Beginner's Depression

don't think so much - just play chess. When I first started, I went to chessgames.com to look at chess games all the time, I would pick a player (in my case, Bobby Fischer) and just look at his games for their pure beauty.


Don't play too many games, and don't put too much pressure to win. Make every game worth a bit of happiness.

A Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe that you have an advantage, and the third … when you know you're going to lose !

Savielly Tartakower

Even though I have been playing chess for over 30 years, and loving it, I still very much cherish having the mind of a beginner.

Problem is - I know from experience that as I get more into things and begin to deconstruct them mentally my enjoyment of them usually fades.

I am hoping that chess is rich enough, organic enough, to survive this process, and that if my ability does improve then the challenges that come with being faced with more competent opponents will provide further invigoration.

My advice to myself, and therefore to you who seem to be in a similar position, is to discover aspects of the game that you find either interesting or challenging, to act as a jumping off point for study, and then follow up those. I have found that studying, for instance, openings, or pawn structures just because the study materiel is available and I am assured it will help my game to be a little dry and uninspiring.

My personal favourite book at the moment is Paata Gaprindashvili - Imagination in Chess.

Although this is probably aimed at players above my level, for some reason I am finding it very helpful. It is very clear on how to approach the board and where to take your thinking. It does not matter that a lot of what is going on in the games he presents is above my head, I am learning a lot by following his advice on how to look at the problems, and what I do understand - I benefit from. What I do not understand is not intimidating but rather mysterious, like unexplored areas of a map.

Most other chess books I have tried have been just...well, off-putting really.

Don't know how much it will improve my game - that remains to be seen, but it is definitely heping me to avoid the beginners depression that I could feel was a danger when I started to actually study the game a bit more.

Although it didn't really do a whole lot for my win/loss-ratio thus far, reading Nimzowitsch "My System" gave me something else; now I can enjoy master games at a deeper level (before I found "mysterious" rook moves, adjustment moves, quiet moves and whatnot rather puzzling, now it - ever so often - makes perfect sense).

What else? Well I realized that I knew just about nowt about chess also, my perspective has changed dramatically.
For example: Why should you try to control the centre? What is the functions of an outpost? Why does the rook strive for the seventh rank? How do you benefit from creating a double pawn in your opponents camp and why should you nourish a healthy respect for the isolani?

A steady, reasonable (sometimes philosophical even) explanation for all those moves that you ever so often make 'just because you can'. I find the "why's" to be essential in terms of learning something.

Also to be mentioned; chess used to be fun for me untill I started studying. It isn't really anymore, I must admit. Also it has had some effect on my general attitude/lifestyle and not exactly for the better. I worry about the way in which my body reacts, come tournament time.
I notice - in some of the posts in this and a bunch of other thread - that there's a tremendous focus on "staying happy along the way" and I'm curious (if you people would care to comment): Why even play when it would seem that the only thing you might "win" is a case of depression?

 Thank you!