Motivation
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As a beginner, I get anxious to start matches because the idea of never improving and constantly losing clouds my mind. Which is ironic because if you never play, you never improve. How do I tell myself it’s ok to lose matches before you get better?
Feb 7, 2021
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#2
Hikaru Nakamura is a popular streamer these days. More or less the best blitz player in the world, and a former top 10 player. As I recall, years ago when he was a beginner, the first tournament he went to was 4 rounds, and he lost all 4 games.
Every strong player has lost thousands of games.
I think new players also tend to get nervous because in media chess is always used as a prop to tell the audience that a character is clever... but in reality chess is a skill like anything else. If someone changed the oil in your car would you think they were especially clever? Or would you think someone taught them how, and they practiced a few times? That's what chess is like. If you lose you're not only normal, but losing says nothing about your intelligence.
One fun thing about chess for me is, even if I lose, maybe I tried something new, or I didn't fall for a trap I would have in the past, or I calculated a little further than I usually can, or succeeded in some other small way even if in the end I lost the game. You don't have to win to prove to yourself that you've improved.