How Can I Become A Decent OTB Player?

lol, I only bet on myself. ;)

People who have only played blitz (I should know) can... artifically inflate (so to speak) their blitz ability by being what I think of as blitz specialists.

A 1900 USCF could, with focused practice, be over 2200 blitz here I imagine. Yes that's usually a blitz rating for masters, but wih openings, techniques, and evaluations you'd never use in a long game you can pump up the rating. Especially if they're young and the brain helps them out with tactics.

So in my mind it depends on how much specialization the OP has done. Some people do very little, so their OTB is much closer to what we expect, but for people who have only ever played blitz you have to expect a little. And it will take time to undo those habits.

Of course the opposite is possible too. You can have a >2000 USCF with a low 1700 blitz rating. I've seen those people play. They make take a 30 second think on move 5 for example 

I think it works more the other way: It is quite possible that a decent 1900 OTB player finds it hard to move fast and ends up with a 1400 blitz rating. However, I don't think that you can easily establish a high blitz rating just by using tricks and weird openings if you don't have a good understanding of chess too...

Yeah, you definitely need actual understanding to play blitz well.

But for example, "interesting" sacrifices (maybe a piece for two pawns). Things that can definitely be refuted, but are a headache to figure out. Having a good eye for that can't be developed OTB.

I tend to avoid novelties (I actually player more positional d4 openings as white and Caro-Kahn & Slav openings as black), so hopefully the transition is beautiful since I'll get more time to think. :D

Those 'tricks' do occur in blitz, but here on chess.com, there's no way they're going to take the OP who's like 1800+ blitz/bullet down to 1200 UCSF. 

If he does suffer a ratings drop due to the slow time control, it'll be at WORST 1600, and more likely 1700. It'll be a small drop at the worst. No way he's going to taking a beating from folks <1200 - it'll be like a joke if he plays in the <1200 OTB division.

I actually wouldn't be surprised in the least if he up-performed and scores well over his blitz rating in UCSF OTB tournaments, as it doesn't sound like he's winning his blitz games from book preparation and unsound opening tricks. 

So I'm playing skittles without a clock at a club right now and I can REALLY get used to moving slowly... I think I could satisfy my immediate gratification urges with tactics trainer and keep to studying and training during the week and playing humans on the weekend.

Let us know how it went...

i do not know how strong uscf is,but i also have a high blitz rating yet a 1300 fide rating.Although this month only it has increased by about 100 points.However ,i suspect that it is so because i do not play a lot.

You can become better by getting better at tactics.

It was enjoyable,I played four games without a clock. The first person I played (two games) wasn't more than a 1300... It wasn't very interesting... Two games that weren't very close.

The second person I played was a ~1850 USCF.

Game one I played the black side a French Defense, and lost in a cramped position when I tried forcing the game open... I overlooked the end of the combination I started with an exchange sacrifice that led to me literally forking my queen & king... D'oh!

The second game I played the white side of a Neo-Indian Attack... I ended up castling late after continuously pushing the initiative from the center to the queenside while he tried to drum up counterplay down the G file on my castled king.

I ended up on the better side of a rook sacrifice combination on his queenside castled king that led to me being up with a passed center pawn in a queen, bishop, rook ending vs two rooks and a bishop.

I think I'm going to limit my actual play against humans to over the board from now on. Just focus as much on analysis of master games, lessons, and tactics when not playing people.

Yeah, no way 1200.

Indeed. I can see you're on the right track already, soo I'll just advise building or going over your Opening Repertoire. Use Chess.com blitz/standard/online games to test/tweak your preparation. When using an engine, annotate or simply analyse your games afterwards. But focus on your state of mind instead of the actual moves. Like, when did the game become uncomfortable? What was my initial strategy going into the middle game?

As white, what could I have done to maintain the initiative? Is the line I'm playing jive with me? But then, when playing an engine, the goal is not to beat it...It's to expose your own tendencies. Obvious reason because humans you'll be playing definitely will not play like an engine! Soo don't worry about it. Just get comfortable playing with.adversity.

8)

I didn't mention endgame study or tactics/combinational play because heck. That's a given my friend!

...and don't try 2.Bh6 in an OTB game.

lol, great suggestion... I actually noticed this week that my +/- is better when I cut out the Evans Gambit, the Owens defense, & Guatemala Defense altogether. I think I played against a computer that used the Guatemala once and I just found it really uncomfortable so I figured other people would too...

For the time being I'm sticking to 1...c6 against everything right now... I'll probably follow suit for the next few weeks while I develop and actual repitoire.

I feel like I'm just learning what type of jeans fit me best so I can really work on maximizing my strengths in a game and isolating/working on my weaknesses when in study and training.

