[ Fear vs Greed ] What’s more dangerous in chess — fear of losing or greed of winning? 🏆

Sometimes I feel players lose not because of lack of skill, but because of emotions. Fear makes you play too safe, while greed makes you over-push. Which one do you think destroys more games?

Hmm good question! When experiencing a great winning streak the danger is to start thinking u are unbeatable & then start loosing, then refusing to accept the loosing streak started & continuing loosing a lot. Someone said wisely to stop playing & have a break if u loose 2-3 games. I would add depending on how much you start to plunder. Because sometimes it's just that you got paired up with better players even though playing your best instead of becoming unfocused.

Fear of losing can make you overly cautious and unwilling to take any risks that would help you checkmate. If you realize you have reached an overly cautious state of mind it's again time to take a break and mentally prepare next time to be more courageous. If feeling unsure it's time to play freestyle or other forms of chess as a warm up. Just to loosen up.

Both over confidence and being over cautious kills winning chances. Chess is a mental exercise where the most balanced players (defense/attack), mentally prepared, skilled players with good speed can win (or loose despite everything). I think it's good to be proud even when loosing if you didn't make mistakes and played well, then it was not your fault and the other was just better. I do think over confidence is worse because it can make you blame others instead of improving yourself. Overly cautious can be more patient and study more - better long lasting effects on tactics. But if no confidence attacks are difficult to start. Balance is key.

Great thought and understandable knowledge u have buddy "DareTower" i am glad to read

Thanks for bringing up this important topic! Game review is essential & worth getting at least platinum membership to analyze games right away to see if you played overly confident (foolish attack), overly cautious (solely defense focused) or if your game was balanced. It gives a moment to think, pause and breathe between games. I like the coach voice also, it's soothing 😁 If I get annoyed by the criticism I know that I have reached over confidence and not able to handle constructive criticism. It's a good measure to see where the nerves are at and what aspects to improve. If one stays humble it helps to take instructions rather than thinking your own way is always the best despite the review. But yeah sometimes I disagree with the coach if a blunder/mistake lead to a win, then it could have been intuition at play. Computer doesn't really know humans all the time and what the opponent might miss if greedy. If u recognize greediness it can be an advantage. Or overly cautious might become a victim of smothered mate.

Greed

Fear

Greed strikes most likely close to changing to another hundred/thousand for the first time, thinking u are so close u can't loose & have become unbeatable. Fear strikes afterwards being scared of losing the elo just gained especially if bouncing back and forwards several times, if loosing a lot of elo in a row the frustration, hopelessness and despair hits. If this bounce cycle continues long enough a "I simply don't care anymore" phase hits where moves become whatever, u stop analyzing & learning & have lost all beginners luck streak and the joy. I wonder if the leagues system was any good at all to start with... Sure it does motivate, but since it only counts wins and encourages to play even on bad days not to drop from the lead. I would probably already have much higher elo ratings if I had not been so keen to win legend league. After winning it chess has been way different. I'm left justifying & trying to improve my 400+ (rapid & blitz), 500+ (bullet) & 600+ (960) ratings. Fear is worst when it turns into total despair. Greediness is worst when it turns to total carelessness & aggression. Balance is best when it turns into understanding the game fully from all aspects.

Tilting is one of the worst feelings in the word, but I don't know that it's fear or greed.

Tilting is probably the combination of everything bad that creates a dark cloud over your head that keeps raining on you. Then it's time to just take a break & find joy in other things until you can return with renewed energy. There's no other way to remove it. I don't think. I think I experienced it with normal puzzles, just bouncing back and forward around 2500. Especially frustrating after getting a super streak and lots of elo during the summer. But I can't do it anymore and there's no joy left in trying. Recognizing the tilt is the first step into recovery.