Chess and temperament
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You have discovered one of the great truths in life that no one wants to admit: we all think we are rational and logical, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You are not rational, just like all of us. We are heavily dependent upon our chemical state at any given moment. Our hormones, brain chemistry, and general chemical levels rule us. Some people disagree with this, but to them I say let's inject you with some morphine or a drug that causes extreme anxiety, and then let's play chess, or have you try to perform your job. Mastering your emotions and psychology is one of the primary challenges in being successful at anything. The info on how to lose weight and become rich and play chess is easily available to everyone, but few are able to master themselves. If you can control the person in your mirror you can be skinny and rich.
rtr1129 wrote:
You have discovered one of the great truths in life that no one wants to admit: we all think we are rational and logical, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You are not rational, just like all of us. We are heavily dependent upon our chemical state at any given moment. Our hormones, brain chemistry, and general chemical levels rule us. Some people disagree with this, but to them I say let's inject you with some morphine or a drug that causes extreme anxiety, and then let's play chess, or have you try to perform your job. Mastering your emotions and psychology is one of the primary challenges in being successful at anything. The info on how to lose weight and become rich and play chess is easily available to everyone, but few are able to master themselves. If you can control the person in your mirror you can be skinny and rich.
Love it man. 100% dead on balls accurate. I hated being scared to fight as a teen/kid so i took up boxing for a decade in my 20s. I changed my brain chemistry. I have a chemistry that LOVES to win, and will work my ass off for it. Unfortunately that same chemistry makes me get extremely pissed off...so it's a give/take with that. Changing repititive patterns is a hard thing to do. I think most of us make stupid moves because we DONT KNOW what the better one is!!! learning chess is all about seeing your stupid moves and not making them the next time. Pattern recognition is a key to being a good player.
Apr 25, 2014
0
#4
Just like anything, I think it is something you have to train at. Work on it and it should start to become easier in time; though how long it might take is unique.
I always used to play much to quickly and my rating reflected that (this is in OTB but it can be true online). I started working on taking more time in each position and that helped me improve. I still have issues moving quickly in some games and some positions, but I contine trying to work on that to get better.
I consider myself a fairly intelligent individual however I feel I have difficutly achieving my full potential in chess. First I get frustrated too quickly and make one move threats. I don't deeply get into the position. When I do get into the position I am able to find good moves but I find it hard to sustain that kind of effort of looking at the position with fresh eyes every single position.
I also don't like it when all my pieces are pinned with moves like Bg5 and Bg4 and stuff like that. And frequently my reaction is to unpin the piece even if that is not the best move.
There is much training in how to assess a position and finding tactics but not much in how to change one's temperament.
Are there many players who suffer due to temperament and not skill.
One notable thing I have noticed in players here at chess.com from watching games of IMs and GMS and even NMs is that they maintain a constant enthusiasm for the game and never play stereotypical moves.