How Do You Stop Hanging Pieces?

And when you regurgitate  said whiskey onto the board? 

You're not doing it right

As I type, I would guess that hicetunc is fast asleep, since it's 7:18 PM on the West Coast, California and something like 1:18 AM in France.

In the past, and now, I will give high praise to both of you for your expert posts. A very big thanks. I still owe a special chessecake recipe to one of you. Ah, I'll send it to both of you.

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"Move 4.d3 why? What does it attack or do?" 

I'm sure you meant to type 4.Bd3, which is what I played. To answer your question, I was playing The Colle System. I know the Queen's Gambit Opening, but wanted to test run this system, which is different from an opening. I have a ChessBase DVD by GM Nigel Davies on this 1.d4 system, which focuses on the Colle/Zukertort.

The bright idea behind The Colle is to have a flexible series of moves for the beginning to club level player, not for the purpose of avoiding opening theory, but for the purpose of understanding the reasons behind the moves and the underlying strategy. I'm still watching the video and learning the system, so I'm still kicking the tires on this approach to playing chess for the beginner, even with the praise a respected GM gives it. Even if I don't play the Colle, I greatly enjoy listening to Nigel Davies and his teaching is easy for the beginning chess player to understand.

I'm more familiar with the Queen's Gambit, not that I know the reason behind every move. I'm still reading other move by move books to better understand the QGD or QGA, i.e. Logical Chess - Move By Move - Every Move Explained by Irving Chernev. I have Chess: the art of logical thinking - from the first move to the last - by Neil McDonald, but it's written for the club player, too difficult for me, and I made the mistake of purchasing it without paying attention to the label with the skill level. Beginners Beware!

Davies recommends not to blindly play the Colle, and then look up at the board after move three. Amateurs will blindly play 1.d4 2.Nf3 3.e3  before even looking to see what their opponent has played.

You made an excellent observation which I completely missed! After 1.d4 Nc6, I could have played 2.e4 (!!!) and had the perfect pawn center. Arg! I played like a blind man. In the Nigel Davies DVD, Black, almost always plays 1...Nf6 after 1.d4, which prevents 2.e4. So, I went into auto-pilot and played the weaker move, 2.Nf3.

Back to the why of Bd3 in The Colle.

The strategic plan behind the Colle System is to aim for a kingside attack. The black king's knight will be either exchanged off on e4, or driven away by the advance e4-e5. This removes a guard from the h7 square, often enabling a classic bishop sacrifice on h7 as the start of a mating attack. Some authors even call this sacrifice "Colle's sacrifice".

Nigel Davies holds the opinion that The Colle-Zukertort is an improvement over The Colle, because both of White's bishops are aimed at the kingside right out of the opening. Here's an example game from the Nigel Davies instructional DVD where Colle destroys Gruenfeld with this system. 

Oh my! It is now 8:24 PM PST. I put a lot of thought into this post, and hicetnunc should be in bed by now, unless he's out having too much fun. 

Excellent points. I wish I had spent more time strumming my guitar in bars instead of locking myself in a practice room during my time spent at North Texas, where the drinking age was 18 at the time. Is it still 18?

My guitar buddies at college, the one's who gigged a lot and practiced far less than I did, developed a professional polish that I never aquired until I got over my fears in my 30's and just got out and played!

I am hung up with ratings, and fear playing against those 100 or more points higher than myself. It's dumb thinking. As you and others have strongly suggested, I'll adjust my settings to permit challenges from players rated higher than the current +25 to +50.

What do you think I should set it to?  +100? +200? Higher?

We need more smiley faces to choose from. I need a face that trembles with fear.

"What do you think I should set it to?  +100? +200? Yes do that ...Higher?'

50 points higher is nothing :)  50 points can be a bad or good day for someone.  If someone rated 50 points higher than you feels very strong it's all psychological

Yes, 100-200 points is better.

I can relate to your position though.  I want to improve right now, but I'm not motivated to seek out those kinds of games either... mostly because I don't want to work that hard .  When my desire to get better can trump my desire to be, in a sense lazy, then I'll start to improve.  As long as your fear trumps your desire to get better, it will be very hard to improve.

Remember losing a game is nothing, it's what you learn.  All experienced members on this site, and all professionals have lost thousands upon thousands of games -- and will continue to lose games as long as they play.  Winning your games is nothing, it's learning from those games that separates the bad players from the good players, and the good from the great ;)  You will learn much more form the 100-200+ group.  You have nothing to fear but fear itself!

