I have no talent for chess.

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Avatar of Ziryab

I played chess twenty years before I had a rating. These days, kids get rated after their first game and think they have no talent when they haven’t mastered the game in six weeks.

Nothing in life that is worth pursuing comes instantly. Think about great wine in the cellar a decade or more before it is ready to drink. That should be your model.

Avatar of Isaaczog
I had once thought that my great Plato was at 500 and almost gave up chess but after watching some instructional chess vids my Elo shot to 600. So maybe your going through something similar.
Avatar of Sadlone

Don't give up man don't let go, in the field of medical sciences a question is often asked , how much trauma can a patient take, the answer always is how much that person wants to live, so even if u lose 100 out of 100 games , don't give up , one day u will win

Avatar of Kowarenai

neither do i yet i am here

Avatar of Ziryab
Isaaczog wrote:
I had once thought that my great Plato was at 500 and almost gave up chess but after watching some instructional chess vids my Elo shot to 600. So maybe your going through something similar.

Plato died prior to the invention of chess, but not before discussing the ideal table of which all wooden versions are representations.* Land that looks like a table is plateau in Spanish. The term plateau is also used for a graph that has leveled off.

*A character in his fictions, Socrates, did the speaking.

Avatar of blueemu
Ziryab wrote:
Isaaczog wrote:
I had once thought that my great Plato was at 500 and almost gave up chess but after watching some instructional chess vids my Elo shot to 600. So maybe your going through something similar.

Plato died prior to the invention of chess...

"My great plateau"?

Avatar of llama36
adorableraccoondog wrote:

I have no talent for chess.

Again, I can hardly win.
Is it just that my lack of aptitude for chess has become apparent?

I was taking moves too fast and was advised to do it more slowly, so I followed suit and played a few more games today.

However, it's hard to say that my play has improved greatly, just that my mistakes have decreased somewhat.

It's been almost two months since I started playing chess.
Despite all the hard work I've done with reading, analysis, puzzles, etc., my efforts have never paid off.
No matter how much I learn, I can't seem to make use of my knowledge in actual combat.

Want to know my win rate?
15 out of 40 games.
My ELO will drop below 500 soon too.
Maybe it will drop to 100.

Since I can't improve even if I try every means for improvement,
It's clear that I have no talent for chess.

Many chess masters affirm that hard work always pays off.
It may just be a fairy tale.
At least I didn't improve at all.

Now, in this situation, which of the following options should I choose?

(1) I quit chess completely and never play it again.
(2) I quit playing, but I enjoy watching streamers and collecting chess goods, for example.
(3) I will do my best to enjoy chess regardless of winning or losing or ELO.
     (In that case, I will abandon the improvement)
(4) your own ideas

The word "beginner" can mean different things. For example some people might say a 1000 rating is beginner even though a 1000 rating typically takes people many 100s of games and many months of effort.

But you're not that kind of beginner. You're an actual beginner... you haven't even played 100 games... that's like... going to the gym twice and lamenting you're not strong, or learning 10 words of a new language and complaining  you can't carry a conversation.

Here's a life lesson that goes way beyond chess... talent doesn't make people good, passion does. My first few thousand games I played simply because I enjoyed playing. Yeah I wanted to improve a little, from game to game, but I would have played even if I didn't improve... and that's the secret to improving (at anything in life). There were times I really wanted to get better, but I was stuck. I thought oh well, I'll never get past 1600... but I kept playing and learning a little here and there because I enjoyed chess... and so I gained about 100 points a year for ~10 years.

You can quit chess if you don't like it, that's fine. Hopefully you find something you're passionate about.

Avatar of llama36
blueemu wrote:

Fifteen out of forty is an EXCELLENT win rate for someone who has only been playing for a few months. Stop whining.

I've been playing since 1967. More than half a century. When I was a teenager I got to represent the Canadian Atlantic Provinces (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) in the under-20 championship of Canada. It was a nine-round tournament, held in Vancouver.

I was way, way out of my depth facing these guys. I was sort of half-decent at chess, these guys were GOOD. Out of the nine tournament games I played against the other provincial champions, I won one game. ONE.

Did I quit chess? No, of course not.. It takes YEARS to get really good at this game. I kept playing, and now... decades later... I'm rated 2350 on this website.

I didn't even go to my first tournament until age 21, so I don't have any fancy story like representing my area happy.png

But I was in a similar situation. I found a local club and played once a week. I was by far the weakest player at about 1400 (they were almost all 1600-1900, with sometimes an expert or master showing up). Every week I worked REALLY hard to not lose every single game. I was always thrilled to get a single draw or win. After a few years I started regularly scoring equal. A few years after that I was occasionally going undefeated.

Avatar of Bartoloo02

Never give up bro!

Avatar of llama36
IronSteam1 wrote:

You say you won 15 out of 40 games.

To me, that's quite impressive.

When I was a beginner, I almost never won a game. Hardly ever. I don't recall my win/loss ratio at this point (we're talking about over 20 years ago), but I would wager a safe guess that I would win 1 game out of every 100 losses.

