Is the Bulk of my Problem Anxiety or Stupidity?
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Although we come from different chess backgrounds, my vote is anxiety causing blunders. I also have severe anxiety when playing humans, but I’ve heard many people say the bots aren’t helpful since they just don’t play like humans do. Chess puzzles seem to help me a good bit, but I know my problem is anxiety and rushing and not taking the time to think through my moves.
640 in Rapid is excellent for a couple of months at the game.
So don't sweat about your rate of progress. Relax.
How to improve further? Well... Blitz and Bullet are for fun, not for improvement. Not at your level (a 2100 might claim that Blitz helps his game, but not a 700). Play Rapid or Daily for improvement.
Play with Increment, so that a few seconds of time gets added to your clock with every move. Then you can run SHORT of time, but won't actually run OUT of time unless the position is so hopeless that you just sit there looking at it, unable to find a move.
Below the 1000 or 1200 level, the biggest single issue is situational awareness... watching the whole board, noticing when the opponent threatens something, noticing when the opponent makes an error. Any improvement in situational awareness will pay huge dividends at the sub-1000 level.
Is anxiety also present in other social situations? I ask because I've found there's medicine for anxiety that affects a person's life negatively. It might help to ask a doctor who's professionally trained in evaluating such issues.
In a chess game or another situation where there's anxiety, mindfulness can help. There is a way of breathing I've learned called "buddha breathing" and you can tell you are doing it if your belly moves out when you're relaxed. I've read that it makes the vegas nerve awaken though I'm not sure whether to believe it. Most of the things in the world are beyond our control, but breathing is always something we can control if we put our minds to it. I try to do that if I find myself breathing only in the upper chambers of my lungs.
In my experience my anxiety comes from my emotions like fear or sadness. I think my emotional anxiety comes from wanting to please another person without knowing how. Yours may be similar.
Good luck in living your best!
Dont play online until you reach a certain level!! The rating board under 2000 isnt true. The players seem to be stronger than That. Some use engines to eclipse your doubts some others dont play often online. The staff is unable to solve the problem until now!!
Following. I have the same anxiety problem when playing against humans.
Updates now that I know how to re-access:
*Defeated all three 1600-rated bots and Grandpa Gambit (1650) with a 0.333 record. Defeated the first 1700-rated bot, the one that looks like a trucker (Arthur?) on my fourth try. However, I've only played three human games since Christmas in my normal format of 15!10, winning all three against 500-700 ranked players. My human score has increased closer to 700.
*I tried 2|1, 3|2 and 5|5 for grins, and ended up in the lower 300's for all three; in 2|1 I'm almost exactly 300 even, almost all from flags. No more sub-10|5 games (15|10 games only or longer for now; thanks to darlihysa and others for this advice)
*There is little anxiety from <5|5 games, as I don't have time to feel pressured to not blunder.
* I am noticing that play vs. the bots is theoretically harder than my ~600-700 human opponents. I will win vs. 1500-1700 (lower rated "advanced") bots when a major mistake is made and noticed, the same as with lower level bots and humans, but the major mistakes are much harder to see than 700-rated humans and <1500 rated bots.
*Humans also care for pawns far less than bots. In my most recent 15|10 human win tonight, I won simply on pawn tactics alone, while 1500-1600 bots always end up with superior pawn structure to my human opponents.
*Humans are far, far more aggressive even than bots meant for attacking. This is almost cetainly contributing to the anxiety I'm feeling. It's harder for me to catch that game-winning skewer or fork (one of which would've won me a queen my last human victory, more or less three pawns) if I have the opponent's pieces piling on my f-2 square early, even if I can defend commonly attacked squares.
*As usual, blunders are my central issue - namely fighting off the anxiety to not make one.
*As Cavatine hinted at, I have major social anxiety as well. My nephew (ah, nine year old wisdom!) suggested to think and focus on the move I make and all its consequences. It is what he does when he is in a tournament. This - as well as breathing, relaxing when my muscles are naturally tense, etc. is starting to help.
*Opened up a discussion with my psychologist about this. He also thinks it may be relatedd to my social anxiety and autism. This conversation will continue this Wednesday.
Again, thanks to everyone's suggestions and comments - I will continue to update the thread as I progress through the next few weeks!
I am 66 and just now trying to become a better player. I recognize that I have difficulty looking at the board and seeing threats and opportunities let alone coming up with strategies. I'm hoping this will improve with practice and learning. But I do feel I will never be a "good" player and that's OK. I enjoy playing and improving. I'm learning to pace myself and not get down on myself for not being very good now. I avoid exposing myself to things on chess.com that might get me down. I hope this helps somebody.
