Elderly players

I mostly get whipped when I play 10 minute games. My excuse to myself is that my 71 year old brain cannot compete with young talent. My success rate improves with slower games. Should I just play slower games and win more often or keep giving pleasure to those who beat me? Possible advice from other oldies welcome.

Or play blitz if you don't mind losses, but only because you enjoy the game. 

Your tactics' rating suggests you perform below par in blitz. Try playing only when your mind feels fresh. To compensate for reduced stamina, limit yourself to a few games at a time. You'll see immediate improvement. 

I'm not as old as you, but I'm battling health issues that erode the quality of my play, so we're probably sailing in the same boat when it comes to blitz. I started taking the above advice 15 games ago and my win-to-loss ratio improved. 

Oh, and work on blitz tactics before you play. If you perform well, give a game a go. If you don't perform well, forgo the blitz and find some other amusement. Also, blitz tactics serve as a warm up, so if you do decide to play you won't go into cold.

Thanks dtownva for your advice. Not only am I old but recovering from two operationns for C so perhaps I am expecting too much.

You're welcome, johnrwebber. Good luck to you.

Hi John: This is an old thread, but I was searching "chess and the elderly" and found your thread. I hope I can get a rating as high as yours when I'm 71. I'm just trying to play, study, learn and have fun. I would think we would do better in slower times (I'm 59 in a couple of months and started playing after so many of my family members were diagnosed with Alzheimer's). My rating is higher in standard, but I like the 10 minute games because I think it's less likely my opponents are using an engine. We should form a 50-plus group here on Chess.com

Thanks for comments. We have a 3 year old grandchild living with us at the moment which makes concentration difficult. I wait until she goes to bed but by then I'm tired. Chessplayers always seem to have an excuse for failure. Perhaps in one year you could start an over 60 group.....this would reduce the numbers somewhat and make the group more manageable.

I can also relate, bless your heart, when one starts having strokes, or even other diseases, they can definitely have an effect on ones mental capabilities. Play what pleases you, you deserve it.

I have lost some of my mental capabilities, it stinks. I never was good at blitz anyway. I am lucky I can even think still, so am thankful for that.

  https://www.chess.com/groups/home/geezers

is this a joke?

per chess.com the "op" was online just a few hours ago.

did he literally die just after logging off?  

I think then that you  mocking people.  thats Not very nice.

age is the one affliction that nearly everyone will have.   ofc, it is painful to be on any kind of drugs to survive.  but to live is to adapt and do what is neccesary.

there is no reason to tease anyone over it.

The clock just ruins people's sense of time. Makes them think someone born in 1944 is a WWI veteran or something.

Anyway, there's little point in obsessing over ratings, just play what you enjoy. You'll win some and you'll lose some, no matter what your playing strength is.

Well i don't know what age elderly starts at but i am 64 and my favorite speed is g/10. I looked at your page and it is amazing how high your slower rating and your tactics and chess mentor is. Bottom line is if you enjoy the faster speeds you might as well keep playing it unless the lowwer rating really bothers you.

The funny thing about young people mocking older people is that they, too, will be old some day (if they're lucky and take care of themselves).

it's nice to read of senior members still playing chess, and yes; a Group as stated in #13 would be best here

Help....was reading through the thread only to find out that I was dead. Funny I was the last one to know

!

Glad to see that the reports of your demise were greatly exaggerated.

I'm 61 today. As I've got older I've found that calculation has become slower and that I more often find it harder to envisage 'candidate positions' (cf. Kotov) that might come in due course out of particular choices of move. While my tactical imagination is still as it was, and perhaps better for my greater experience of recognizable patterns, the outcomes of combinations and the like are now harder to see. On the other hand that same experience and more patience have given me deeper positional vision and strategical understanding (at least for someone at my own humble level). (I particularly find that I have benefited most from looking over and trying to understand well annotated games of the good and the great.) In summary I've found that there have been pros and cons for me. That said it is quite clear to me that my results in blitz and the like are now considerably worse than those in classical OTB or correspondence games in which I do markedly better. The other thing to mention is that as I get older I am much less perturbed by losses (though of course it's always good to win) and find that my (now greater) appreciation of chess is much more focused on the aesthetics of the game. These days I go once a week to a cafe to play chess where I meet mainly other oldies most of whom seem to think the same as me about this.

Thats one great thing about chess, you can still enjoy it as long as you can think.

well......I mainly play 3 day games but I have just started a 10 day game...that way ... I figure..... if I time out due to unforeseen circumstances someone will remember me because I will leave them an increased rating for a while

Just applied to join the Geezers group (see post 13)!