start smoking, haha, I can't play chess wothout smoking.
I recognize your problem though. Do some mental boosting before a game and have some sort of a plan, like my plan is. "I'm going to play 1e4, if he plays sicillian, I play c3, If he plays e5 I aim for the Scotch gambit, if he does something unorthodox I just aim for the centre and overprotect it with pieces".
Don't do game after game after game. I dropped a lot of rating points because of the old "ahh just ONE more game"
Changing lifestyle habits is great mate, and you're gonna see improvements to your concentration as the effects of healthier habits start coming in.
Usually, when I realize that I'm not thinking enough about my moves, I try to remember how bad I felt the last time I played that way and got my ass whupped.
I try to follow a simple thought process: attention, evaluation, decision, execution. In the attention phase, you figure out why your opponent played the move he did, what he's threatening, etc. In the evaluation phase, you start by looking at possible tactics that you might have and if there aren't any, start looking at how to improve an imbalance that's in your favor. After the evaluation phase, you'll usually have a few candidate moves; look at how your opponent might react to them (don't forget that he could ignore them!) and try to figure out which move looks best. (When I don't know which move is best, I usually say "Making mistakes is the best way to learn" and stop being afraid that I might lose.) Finally, the execution phase: take the piece and move it! And don't forget about you idea next move ;-)
At our level, we can't really play on auto-pilot (at least I can't): I need to constantly look to make sure no pieces are hanging and that there's no fork coming in. I figure that after we've played a while, those things will become easier to do and we'll be able to concentrate more deeply on other considerations.
Good luck mate!
P.S.: Try to sleep a little longer ;)
Don't do game after game after game. I dropped a lot of rating points because of the old "ahh just ONE more game"
I usually play 2-3 30 min games and the next day I go over them if I loose. I agree with you that I play bad chess if I loose, will give this a try.
I would suggest playing guys that are 200-300 points higher than you. It will force you to think, and analyze the whole board if you want to win. You have to force yourself to that next level. Sometimes you may even find someone that is willing to help you during the game.
I have noticed that when I am playing someone that is rated higher than me I give more of myself to studying that game, without even realizing it. But when I play someone my level or lower I relax a lot and don't always make the best moves.
I could go on and on. Chess is one of those topics that I can't talk enough about!
Well, yes, the proposed reasons are sound. But assuming these three have already been addressed, practice is the most important factor. It's not easy to pay attention constantly or be focused continuously for a prolonged period of time especially when one is not used to it. However, with constant practice one can expand one's attention span. There are a lot of activities which can contribute to this, and you have already mentioned two: getting enough sleep and exercise (yes, exercise requires focus, too). Reading is another way. If you're into the esoteric, you could try meditation exercises. Playing a musical instrument also helps. It doesn't matter what activity you do, actually, as long as you dedicate a prolonged uninterrupted period of time doing it, hence the development of "focus".
Well...of course, aside from all these "long-method" solutions, you could try a simple trick which most GMs use. Once in a while, after calculating so many lines and variations, the mind simply gets exhausted. So, take a small break, glance away from the board for a few seconds and think about something else. Notice the color of the ceiling, or the shadows on the wall. Just pull your attention away for a while to relax your mind. Then, look back at the board, choose a line and, after reverifying that it's safe, finally make the move. Note that it has to be only a few seconds, since a longer period of time might lead to the forgetting of the lines, hahaha. Notice how the GMs play in tournaments; once in a while they do just that: glance away from the board. This way, you won't be exerting too much stress on your brain, and it will make your mind clearer.
Hope this helps. :)
If you constantly play some one rated higher than you and study those games your level of play will increase much faster than if you play someone much closer to your level. The reason being is you will both know most of the same stuff and see the same things (E.g. tactics and plans). Though someone higher will see the things that you missed and capitalize on them. Then when you are analyzing after the game you will see what he saw that you missed and what not to do in future games.
It is highly recommended as a great way to increase your rating. I was just reading another members post and I thought he stated it rather well.
"Play and pratice and pratice and pratice against much higher rated players than yourself----painful but needed to get proficent at chess."
You getting what I am saying? If you need another explanation I'll see what I can do.
@JJBooy, no, it's OK. Thanks
@ gpobernardo, never thought about "development of "focus"". It's true that it was long time ago when this brain was put at serious work so maybe I should be more patient.
No problem, KeyserSzoze.
By the way, chess, by itself, is already an good training ground for the development of concentration and focus, hahaha
Hi Keyser,
Besides sleep, which is necessary to perform correctly on the chessboard, here is a trick I give my students to fight the chronic lack of focus that may affect you when playing online chess. Btw., this is a common problem, as the emotional involvment is ususally low, and there's always the next game...
My recommendation is to have two separate sets of games : fun/training games and "serious games".
Fun and training games, you can play whenever you want and as you like. However, for "serious games", you can adopt a few rules :
- only 2 or 3 "serious games" a week
- longer time controls (30' is a minimum - I recommend 1hr +)
- time and date should be decided in advance (at least 48 hrs.)