When I was a beginner online chess was in its infancy, so I was able to play online.

I remember that my wins didn't catch up to all the losses I'd accumulated until roughly year 3 tongue.png

Avatar of tabuleirod4
In order to improve in chess you have to take in mind that chess is not a simple cellphone game. Therefore you need a LOT of concentration You have to be very competitive to improve. You need hard work and the determination to overcome your desire to think less. taking some knowledge from serious chess YouTubers is good too.

Remember that on low and medium elo you define your rating on determination and hard work, not talent
Avatar of idilis
blueemu wrote:

"My great plateau"?

Better than my great sock-rat-tease

Avatar of BlackaKhan
Isaaczog wrote:
I had once thought that my great Plato was at 500 ....

Plato was great, until he got stuck on a plateau.

Avatar of DejaDeJugarBlitz

As you say yourself, it's been a few months since you started playing. If you want to learn, be patient and don't expect instant results. If you have really worked very hard and do the same thing but with good training, removing the things that detract from your learning and adding only things that optimize the quality of your learning process, then you might surprise yourself when spend a year or maybe less time. But please, first of all, stop looking at your winrate and just look at your objective vision of the game, play according to your understanding and your ability to assimilate ideas will improve as you notice your mistakes.

If you talk about your training methodology, it is possible to get an idea of whether you are doing something wrong or if you are on the right track, so they could give you better answers. As seen in your profile, I would recommend that if you are around 500, do not play online games, that rating in chess dot com only exists because the base of players who start chess from scratch and go directly to play online at today is very big. If someone is interested in being moderately good at chess and has a playing strength of 500 they shouldn't even play 15 minute quick games, it's literally too fast for someone who has been playing chess for months. You shouldn't even play games online and if you want to play slow games I recommend that instead of the option of daily games that some advise, it is better to use that time to study annotated games from a collection book of exemplary games. Your initial learning should only be based on books and personalized training by trainers who really know your strengths and weaknesses.

As for the chess dot com bots I recommend you play against a more difficult level of 1500, play against the bots of at least 2700, something that can be compared to a GM and punish you with the best possible moves. In your case, the bots are not used to measure your strength, but to learn from strong opponents and in this case you should not play with very weak bots (even if they play much better than you). Play in one star mode and if you get to a lost spot try to backtrack and change the move you suspect caused you to lose. This will make you discover the hard way that you don't understand so many things, it's how to play a game against a very strong player, analyze the game and in all the variations that they analyze, you get lost again and again, this will reinforce your learning in some way.

You must study the tactics from books and you must also do exercises that are based on short variant calculations but that force you to calculate a lot. Try mate exercises in two and three, try to calculate each possible variation without despair, take your time with those exercises. Dedicate between an hour or two to train calculus with mate exercises, divide the rest into studying games analyzed by professionals (you can choose collection books of games from specific players, the first players you study will greatly influence your style and vision of the game ) and a good book that explains each tactical topic with simple examples (when you finish that book go for a collection book of tactical problems). Play rhythm games with longer times for at least an hour and if you play against bots do it with indefinite time so that you think as much as you can, when you start playing consider how many hours you are willing to play that game (I recommend 4 hours as a limit ).

Do not give up until checkmate, at your level of play it makes no sense to give up, not really because you can turn the game around, but because you need to acquire knowledge of how to show your advantage until the end. If you see how they beat you to the end, then you will have more knowledge of how to impose the advantage when you are the one who is winning. Seeing the defeat process until checkmate is absolutely necessary for beginners.

When you stop hanging pieces, start to have a clear idea of where you guide your openings and games, have a basic understanding of tactics and endgames; That is when I recommend that you start playing online games but games of at least 30 minutes. You must get used to looking for the best possible move in long games, and have problems in fast-paced games. It should not be the other way around, it doesn't help that you get used to playing fast and that your brain is not used to reflecting and thinking for more than 5 or even more than 10 minutes. You should play games that last more than an hour, and if you get to play games that last more than two hours, even better, as long as you spend that time analyzing and calculating different plans and ideas.

Avatar of d4-onlyanswer

3

Avatar of PequenoCapivara
adorableraccoondog escreveu:

I have no talent for chess.

Again, I can hardly win.
Is it just that my lack of aptitude for chess has become apparent?

I was taking moves too fast and was advised to do it more slowly, so I followed suit and played a few more games today.

However, it's hard to say that my play has improved greatly, just that my mistakes have decreased somewhat.

It's been almost two months since I started playing chess.
Despite all the hard work I've done with reading, analysis, puzzles, etc., my efforts have never paid off.
No matter how much I learn, I can't seem to make use of my knowledge in actual combat.

Want to know my win rate?
15 out of 40 games.
My ELO will drop below 500 soon too.
Maybe it will drop to 100.

Since I can't improve even if I try every means for improvement,
It's clear that I have no talent for chess.

