mr smith....i shall pray for your troubled soul..
I hate chess. It's just a game of luck.
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that bishopofkent guy needs a right hander...
Aug 4, 2013
0
#24
OK, we've had a bad result or two. Here's the locker room speech:
Suck it up/walk it off/get back in there/get back on that horse!
Sure.
We get knocked-down. Get up again!
Cool advice rmurray, haven't heard from you in a while. THIS is the very reason I finished up all my online games so I could focus on getting back into tournaments. Sigh.....
....and Annabella, I love that name, you've changed your photo. Looks nice.
....and Legally-Blonde, I'm sure somebody has started a chessaholics group by now. Some comedian from here probably.
....and amcoolchess, yeah, I know. I've been thinking hard about it. It seems I'm losing concentration & kind of mentally quitting late in the game when I should try harder. Not on purpose & in very good positions. Psychological reasons?
....and bishopofkent, thanks for the prayer but I don't know if it'll help my concentration.
...and noddysbigtoe, cool name. One of the grooviest I've seen on here. Yeah, how about THAT word? Bet y'all haven't heard groovy in a while.
If its possible to purposely play a game poorly then the game is all
not luck.
I put the luck part in there because most of players that had posted on here claiming luck being a part of chess (one about Carlsen being lucky) were acting as though it was a major part of the game. So I figured if I was going to whine & snivel I should add that also.
MrDamonSmith wrote:
I've always played because it was fun, or maybe I didn't understand WHICH part was fun. Maybe it's the actual competition part thats fun. If it wasn't chess maybe it would be pool or poker or cage fighting or just something where there are organised tournaments. It's the competition that I guess I like & when it's a disaster it makes me seriously think about it. Every time I return to tournaments after a long layoff I tend to do well, I guess the desire to compete is stronger than the rustiness. But not this time.
Edit: It very well could be psychological, just life circumstances at the moment. It's hard to tell. When I came home & decided to post my whining I had remembered others posting that they wanted to quit, like it was a bad habit or something. They were addicted & had to have their fix! So I decided to post too.
Chess is 99.999999999% strategy, if not 100.
I love chess. It's probably my favorite game.
Aug 4, 2013
0
#30
GSHAPIROY wrote:
MrDamonSmith wrote:
I've always played because it was fun, or maybe I didn't understand WHICH part was fun. Maybe it's the actual competition part thats fun. If it wasn't chess maybe it would be pool or poker or cage fighting or just something where there are organised tournaments. It's the competition that I guess I like & when it's a disaster it makes me seriously think about it. Every time I return to tournaments after a long layoff I tend to do well, I guess the desire to compete is stronger than the rustiness. But not this time.
Edit: It very well could be psychological, just life circumstances at the moment. It's hard to tell. When I came home & decided to post my whining I had remembered others posting that they wanted to quit, like it was a bad habit or something. They were addicted & had to have their fix! So I decided to post too.
Chess is 99.999999999% strategy, if not 100.
I love chess. It's probably my favorite game.
Cool, so I no longer need to study tactics! Yay!!! 
Good advice y'all. Maybe I'll go play in Tue & Wed nights games at the clubs here. Hard to tell, still thinking. Maybe I'll feel different in 2 days.
See how hard it is to quit ?
Yeah, it's hard. Maybe I need chessaholics anonymous. I even went a while without partying just to be in better playing shape, thinking it would help me play better. Maybe if I showed up all hung over & not caring the result would be different.
Then why I am getting beaten badly by 2000's? You can teach me to beat 2000's, can't you?
If I were you I would have quit chess and not posted a topic about it.
hey smithy.....i have groovy on my dinner sometimes..
Estragon napisał:
It's not easy to come back to tournament play after several years layoff. You may well have improved your game through study, but competition is as much about being in form and in practice as "innate skill level."
Based on my own experience and that of others, after a layoff of more than a year or so, you should expect to need about 20 tournament games to play yourself back into competitive form.
From my experience, 20 games might even be not enough. After 6 years break from chess (absolutely no playing, even casual or internet blitz, and no analysing) I have much trouble to come back to my previous strength.
In 2004-2006 I had no trouble in beating 2250 guys and keeping equal games against 2400. At some point my form collapsed and my FIDE rating went below 2100. This depressed me and I quit chess for a long time.
I felt like returning to the game in September 2012 but it is not so easy. Against stronger guys I fell into opening lines which had emerged after 2006 and were either considered inferior or completely not mentioned in the books I had learned from.
Against weaker opponents I lose a lot of energy when trying to find the best moves to win as quickly as possible and leave them without any doubt they had to lose because of their inaccuracies and blunders. I calculate lines they even do not think of in the post-mortem and avoid moves where the opponent could have a defence which he would actually never play.
After losing so much energy in one-two games I get tired and play subsequent rounds much weaker.
While my tactical strength has probably returned to the level before the break, I have problems in strategical positions. I forgot many things that used to help me decide which plan to choose and so I have to act like a computer and calculate. This costs me a lot of energy. I lost 80 elo points since Jan 2013, always in the later rounds of tournaments.
I guess the main reason for that is because I only play (in tournaments and on internet). I do not study chess at all (excluding some tactical puzzle). This proves that practical playing alone is not enough to come back to 2100+ level (before the break I used to spend at 2-3 hours daily (on average) on studying chess).
The odd thing Estragon & dzikus, & the reason I was stunned, is because I've taken long breaks from chess (many years) on several occasions & when I would return to tournaments my results seemed to show I hadn't stopped at all & even showed I had improved some. Maybe after a long layoff I was more eager to compete & that made me work harder but this time I had the same ambition but the calculation wasn't there. Late in the games it looks like I just gave up or quit trying & I didn't deliberately do that. It's like my mind just shut down.
Not too much. The time control was ONLY game 75. The thing is also, I didn't mention this & I should add it, I played 3 club games (game 90, rated) in the 3 weeks prior (1 game each week) to get back into playing. But this was my first actual tournament back. Even in those other games the same thing is happening. Thats what is so depressing, it's a combination of all of it. 2 draws & 5 losses. Outrageous. I've missed 3 wins & 2 losses were easy draws in very simple positions. It's like my mind just quits late in the games. Not a single player outplayed me (well, Mark Gragg did have me under immense pressure & I might have lost anyway had I not blundered), I lose the games late with it looking like I quit thinking. I'm just wondering if there's some deeper psychological issue going on, this has never been this bad.
chess isn't about quitting, dude. it's about patience, hard work, concentration, will power. and most of all, fun! checkers isn't gonna be much easier if you're a quitter.