DonMoves7 wrote:
I am 66 and just now trying to become a better player. I recognize that I have difficulty looking at the board and seeing threats and opportunities let alone coming up with strategies. I'm hoping this will improve with practice and learning. But I do feel I will never be a "good" player and that's OK. I enjoy playing and improving. I'm learning to pace myself and not get down on myself for not being very good now. I avoid exposing myself to things on chess.com that might get me down. I hope this helps somebody.
This is my exact situation. Exactly. Thank you for posting this!
if you want to be in touch, contact me...
@7
"Defeated all three 1600-rated bots"
++ Do not play bots, play people. Artificially weakened bots err, but in a non-human way.
"I've only played three human games" ++ Play more
"my normal format of 15!10" ++ Excellent
"I tried 2|1, 3|2 and 5|5" ++ Do not do that if you want to progress.
"Humans also care for pawns far less than bots" ++ Weak humans do not care for pawns.
"Humans are far, far more aggressive" ++ Weak humans are too aggressive. Learn to defend.
Here is a famous game for you to study.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1095025
"the anxiety I'm feeling" ++ The anxiety goes away when you grow confidence from winning.
"blunders are my central issue" ++ Anxiety does not help, mental discipline helps.
Always check your intended move in no blunder before you play it.
"think and focus on the move" ++ Words of wisdom.
"relatedd to my social anxiety and autism" ++ Chess is an ideal game in that respect. You are alone with the board and the opponent and you have no social interaction with your opponent, it is even forbidden to speak. Bridge or poker are games with much social interaction.
It's okay to know some opening moves, but don't stress about memorizing them all. What's more important is getting why certain openings are good and how to handle different situations on the board. Think about the whole chess game, not just the start. Pay attention to tactics, how pieces move, where to put them, and what to do in the endgame. Understanding these things will make you a better chess player.
Because I have bad habits writing too long, here are the bullet points:
Before starting the main thrust, though, I do wish to acknowledge that bots are over-rated. I wish I could truly rate these bots in the competitive field as a professional mathematician and statistician with a doctorate in the subject and a well-worded email perhaps permitting me to employ a new account that would redeem ELO for this very purpose of examining the actual power of these bots, but this is a complete aside.
Am I doing so poorly versus humans primarily because I'm just a bad chess player who is going through the bots like everyone else would go through "non-PVP" mode in video games?
If - say - my wife loaded my account, got a chessboard, chose the computer or the human playing option equally, and then proceeded to relay on a real board the moves for me in 15|10 vs. humans half the time, and vs. a random 1500-level bot the other half, telling me it was all bots the whole time, would I still be stuck at 640 vs. those that were humans or would my rating go up?
Would I even be able to tell the difference between the two as I used to be able to do? It was so easy. However, post-1000 or so, it started to get harder, though it was still identifiable since most people have an issue with hyper-focusing and being unable to see the board as a whole as a result at the level at which I play.
Computers do not have this "overfocusing on a few squares" issue, not really even Martin. Computers, on the other hand, attempt to defend whereas most fellow 300s-700s have me on the defensive from the opening all the way until they either blunder an attack or I lose a piece and immediately resign. This is why I think it would be easy for me to tell the difference between players at my 600ish rating and bots at the 600ish (or even 13-1500 ish) rating.
Lastly after I get out of my very small "opening window" knowledge and, say, have my pawns in a nice triangle peaking in front of the Queen with one bishop outside and one just at the peak of my pawn triangle on the Queen's file, ready to snipe any knight invading my little home. These games tend to remain closed, but my structure holds out well pawn-wise. The issue is that I freeze up when cooking a plan, but only after my opening goals are checked off the list: pieces off the back as much as possible, castled, kick pieces off the board, etc. I just cannot come up with something to do versus humans. This is not present versus computers, where I always at least try something, even if it is a failed attack from a sacrifice or some other misbegotten play at the King or at winning a piece or pawn. This is NEVER PRESENT IN HUMANS. I **NEVER** see such things against humans, even at "low" 300-400 level games. WHY?!?
* - Yes, I know that people here are not therapists generally and would not offer free services over the Internet publicly even if they were, and that I can visit privately who are credentialed (which I do already do!). I am just wishing for general commentary, not necessarily professional analysis!