating.

People tend to play faster online than over the board with same time settings so try to take your time

This is so true. After many years of playing classical time controls in OTB tournaments, the 15/10 time control makes me feel like I'm in time trouble from move 1. So I play fast and miss simple things that normally would be easy to find.

Online chess makes it so easy to miss blunders or game winning tactics. OTB chess is so much better.

Hi!

Perhaps you started playing OTB and are so used to it that you don't find yourself when playing on-line. The practice and environment are different in both cases so you may need a little time to fully adapt.

Good luck!