I think it was GM Finegold who said something like when he was playing lower rated players, he just has to wait until they inevitably make a bad blunder (if they didn't, they would be higher rated). At our level, I think a lot of the game comes down to minimizing material mistakes. I would try to avoid tilting by playing a set number of games a day regardless of outcome, go over your games to see where your blunders happened, then focus on tactics.
I feel like all my opponents just play perfectly and I feel so lost and confused.
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Jan 3, 2021
0
#3
bijana99 wrote:
Wow, thanks for pointing that out. I wouldn't have known otherwise. Now I'm on my way to winning all future games! Problem solved!
Basic rule: Do not trade material (like in this mentioned game the bishop and the rook) for no reason if you are down material. This simplification will only help your opponent.
Which game in particular are you mentioning?
Full disclosure... I have a sub-900 rating. But I felt like once I learned an opening and started using it all the time, I could not make any progress. learning an opening really well and watching a ton of Youtube videos should help.
*until I learned an opening
there are only so many concessions (no matter how seemingly insignificant) one can make in a game before the position becomes untenable
when we miss “counting sequences” that is a concession that weakens our position (and against better and better opponents spells imminent defeat) and our opponents have a much easier game to play while we will rack our brains just to keep up
aa others said- cool off for a day or so (always good advice when “on tilt”) and go over some recent games where you really felt “outplayed”; be “detached” but, at the same time, be hard on yourself for the moves you made
when we miss “counting sequences” that is a concession that weakens our position (and against better and better opponents spells imminent defeat) and our opponents have a much easier game to play while we will rack our brains just to keep up
aa others said- cool off for a day or so (always good advice when “on tilt”) and go over some recent games where you really felt “outplayed”; be “detached” but, at the same time, be hard on yourself for the moves you made
i recomend doing a bunch of puzzles to practice calculation. after you can master somewhat long calculation, then move on to learning more advanced stuff, such as various tactical motifs and openings and endgame strategies/patterns.
Your opponents are not playing perfectly. It seems that in a lot of the games in your losing streak, you made some blunders. For example, in the first game you missed that your pawn was hanging on f3 and that he had a fork to win your queen. In the second game, you blundered your knight after castling, in the fifth game, Qe7 was a mistake because you allowed him to take on b7, but even after Qxb7 you could have captured his bishop on d2, then played Bc6. In the sixth game, you blundered your bishop on h3 after playing Rh3, and in the 8th game you miscounted and blundered a knight. In some of the other games I think that your opponents did play pretty well for their rating, and outplayed you. I think that what might help you is if you thought each move about what he is attacking/threatening with his last move (ex: game 1 of losing streak, he was attacking f3 with Nd4. If you saw that you could have captured his knight on d4 with your bishop to stop the threat or played something like Kg2, another example: if you saw that he was threatening your bishop on h3 after playing Kh2, you could have moved it out of danger), and before you make a move think about what you were defending that you might not be defending anymore after making that move (ex: game 2 of losing streak where you castled and forgot that you needed your king there to protect the knight). Hopefully this helps!
Jan 3, 2021
0
#10
bijana99 wrote:
Can anyone point out where things go wrong in a game other just hanging a piece. "Don't hang pieces" is far from helpful advice. I'm asking what it is that I'm not seeing?
Learn openings. People will say it’s a waste of time but ultimately it improves pattern recognition- and therefore you’ll blunder less because you know which squares the pieces are safe on, and which squares they aren’t.
Jan 3, 2021
0
#11
It also helps to go over your games, especially losses- what your opponent did well, what tactical tricks occurred, or could have occurred, but most importantly you need to find out WHY you lost. And I don’t mean “I just wasn’t focused”- WHY weren’t you focused? We’re you tired? Why were you tired? Why play when you’re tired? Or was it because you’ve never seen a type of tactic before? Can you try to implement it the next time you see a chance? Are your moves going with a plan? If not, why?
learn common middle game plans.
Well in your most recent game you dropped a piece on move 7...