- ideally, get a distinct rating for those (not easy on chess.com, but there are ways to do this by using other servers for those serious games)
This is meant to emulate real OTB competition, where the # of rated games is limited, and you must make those games count. If you arrive tired at your tournament games, well too bad for you, as you probably won't get the chance to play again before a couple weeks/months...
Stike a different balance between study time and game playing time.
A rough rule of thumb is a 5/1 or 10/1 ratio of playing to studying will probably cause you to stagnate, or at least plateau. Whereas a 3/1 or 2/1 ratio will likely strengthen your performance, over the long haul.
There is a large body of information you need to imbibe, and know cold. And the more you know, the more fun it is to play, especially at Game in 10/5 up to Game in 60/5.
"More knowledge" allows you to (confidently) play faster, especially in the endgame.
First, a 'well done' to everyone who has contributed to this thread. Lots of good ideas here!
My own experience with some of the issues raised: (1) I realized when I got to my 50s how important exercise and achieving some semblance of good physical condition is for chessplaying. Also the need to get out, move around, get fresh air, and eat prudently DURING a tournament.
(2) "Nothing sharpens a person's thinking more than the threat of a death sentence." (I don't remember the exact quote, but it's a famous saying.) And of course it applies to chess: I've got to be particularly careful when I have a "won game," not only guarding against my own elation, but my opponent, who, facing that death sentence, will rise to new heights of defensive prowess! (After all, I've done the same myself!). In this connection, I need to be alert to opponent's counterplay opportunities, and make sure to suppress them. I learned that lesson the hard way: too many ruined "won games" because of ignoring opponent's potential threats in order to plunge ahead with my own plans.
"Fun and training games, you can play whenever you want and as you like. However, for "serious games", you can adopt a few rules :"
For fun and training games it's a good idea to play the majority of them vs computer 2 medium (he is rated ~1250, i'm around 1150). I can beat him but I have to bring my A game. After some time, when I manage to get a win 4 out of 5 games I'll pass at playing fun games vs computer 3 hard (I think he is rated ~1700).
Do you think that this approach will improve my game or it is pointless since in real life we play vs humans. Sorry if this was discussed but I don't have any idea about humans vs computers.
Thanks
Hmmm, I have posted a similar question on this topic, but here it applies differently.
It's a good idea to train short-range tactics against the computer, short-range tactics being those which may not be guided by strategy, since most computer engines are tactical in nature. However, I would not recommend training solely against computers since this could ruin one's strategic play. Moreover, the computer medium and hard (even the impossible) are "handicapped", and being handicapped these often make silly mistakes which humans normally won't do. This might develop the bad habit of hoping and waiting for our opponent's mistakes for us to win. Also, we might never learn how to plan, which is the heart of a chess game. Positional play might not also be learned, which would be necessary as the quality of our opponents increase...in the masters level for example. It's always more interesting to "read" a human opponent's plan than to outrun a handicapped brute-force heartless calculating machine anyway.
By the way, I've seen a player who can confidently beat computer hard almost 20 times in a row, and is now rated 1600+ just by doing that, but he also now has troubles winning against humans at the 1300~1400 level...and he confidently agreed that it was playing against the computer which "ruined" his chess.
Bottomline: For fun, playing against these handicapped computers is alright, but it's not the best idea to train against them. If one likes to train tactics against a computer, better train against one that plays in full strength already to sharpen our anti-blunders skill. But again this is only for tactics. Computers don't plan; it's ambiguous to learn planning from a computer...moreso from a handicapped one.
GP, thanks for your answer. Will try to play vs computer 3 hard, in order to sharpen my anti blunders skill.
Lately my game has improved a bit, I've managed to break the 1000 barrier here (I know it's not a big achievement for some of you guys but I'm pleased with the progress I've made in the last ~ 2 month) and the 1300 one on chesstempo.
A stronger player was helping with the analysis of my games (thanks a lot man) so this is how I found out about the importance of having a thought process before each move.
The main problem is that I'm not able to transpose the focus I have during our analysis sessions (where I'm able to go deep with the calculation) to live games. After only a few moves I ger carried away and start to play chess on auto-pilot, like I'm solving tactics. I don't analyze the threats made by my opponent, the forcing moves or the development ones. I"ll just have a superficial look over the board and I do the next move.
As you have imagined already this leads to some very poor choices. The pattern from my last games is that I approach the end game with a major advantage (material and even positional) and due to lack of concentration and over confidence I make a terrible move and loose the game. This is very frustrating as I do this vs players rated with 100+ higher than me. Instead of winning I end up very disappointed.
Now here's a list of the reasons for my mistakes:
- lack of sleep and chronical fatigue, usually I get around 5-6 hours of sleep/night
- sedentary life, I plan to hit the gym again starting tomorrow
- poor diet, I've changed this in the last 5 days and I'm pleased with the results
Besides what I've mentioned above is there anything I can do in order to be able to play optimal chess all the game?
Many thanks