I am afraid that I am honestly not certain what they are called.
I generally move my king pawn or queen pawn first, depending on what I feel like at that moment. I am not sure that is hlpful as an explainanation but... I have never studied openings terribly much.m I wonder if that is something that would help me?
if just for its aesthetic appeal of seeing new lines/ ideas that alone could reinvigorate your love of the game also opening knowledge can prevent getting surprised in the opening and even when faced with a new line that you lose to its cool as you can analyse the line later and take it in your stride when you face it again
Analyze your losses. Understand too that playing online chess (especially at faster time controls) will cause your rating to shoot up and down.
My advice is don't let your online rating trick you; my online rating is actually lower than my OTB rating. If you really like the game, go get in some OTB tournie's ^^
Hello. Just popping into my thread to update you.
I foudn the chesstempo tacics trainer and I have been doing excersizes on there. I think it may be helping!
Hey, I have the same feeling a lot of time, it's all psychological and when I'm bad I just lose game after game.
Sometimes when I reach Zen mode I get nice wins against stronger rated opponents ( although that doesn't say much).
I have started playing serious chess two months. I can advice you to learn a d4 ( Queen Pawn) opening for white and having a defence opening for d4 and having a defence opening for e4 for Black.
Queen Pawn openings are somewhat slower and if you can lock the game up a bit you can relax and start looking at tactics without being afraid for quick tricks. King Pawn openings can be somewhat agressive for beginners. It's good to learn attacking play with it but if you keep losing all the time you need something solid you can survive the opening with and then start to connect all your pieces in an attack.
For instance I like to play the Catalan opening for White or try to get Ponziani if I'm feeling daring. For black I like the Modern Defence, Sniper and currently learning the Benko Gambit to learn some aggressive play for Black.
I have studied tactics too, I know about the pins, skewers and forks but I find it hard to implement it sometime in my game.
Learning to have patience is one of the hardest lessons at chess if you don't have it naturally. Essentialy you have to look with each move of your opponent and each move you are going to make:
- Are there any checks possible? And are those checks dangerous or can they easily be fended off.
- Are there any loose pieces (not defended) to capture, and if I capture it, is it a trap?
- Are there any weak pawns that need protecting or attacking?
You have to learn to do this every time you do a move. I'm training myself in it because I'm also way too hasty and I have lost a lot of games because of being too hasty.
If you want too we can play some games and train?
And as even my recent game proved... make sure there are none of the opponent's pieces hanging that you could take. :P Sometimes I still miss those. Though I am going to proctice it some more.
@JavaTigress
I am glad you feel you are improving and doing tactics regularly. Keep them as a daily habit and I believe you'll improve more than you anticipate.
@JavaTigress
I am glad you feel you are improving and doing tactics regularly. Keep them as a daily habit and I believe you'll improve more than you anticipate.
Well, maybe not EVERY day but... regularly.... and I hope I continue to improve because heaven knows I still have plenty of room for it.
JavaTigress, you love chess but you hate your rating. Then you should keep what you love and abandon what you hate. This requires some thinking, but that´s chess. Hint: chess is a game but rating is competition.
JavaTigress, you love chess but you hate your rating. Then you should keep what you love and abandon what you hate. This requires some thinking, but that´s chess. Hint: chess is a game but rating is competition.
But... how does one even do that? What would bne the point of even playing without the copetativeness? Isn't that the whole point of games? It is like... if you don't care how you do then why even play? Granted the competativeness ruins the fun at tiems but... i dson't see how you can get rid of it.
Well the point is, the rating is only a number. Sometimes you defeat higher rated opponents, sometimes you lose from lower rated. The rating isn't really important as long as you understand chess and like to play certain things. Some games are really beautifull, full of tactics and sacrifices, so these battles make chess fun for me. Not winning from 100 ppl behind each other.
victory is sweeter and good to savour after a losing streak embrace it and look to turn the corner
Well the point is, the rating is only a number. Sometimes you defeat higher rated opponents, sometimes you lose from lower rated. The rating isn't really important as long as you understand chess and like to play certain things. Some games are really beautifull, full of tactics and sacrifices, so these battles make chess fun for me. Not winning from 100 ppl behind each other.
Interesting Insite... i ha d always wondered how Tal, when asked what game of his was his favorite, acctually named one that he had LOST. This had always struck me as odd. Maybe he felt the same things you mentioned, Monkey.
I write a daily blog on the struggle to improve at http://www.chessiq.com/blog/
Work on analyzing your games, which will help you identify why you are losing, which is the first step in improving.
Many people like puzzles and chess is a changing puzzle because of your opponent. Of course one wants to solve that puzzle and it´s a challenge to win a game. Rating means how you do compared to all others and that is a different task. Play one game at a time dont bother what you did before.
I am not an experienced chess player but I can see that state of mind is all the time present in chess. If you are afraid of loosing - because you are worried and have bad feelings about your rating - you get stressed and cant get the best out of you and you will propably loose. Dont worry, be happy and play your best chess.
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Interesting Insite... i ha d always wondered how Tal, when asked what game of his was his favorite, acctually named one that he had LOST. This had always struck me as odd. Maybe he felt the same things you mentioned, Monkey.
Yeah I identify a lot with his chess style. OTB I like to have long battles where the first person to don't see the weak squares loses. I am currently training in combinations and sacrifices to strengthen my play and thinking moves ahead. And my best games are wins and losses. I like the idea of mentally winning, even though you have lost the game you made it really hard and constantly keeping the opponent under pressure, eventually if I made a gaming losing mistake I am not angry or sad that I lost. Just motivate me more to finish the attack :).
Psychology is pretty important, that's why on the board is so different then online chess. If you can get it you should look at: The art of learning by Josh Waitzkin. It helped me a lot to practice getting in the zone (zen mode) of chess instead of thinking about rating, winning or losing. Presence of mind is important but presence on the board is as much important. Presence on the board means that you don't let your opponent dictate the battle and establish a strong board position.
Also remember when you're playing that just because you're the higher rated player, that doesn't mean you're supposed to win the game.
Read that again: being higher rated than your opponent does not mean that you are expected to win against your opponent. It means you're expected to win more often than you lose against that opponent.
Outrating your opponent by 100 points doesn't even mean you're supposed to win more than half the time. According to this chart ( http://www.ncchess.org/wordpress/2012/09/individual-chess-game-probabilities/ ) your expected win % is 46%, with 36% draws and 18% losses. Your chances of winning a long match is only 64%, not even 2/3. And 100 points is a pretty sizable gap.
Keep in mind that you are supposed to lose, even against people rated significantly lower than you, and maybe that'll help ease the pressure you put on yourself.
@ JavaTigress: I have no rating. And I do not care to have one. I love to play chess. I find it relaxing to be mentally stimulated in the act of problem solving (that sounds strange). And I am currently playing a correspondence game with someone half way accross the world. We are sending moves to each other every 1-4 days and playing on a real board (I am at least). Very casual game; no clock, and a fun way to play chess. Is it competitive? Yes, it is competitive even without ratings because what decides the contest is not a rating, but who gets mated.
And, I have to agree with one of the above posts; forget about your rating.
My tactics rating on this site is 1020 max and currently 988 or something like that (see, I don't even know). All I pay attention to is my improving skill, not the numbers. And quite honestly, while I may enjoy a victory, I don't mind losing to someone who plays a good game. I learn from such opponents.
I hope this encourages you.
what are your opening choices maybe its time to use a new one esp if old faves are leading to losses ?