From Computer to OTB

So I have been playing chess for a few months now and I think that I am gaining a decent understanding of very basic chess strategy and tactics and my level of play in live chess has improved exponentially.

However when I switch from playing online chess to OTB games with my father or someone else my level of play absolutely plummets, for example when I was rated a 950 or so player on live chess (and that was my skill level) I found I could beat him but just barely, now that I am nearly a 1300 player (perhaps my skill level) I feel like OTB I am playing only at the level of perhaps 900-1000. This is irritating to me because I want to sometime soon start playing in OTB tournaments.

So I was wondering what are some good ways to improve at playing OTB chess when you are used to computer chess? I was thinking about buying a chess computer and then playing lots of games on my board against it but are there any good methods to improve besides that?

Thanks in advance.

Nobody has experience with this problem?

Are you overly conscious of the person sitting across from you?

Sometimes you can be comfortable playing on the computer but in person there are more factors.

Have you identified why you are less strong OTB?

I'm the opposite, my OTB live play is much stronger than my live computer play for some strange reason I seem to feel more pressure on the comp . But in correspondance with loads of time, I obviously play significantly better than OTB.

Ghost I think I am worse because of the differing board perspectives between OTB and online. In live chess it is much easier for me to evaluate positions and think ahead.

Now on the computer in cc I must admit I am a bit of an analysis board junkie, I utilise it fully and making moves only after I have looked at them closely  has caused me a massive gain in cc rating lately.

However, this means that by far the weakest part of my otb game (and livechess) is looking far ahead QUICKLY.  Although I have gained a very good sense of recognising patterns.

I don't analyze board and I rarely play anything but Live Chess on this site.

But the perspective difference between online and OTB chess really hurts my play.

try to set up your board somwhere near your cpu when your playing internet chess and if the games are long enough play through the game on your board using it to anylyze your moves this may help your OTB vision.Also if you have any chess puzzle books do the same.set the puzzles up on your board and then try and solve them ,and if you don't have a book i recommend that you  look into getting one they are very helpful.

I have a chess puzzle book, a few hundred mates in three, I do them pretty often but they all follow a similar pattern and since you have to have the king checked at all times to force the puzzels moves even the most outlandish combination is fairly easy to spot.

The only way to get better is to play LOTS of OTB...

Try playing slow games on chess.com and set the positions up on your board . The more you do this the better your board visualisation will get .

Try not to get frustrated , you will not improve quickly overnight . It might take time . The important thing is to enjoy the playing as you improve . Good luck.

Persistance.

Keep playing lots of correspondence chess on here. For each move, set up a board and play it as if OTB. Assess opportunities and threats, and play through many lines..

Study! All decent OTBers study at some point, either from literature of from kibbitzing -- direct transfer. Learn a couple of openings well, learn some positional ideas -- paws structures, open lines, center control, kingside and queenside attacks, etc, etc, etc, and most of all study your endgames. Too may novices on here are muddling through clearly decided positions with no clue how to proceed. You can't invest enough time in endings. Then there's tactics. Do tactical exercises every day: puzzles, tactics trainer, books, whatever. ANother good way to learn is to follow closely annoted master games. Whenever you can, play through these and study the key positions yourself.

It's the drip method. You won't visibly see incremental growth. But before long you'll have a half full cup and you'll shake your head in wonder.

I always found that when I took big jumps in my learning, my results sufferred. I think we tend to try to put into practice things as we learn them, but of course, it takes practice to get decent at them. We'll learn about say doubled pawns, see them in a game, and immediately start our assualt on them, but we missed the real target, and we get rolled. *sigh*

There are no quick fixes. We all have to take our lumps.

 if possible try to get a more diverse puzzle book rather than just all mate in threes something more mixed up with mate puzzles and  puzzles that are actually more like game setups where you have to find the best move continuation and it's not neccesarialy mate maybe it's just winning a piece.i think a puzzle is alot more helpful when all you know is that it's White to move rather than white to move and mate in three then all you do is get focused on one thing rather than the whole board. 

I've found that if you play to much on a 2 dimensional board.  Your chess vision is lacking when you move to OTB play.

TIP: When playing online set up a board and play the moves on the real chess board before moving the pieces online.  This will help you with your vision and you might see moves you didn't see before (and you might miss moves you see very easily on the 2d board). 

I'm not sure why exactly this happens, but I'm sure it has something to do with how the brain processes information (right/left stuff).

Hope this helps

I've always been more of a tactile learner and typicaly I play much better OTB than I do online or against the computer. There's always the psychological aspect of chess, though; if you convince yourself that the best you can do against player X is draw, then you're never going to do particularly well. I find that simply playing friendly games OTB w/ club members helps a lot in improving play overall.

You say you have been playing chess for a few months. The best way to get better at OTB chess is to just get out there and play, sure you are going to take some lumps along the way but there is no substitute for experience. Just have a good time and with enough OTB games you will improve. Good Luck

As many other people have already said, practising OTB is probably best, and using a real chess set as often as possible the rest of the time.