Ok, I get off my soapbox now

yes, this happened to even the best of players, I feel I am now in good company

Good stuff.

Man, I hate to lose. When I lose it feels like I flunked an I.Q. test, because chess is a game that challenges the brain cells. I feel really stupid when I lose.

Yes. I do fear feeling stupid. To improve, I must let go of this fear. From Master Yoda, I will learn.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” - Yoda

Will you guys think I'm stupid when after getting beat up by the +200 group, my rating drops to zero? This scares me.  

oh knock it off.

I hate tunnel vision. Too often I focus hard on a mating attack, blocking many squares from my sight, only to get back rank mated in the end.

O.K. That was a bit pathetic of me. I will endeavor to keep this thread more useful for all, as hanging pieces on a regular basis prevents one from going over 1600.

It's getting late...the coffee is no longer working...and I tend towards silliness this late at night. Sorry.

A blitz game right now would be a train wreck.

i like playing people of higher ratings, personally.  i don't think it has anything to do with learning (consciously), but i feel it makes me bring out my best game.  also, i more or less expect to lose when i play someone that is +200, so it seems it would be less pressure (if i put pressure on myself about winning/losing). 

but (easier said than done) get over your fear.  you are not in a battle of wits with a sicilian when death is on the line (said by the short little bald man in the "Princess Bride" whose name i forget).  there is no iocane powder hidden on the board.

the idea that winning at chess proves you are smarter than anyone else is silly.  winning at chess proves nothing more than you are better at chess (or at least were in that game).  gin-rummy is a game that involves brain cells and nobody uses it as a barometer for how smart they are. 

I like that way of thinking. Thanks.

so, in other words, the pressure is all on you mr. +70ish....(evil laugh). 

just as an aside, if i lose to the person who is 1800 right now i will lose all of 7 points.  at that rate it will take me a while to fall to 0.  if i eek out a draw (which i feel as good about with him as i do a win against people closer to me) then i gain 14.  i don't do that one too often, though...i just take my 7 point lickin and request a rematch.  (it's my dad, he hardly ever refuses). 

I wonder how many points I would lose in a blitz game against someone rated at +200? Fascinating. The points gained or lost per blitz match when both are close in rating is 7. Is there a way to check before accepting a live game challenge?  I'll look into that.

i am not terribly thrilled about your position either, so i suppose that makes us even? 

This is very common, even among some chess kids I teach. They feel if they lose a game, it's like they have failed a school test, or, worse even, they're just dumb people...

While chess certainly requires some intelligence (which activity doesn't ?), it's nowhere near an IQ test, as it's a very specialized endeavour. If I can't play the piano (I've never learned), does it mean my hearing is poor ? Expert activities requires to acquire special skills and a lot of practice (the trendy 10'000 hrs. rule...).

A rocket scientist can lose a game of chess, and many PhD regularly get blown away on the board, not because they're dumb, but simply because chess is not one of their fields of expertise...

Tonydal's analogy with a language is very good : once you've learned the basics and the grammar, nothing beats practice... Maybe your first sentences will be a bit awkward, but it's the only way to eventually become an articulate chess talker.

But there's nothing wrong with becoming a chess scholar either : people who have plenty of ideas and theories about the game, but can't practice it on a good level, either because they haven't spend enough time doing it, or are just overwhelmed by the bad feelings which come with losing. It's a big world

Even the world champions hang a piece sometimes so what hope is there that the rest of us will ever stop ?! 

"You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player."

Capablanca

Musikamote, you may help yourself greatly, if you would write out step by step a checklist to help you eventually instill it in your chess thinking and overcome to a great extent "hanging pawns and pieces":  Here's the steps that has helped me a lot:

1.  First always try to figure out what you opponent might be planning by his last move (flip the board to double-check).

2.  When you decide on your candidate move, be sure to check what can happen at the square you move from (check on your king, lose a piece, tactical move, pile on, etc.)

3.  When you make your candidate move, see what can happen at the square you move to (can that unit be taken, can a tactical move against you be made. did you step into the crosshairs of a rank, file, and diagonal combination, etc.)

Note: be sure you do not forget to go through your checklist (have it right next to your keyboard or even attach it to your monitor somehow).

Good luck and I hope this may help.