What you think is a blunder is not. Trust your intuition. Turn a "blunder" into a brilliant win.
Help Getting Past the "Newb Mentality"
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Too much blitz. Nigel Short said something to the effect that blitz rots the brain. Play longer games where you have a chance to figure out what's going on. Yes of course really good players love short time controls; they've internalized thousands of patterns and can react quickly. With the rarest of exceptions though, blitz isn't how they developed those patterns. One of our members once wrote that "Blitz serves as a showcase for your skills. Unfortunately at below expert, the showcase is largely empty".
Sep 16, 2015
0
#4
baddogno wrote:
Too much blitz. Nigel Short said something to the effect that blitz rots the brain. Play longer games where you have a chance to figure out what's going on. Yes of course really good players love short time controls; they've internalized thousands of patterns and can react quickly. With the rarest of exceptions though, blitz isn't how they developed those patterns. One of our members once wrote that "Blitz serves as a showcase for your skills. Unfortunately at below expert, the showcase is largely empty".
I really like that quote.
If you join a team that actually discusses and debates its vote chess games, that can be very helpful--you get to hear what other players are thinking when they look at a position. But you'll have to be picky as some vote chess groups don't discuss.
You can also play games with a stronger player where you explain each move before you make it--Online Chess is best for this. Being forced to explain plans can help you learn to make better plans.
I agree with the opinion that if you are stuck, more blitz is not the answer. It's so tempting to just shrug off the loss and start another game....
Live Chess - Standard 1683
| Highest: | 1735 (Aug 28, 2015) |
|---|---|
| Best Win: | 1559 (Rokrad) |
| Avg. Opp.: | 1495 |
| Total Games: | 6 (5 W/ 1 L / 0 D) |
I believe the Total Games Score shows the reason why you are suffering.
If you have not Mastered your line in normal time control. How do you expect to Master them in short time controls when your mind is still struggling to grasp the information of the position.
Live Chess - Blitz 1160
| Highest: | 1206 (Mar 23, 2014) |
|---|---|
| Best Win: | 1501 (Computer3-HARD) |
| Avg. Opp.: | 956 |
| Total Games: |
2,792 (1,360 W/ 1,373 L / 59 D) |
Crossedvariation wrote:
Hi all! Has anyone ever gotten into this cycle of playing online games and just making moves? I try to "think" about my moves, but most of the time i just dont know what to do. Then i end up making a serious blunder without even realizing. I'm not talking about hanging a piece, I'm talking about putting myself in a tactic that's like 3-5 moves deep and my opponents somehow "sees" it. I just can't see these things. I do the tactics puzzles and training. I mean ffs I'm 1800 on chesstempo blitz and standard. I've been playing for awhile, but I can't even seem to break 1200 blitz and slower games I normally get "lucky" and somehow end up with a good position or just get tactically destroyed or outplayed positonally. My question is: Does anyone have tips for when to calculate, how to do it, how to avoid these blunders, etc?
2800 blitz games
6 standard games
There is your answer.
I was in your exact shoes not too long ago, and I periodically fall backwards toward there.
Honestly, I strongly suspect that the answer for you is NOT to hammer out more tactics in hope that you 'blunder less'. You are likely missing the knowledge of opening setups and middlegame positions that are required to get winning tactics.
You will likely be surprised at how much benefit you will get from getting a dedicated repertoire or specific openings book and memorizing the key lines that you play. It takes some work, but it will almost certainly be far higher yield than just hammering out tactics.
A key factor at your/our level of play to avoid blundering tactics is not to 'study more tactics', but to learn how to set up good positions in the opening that give you good fighting chances. Before I started memorizing opening lines, it seemed that my opponents rarely blundered, and also had all the tactics. Turns out after I memorized not too many opening lines, those same 1200-1500 level players blunder a lot - provided you play them into at least equal or advantageous positions. And unfortunately, purely studying tactics won't get you there - a lot of the moves required to get such positions are quiet or nontactical.
I strongly suspect this is the reason why you're stuck at 1200 despite your strong tactics. I'll bet you win most of your games on opponent tactical blunders rather than forcing them into really bad positions where blunders are easy. Gain a bit of openings and positional knowledge (you'll have to memorize some stuff) and I think you'll be shocked at how much your rating will improev given that yoru tactics are likely solid for your rating.
Hi all! Has anyone ever gotten into this cycle of playing online games and just making moves? I try to "think" about my moves, but most of the time i just dont know what to do. Then i end up making a serious blunder without even realizing. I'm not talking about hanging a piece, I'm talking about putting myself in a tactic that's like 3-5 moves deep and my opponents somehow "sees" it. I just can't see these things. I do the tactics puzzles and training. I mean ffs I'm 1800 on chesstempo blitz and standard. I've been playing for awhile, but I can't even seem to break 1200 blitz and slower games I normally get "lucky" and somehow end up with a good position or just get tactically destroyed or outplayed positonally. My question is: Does anyone have tips for when to calculate, how to do it, how to avoid these blunders, etc?