Many chess masters affirm that hard work always pays off.
It may just be a fairy tale.
At least I didn't improve at all.

Now, in this situation, which of the following options should I choose?

(1) I quit chess completely and never play it again.
(2) I quit playing, but I enjoy watching streamers and collecting chess goods, for example.
(3) I will do my best to enjoy chess regardless of winning or losing or ELO.
     (In that case, I will abandon the improvement)
(4) your own ideas

 

Winning is always good, but no matter how many times you lose, you must never give up and enjoy the game. If you are not a professional and your career depends on winning, this is the right mentality (have fun). 

So I choose option 3.

Avatar of blueemu
idilis wrote:
blueemu wrote:

"My great plateau"?

Better than my great sock-rat-tease

What a catastrophe.

Avatar of llama36
blueemu wrote:
idilis wrote:
blueemu wrote:

"My great plateau"?

Better than my great sock-rat-tease

What a catastrophe.

 

[sees picture]
Looks like someone lost a coin toss.

Avatar of adorableraccoondog
DejaDeJugarBlitz はこう書きました:

As you say yourself, it's been a few months since you started playing. If you want to learn, be patient and don't expect instant results. If you have really worked very hard and do the same thing but with good training, removing the things that detract from your learning and adding only things that optimize the quality of your learning process, then you might surprise yourself when spend a year or maybe less time. But please, first of all, stop looking at your winrate and just look at your objective vision of the game, play according to your understanding and your ability to assimilate ideas will improve as you notice your mistakes.

If you talk about your training methodology, it is possible to get an idea of whether you are doing something wrong or if you are on the right track, so they could give you better answers. As seen in your profile, I would recommend that if you are around 500, do not play online games, that rating in chess dot com only exists because the base of players who start chess from scratch and go directly to play online at today is very big. If someone is interested in being moderately good at chess and has a playing strength of 500 they shouldn't even play 15 minute quick games, it's literally too fast for someone who has been playing chess for months. You shouldn't even play games online and if you want to play slow games I recommend that instead of the option of daily games that some advise, it is better to use that time to study annotated games from a collection book of exemplary games. Your initial learning should only be based on books and personalized training by trainers who really know your strengths and weaknesses.

As for the chess dot com bots I recommend you play against a more difficult level of 1500, play against the bots of at least 2700, something that can be compared to a GM and punish you with the best possible moves. In your case, the bots are not used to measure your strength, but to learn from strong opponents and in this case you should not play with very weak bots (even if they play much better than you). Play in one star mode and if you get to a lost spot try to backtrack and change the move you suspect caused you to lose. This will make you discover the hard way that you don't understand so many things, it's how to play a game against a very strong player, analyze the game and in all the variations that they analyze, you get lost again and again, this will reinforce your learning in some way.

You must study the tactics from books and you must also do exercises that are based on short variant calculations but that force you to calculate a lot. Try mate exercises in two and three, try to calculate each possible variation without despair, take your time with those exercises. Dedicate between an hour or two to train calculus with mate exercises, divide the rest into studying games analyzed by professionals (you can choose collection books of games from specific players, the first players you study will greatly influence your style and vision of the game ) and a good book that explains each tactical topic with simple examples (when you finish that book go for a collection book of tactical problems). Play rhythm games with longer times for at least an hour and if you play against bots do it with indefinite time so that you think as much as you can, when you start playing consider how many hours you are willing to play that game (I recommend 4 hours as a limit ).

Do not give up until checkmate, at your level of play it makes no sense to give up, not really because you can turn the game around, but because you need to acquire knowledge of how to show your advantage until the end. If you see how they beat you to the end, then you will have more knowledge of how to impose the advantage when you are the one who is winning. Seeing the defeat process until checkmate is absolutely necessary for beginners.

When you stop hanging pieces, start to have a clear idea of where you guide your openings and games, have a basic understanding of tactics and endgames; That is when I recommend that you start playing online games but games of at least 30 minutes. You must get used to looking for the best possible move in long games, and have problems in fast-paced games. It should not be the other way around, it doesn't help that you get used to playing fast and that your brain is not used to reflecting and thinking for more than 5 or even more than 10 minutes. You should play games that last more than an hour, and if you get to play games that last more than two hours, even better, as long as you spend that time analyzing and calculating different plans and ideas.

Thank you very much.
Just now I fought 2000 CPU's and predictably lost.
I can't beat a 2000 CPU when I'm struggling even with a 1500 Antonio.

I finally got angry and threw my laptop.
(Luckily it didn't break.)

Losing is always unpleasant.
I am too angry to analyze the game.
It seems I have to study anger management before I study chess.

Thanks to everyone here for their wonderful comments.
I need to grow spiritually a little more.
I've given up my Diamond membership privileges, but I'm going to keep playing chess.

Avatar of drunk_yuri_briar

option3.
Even if chess is a game of talent, we all have a right to enjoy it regardless of our ability.

99% of soccer players never become professional players, but still many people enjoy playing it.