Beating Yourself

Every now and again I'm afflicted with a medical malady that I've coined "stupid brains". It's where you fall for every trap, miss every mating move, leave pieces hanging, and generally blunder your way through games in the most frustrating and appalling ways possible. After about a week of playing quite well(I'm not exactly magnus carlson but I did manage to beat a +2100 player in an unrated blitz game) I went on a 10 game losing streak and have just been playing horribly for the past few days. So I ask you the chess community what is it that you do when your mind gets cloudy and just can't seem to bring it all together anymore? Do you try to play through it? Or  do you take it as a sign that you need to get away and clear your head, possibly go for a walk or read a book? Or do you think these are just unavoidable phases that you can't really do anything about other than wait for them to pass?

I hear you!  Just finished (I hope!)  a two-month stretch of dumping nearly 100 'standard' rating points here.

For me,  it's simply getting careless and stale.  Too much internet chess = growing superficiality and carelessness = absolutely silly blunders.  I don't think this applies as much to otb chess.  It wasn't my experience,   anyway, and I think that was due to playing only 50 or so otb games a year:  each game is 'valuable,'  and you don't want to squander it.

I don't do otb anymore, just here,  mostly 'standard.'  I'm trying to concentrate on blunderchecking,  on looking at every check and capture, etc. --looking at the game with beginner's eyes.  And limiting playing to one or two games a day.

First congrats on your win against a 2100 rated player.

When you struggle you play on. But you attack your mistakes systematically. Take them 1-2 at a time and make a serious effort not to do them again. As for you missing mate that is an issue mentally. As you most likely spent so much energy not making a mistake you miss mate.

Reduce the amount of games that you can handle with ease.....EASE. Take out a flash card or paper and write in big letter what you want to do in a game. Not what you do not want to do. By this i mean address your problem in a positive way. If you do not want to fall for traps write a note "My best move to my opponents best move".  Another which you most likely did not mention is "Moving to fast"

I developed the moving to fast problem when i started playing SVC - Speed Vote Chess on this site. I tried sitting on my hands. My hand had a will of its own. I found something that slowed me down. A list:     By the time i went throught the list i was calm and developed a new habit been a week and not as dependent on this method as it serves its purpose to make look from my view and my opponents view.  Slower hand!

1 What is their King's best move.

2 What is their Queen's best move.

3 What is their Bishop's best move.

4 What is their Knight's best move.

5 What is their Pawn's best move.

Note: This quick draw with hand can come back when you play blitz. Had to learn that the hard way.

If it lasts for weeks I don't know, never lasted that long for me.

Think about your eating, sleeping, and stress level.  One or more of these is usually the culprit for me.  If you've had enough of your "stupid brains" malady then I'd just stop playing until you've fixed your sleep, eating, stress.  I usually feel like I can play completely normally, but my games tell a different story... I'm sure you know what I mean :)

hmmmmm i find out that i play really bad before i go to bed, a few days ago i  lost 9 matches in a row and lost 60 rating points, so now i play from morning to about 5 pm so i am awake when i am playing :) i think we all have beaten 2100+ unrated :) lol i have done that before, but i must congratulate you... hmm but yeah confidence is a factor as well, i just now got 40 points, and i am now 1440 rated in blitz, i played well with confidence and i have 4 great games under my belt, before playing i recomend watching a few top games so you get into the chess spirit :)

When i have those phases u r talking about, as i said i lost 9 matches in a row.... i simply stopped playing chess, next day i got them back after a bit of effort, but yeah i proved myself i am where i am, so yeah when u have these big awkward losing streaks, dont worry u will get back to what you where before, you did it once, you can do it twice :)

I was ill a couple of weeks ago and lost 12 games on the trot...cloudy mind...making moves with 3 seconds thought. So, I blame being sick :D

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think just being frustrated causes the problems to snowball. I try to get too aggressive because I really want a win and end up playing way too fast. Also sleeping eating and stress are probably a big factor. I'm just about to move back from Australia to the States in a week and it has stressed me out somewhat. Also I think I need to stop watching Paul Morphy videos and accept that I can't sac a piece in the first 3 moves and then chase the king halfway across the board expecting a checkmate in 20 moves. I am NOT that guy... yet.