I've been playing for more than 45 years. I've found that when a player learns some new material... especially if it concerns strategy rather than tactics... their results (and their rating) often go down for a while, until they can assimilate the new knowledge and get it to mesh properly with what they already knew. Then their results go back up, and stabilize at a higher level than before.
Your mileage may vary...
Hey there everyone. I am writing to ask for help from anyone who can give advice. I recently bought a chess dvd called Foxy Chess The Ruy Lopez. It is based on whites side of the board and also gives insight on what black does and gives strategies. Anyway, beyond the point. Also, please disregard the name Foxy Openings, I didn't name the dvd and I don't want any bad comments being posted thank you. I have fallen into a slump again in my chess game. Both as white and black. I just don't seem to enjoy chess as much anymore. I have been in many live chess tournaments and I can get a 3 game winning streak going but that's where it ends, I keep losing the last few games. Or I get into bad positions. I am having trouble studying openings again and I am having trouble deciding which openings to use. I keep getting surprised by my opponents moves and I keep failing to see the "Whole Game". I don't know what is going on in my game or what I can do to start winning and enjoying chess again. I really don't know what to do. I keep wanting to become a professional in chess but more and more I keep finding that I do not have what it takes to become a professional chess player and that pushes me further into my slump and further into my loss records. I have always wanted to become a GM or even a IM in chess but I am coming face to face with the reality that I probably will never become one anytime soon because I am in a slump and I cannot climb out. If I could use the Ruy Lopez against all openings like the French Defense or the Queen's Gambit or King's Gambit, I would use it against them as white but I am just having trouble playing and studying my chess openings and strategies. Maybe it is because of the fact that I do not know how to train myself or I am not understanding the books. I don't know. Give me your insight chess.com and give me any advice you can offer.
When you say you "have always wanted to become a GM or an IM", how long are we talking about?
You have only been a member here for a week. It seems a little early to be burning out. On the other hand, good news- you are still within the 30 day money back guarantee period.
blueemu, thanks for the advice, your right. Perhaps I should attempt to study and take the good with the bad and then things might work out eventually.
notmtwain, I have only been a member on here a week but I have been playing chess since I was 12 years old which was 8 years ago. I am 20 years old now and have been training myself ever since my father taught me how to play at the age of 12. I am not burning out. Not quite yet but I am in a slump and I am asking for help.
And in the "misery loves company" category, I found 50 previous threads asking how to break out of a slump:
http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=slump
Although that might be interesting it still doesn't help in my situation of getting out of my seemingly unending slump.
Well, you posted looking for advice and those 50 threads have a lot of it. Just as an example, here's a post detailing how someone else was able to successfully break out of their slump. Anyway, good luck!
I hit a major slump in December, 2013, diving all the way from about 2120 to 2041, over the board. Since the start of 2014, I've done nothing but go up, and have won over 60% of my 20+ games thus far in 2014 with an even split of draws and losses otherwise, scoring roughly 70% all told for 2014. Where am I now? 2096 with 2 more wins to factor in for a tournament that's 2-rounds in out of 5 where you play 1 round a week, so in essence, back over 2100.
What did I do?
Answer is simple - You need to play multiple openings. If all you do is play the same opening over and over and over again, your mind will get in a rut, and you'll play moves out of habit instead of thought. Not a good thing. Keep 3 repertoires handy, and when you see yourself slumping, change to the next in line. Then the third. Then back to the first.
What it will do is force you to focus, and expand your knowledge by playing thru different middlegame patterns. It's not about finding the 17th move novelty of some Sicilian line. It's about understanding different positions.
I myself have 3 different repertoires:
Agressive: White 1.e4, Black Modern Defense
Positional: White 1.d4 (Catalan, Slav, Trompowsky), Black Stonewall Dutch and Caro-Kann
Safe: White 1.Nf3 (Catalan, Slav, Fianchetto KID, Fianchetto Grunfeld, English, Anti-Benoni), Black QGD (Tartakower and Tarrasch) and Berlin
I cycle through these. It can be mixed and matched too. In December, I was playing 1.Nf3, QGD, and Caro-Kann. Made the change in January to alter my train of thought, and am currently playing 1.e4 and the Modern Defense. Give it another year, I may be back to 1.d4 along with the Stonewall Dutch and Double-Kingpawn openings.
Think of it like recharging a battery that has lost it's power!
6 months ago · Quote · #10
Forget about ratings and slumps. Concentrate on learning principles.
Set aside the Foxy dvd for now. Stop trying to learn detailed openings.
Go to Dan Heisman's web site and skim all of his Novice Nook articles. (Don't study them in detail now, just skim them to decide which ones are important to you right now.)
http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm
Hey there everyone. I am writing to ask for help from anyone who can give advice. I recently bought a chess dvd called Foxy Chess The Ruy Lopez. It is based on whites side of the board and also gives insight on what black does and gives strategies. Anyway, beyond the point. Also, please disregard the name Foxy Openings, I didn't name the dvd and I don't want any bad comments being posted thank you. I have fallen into a slump again in my chess game. Both as white and black. I just don't seem to enjoy chess as much anymore. I have been in many live chess tournaments and I can get a 3 game winning streak going but that's where it ends, I keep losing the last few games. Or I get into bad positions. I am having trouble studying openings again and I am having trouble deciding which openings to use. I keep getting surprised by my opponents moves and I keep failing to see the "Whole Game". I don't know what is going on in my game or what I can do to start winning and enjoying chess again. I really don't know what to do. I keep wanting to become a professional in chess but more and more I keep finding that I do not have what it takes to become a professional chess player and that pushes me further into my slump and further into my loss records. I have always wanted to become a GM or even a IM in chess but I am coming face to face with the reality that I probably will never become one anytime soon because I am in a slump and I cannot climb out. If I could use the Ruy Lopez against all openings like the French Defense or the Queen's Gambit or King's Gambit, I would use it against them as white but I am just having trouble playing and studying my chess openings and strategies. Maybe it is because of the fact that I do not know how to train myself or I am not understanding the books. I don't know. Give me your insight chess.com and give me any advice you can offer.