I think I'm just going to focus on the:

Caro Khan and Slav against 1.d4

Caro Khan & French against 1. e4

and as white just focus on d4...

I've noticed that I play best (feel most comfortable) when playing for space and building plans around annexing key squares more than getting into wild, tactical positions.

I want to squeeze the life out of someone as white and deter them from doing anything as black...

But, we all have dreams. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Kann

Hmm. I like your mentality. I would suggest though:

As white, study QGD: Exchange Variation, Rubinstein Attack. Answering the Nimzo with the Petrosian (Classical Qc2), Gruenfeld Classical Exchange Variation, KID Spanish

As Black: The CK is fine. I like the QGD Lasker or Tartakower vs d4. Bone up on the English ...e5 and study some mainline vs the Catalan.

These are some recommendations I personally really wouldn't give to my own students but since time is of the essence with your stated preference, I think it's fine.

Heh. As with anything, anybody can show you the door...But it's you who has to walk through it.

8)

Edit: [stinky spell check]

KID Samisch

Hi there,

I recommend not worrying too much about what you OTB rating will be; it's too hard to tell anyway. One thing I will say is that when playing OTB, everyone, regardless of rating, is very focused, unlike online. Playing OTB for the first time will probably be quite intense.

As for studying, I do think it's important to have some basic opening knowledge. (BTW, I also play the Caro-Kann against 1. e4 and the Slav against 1. d4, although I play 1. c4 as White.) However, don't study openings too much. They certainly do matter (once I played an opening without ever studying it against an Expert and was lost in 10 moves) but they are over emphasized (In one tournament where I drew two NMs and won two 1900 players, my opening knowledge ended in each game at or before move 7). Anyway, as for openings, focus on learning the ideas.

Then there are other areas to improve in and/or study: Planning, time management, tactics, positional play, evaluation, calculation, endings, psychology, visualization, and so on.

Here's what I recommend as for a study plan (it is what I do before a tournament).

1. Review some of your past slow games and when you find an area where you are unsure of in your play, try to figure out why you made a mistake/weren't sure of what you were doing, e.g., "If I had calculated better...ah, I guess that means I need work on my calculations" Figure out what are your weakest areas.
2. Once you know your weaknesses, brainstorm ways to improve these areas. Don't limit yourself; it is brainstorming.
3. Now bring your ideas to reality, and create a realistic plan, e.g., "I will solve 3 tactics, play one slow games, and read 5 pages of How to Reassess Your Chess per day.

A good plan will vary from person to person, but I think it should include solving tactics (on chesstempo or another site without a timer), playing slow games (I recommend using a real board even when playing online), and reading a book or other instructional material.

I think How to Reassess Your Chess would be a good book for you probably. Other favorite books of mine are Think Like a Grandmaster (advanced), The Art of the Middle Game (Intermediate; good for you probably), and Logical Chess: Move by Move (beginner).

I wish you the best!

Stephen

As of your curent condition, which is exacly the same as mine, a suggest dont play OTB unless:

A. You practiced blindfold play. Our deep calculation is basically zero.. So that will help a lot. I have difficulties to adjust myself to giant 52/52 or 55? size board. Blinfold chess will help you also for that.

B. Your first official FIDE rating otb can be maximased with wins in your first dozens games. K will be equal to  40.So better, get better before join a tour. 

C. We  - The super fast bullet and blitz players with high chesscom rating can receive laughts, when we play for first time long otb games - we play like crap sometimes online and actually we lack fundamentals at endgames, becouse we move so fast in all of our games with seconds left - we often win on time, while we make crap moves, cuz we dont know theory,.. So first learn here, be solid.

D. Unless you make friends , share and learn from them. OTB and clubs are perfect for that.

E. In clubs there might be old people who get angry quick or people with no respect (as all blitz players..) be carefull with who you play and what you say.

Last year i played couple otb games.. well.. i won a queen but then suddently out of nowhere his knigts made giant jumps and killed my army.. I said wow and the very next move i put my only valueble piece left on undefended square.. again atacked by his other knight.. oh give me a brake.. The guy looked at me - he was confused how cant i see.. i was so in shame, started to talk this is my first game i play fast online bla bla.. man.. So i  said to myself - i will learn blindfold and make 2k here and only then i will start otb.

E. Losing otb can be very painfull. At home - online we can say bad words nobody will hear or puch something or play music or start quick another 3 min game and win fast and forget.. But none of this exist otb. Your time is wasted if in 30 min game you blunder badly and you will be in bad mood...

F. Oh yea, play rapid online while you move pieces on real board.