Do you fear blundering when playing tired?

Are you guys afraid of blundering when you are playing late at night, when you just want to go to sleep?

It has happened to me just now, for example. It's about 23:50, I've accumulated a sleep deficit of some 3 hours over the past 2 days, and I shall have an exam 3 days from now. But I've come to Chess.com to see how much longer I still had on each game. I had 10 games: 38 hours on one, 43 hours on another, and at least 5 days on the remaining ones. So I thought, ‘Well, tomorrow and the day after, I may forget to come here. Let me just play the first two, and then I shall go to bed.’

So that's what I did. Except for the bed part. Somehow I ended up here asking you guys if you are ever afraid of blundering when you're tired. Meanwhile, I hope I've done nothing wrong on those games.

So, guys? Am I alone, or not really? Or are you guys really much more responsible than I, never leaving things for the last minute, and thus never in the pressure of ‘I need to go to bed, but I have a move to make in this game, though I know I shouldn't play when I'm tired, in order to prevent blundering...’?

Now I'm off to bed. And, if I do not show up tomorrow or the day after, that's because I'm studying Physics and Chemistry for the exam.

(NOTE: Here in Portugal, it is still the 15th, so, by ‘tomorrow and the day after’, I'm referring to the 16th and the 17th; the exam is on the 18th.)

Discuss.

What has to be worse (from your point of view) is that we can't even tell you if you have blundered. So if we don't say anything, you'll be wondering if we are just polite, or what?

Come back at the end of the game and ask again.

Actually, that's not the game. Actually, there were two games, and that one is neither of them.

The point of this topic, anyway, was not to discuss my game, but rather how you guys feel about the issue in general of playing when you are tired. I was not expecting you to say anything about my game. That was not the point.

But still, thank you for your willingness to help! :)

Whatever you do when you are tired, you'll do it bad. But it's only a game at the end, so I've also played (live) being terribly tired if I was in the mood. Playing an important OTB game would be another matter.

I never play when I'm tired unless I'm forced to do so. If I do, I end up lowering my rating by at least 25 points. Right now it's 10 AM, but I'm still not playing. I'm afraid that my sleep deprivation would make me lose.

I only play Blitz on this site and I do notice that the later in the day I play the more dramatically worse I become. Because of the relativly fast time controls I cant see potential mistakes even 1 move ahead when im tired.

I find on Tactics Trainer that my rating generally crashes if I play late at night - but is the practice still useful? We learn from our mistakes, hopefully,

The problem I have with the tactics trainer is that some of the problems seem way harder than others, and they are grouped the same. You're constantly mind-fudged by wondering if that hanging knight is the answer... or you were supposed to see a queen fork in 3... or a mate in 4...

And... wherever you move... it was wrong. HAHA

"Which rook do I move."
"Well, it's always the other one."

I used to always struggle with this until I realized that the Tactics Trainer timer is a distraction.In an effort to raise my rating I was actually depriving myself of careful thought and consideration of the position. I can always improve my blitz later, but for now I'd rather take my time, get a 20% but get it right.

And if I don't, read the comments to see why I was wrong, and take it as a lesson learned. It's not about rating, it's about honest improvement. Speed can wait.

The clock is a necessesary evil because of the dynamic nature of how problems are rated. In all honesty, being forced to move within 1-2 mins isnt that big of a rush since the solution is already there. It's not like you have to create a solution when you dont know one exists, like in a real game.

To me, being forced to find the solution in 1-2 mins isnt that bad if you think about a regular OTB match where you may tank for 5-6 mins to find a solution... that isnt even there!