I Googled "addicted to online chess" and found this post. I only discovered chess 2 years ago at age 39. I played the computer for a year or so, then eventually discovered chess.com, and have been hooked ever since. I'm not even that good, rating 700, but for some reason I can't stop playing. I only play 3 minute chess for quick gratification if I win, or a horrible feeling of worthlessness if I lose. What makes it worse is you can play anywhere, anytime with the chess.com app on your phone. I find myself playing chess constantly, and I feel like I need to just stop, but I keep coming back over and over. Somehow I'll find a way.
Is there a way to get rid of online chess addiction?
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Getting a girlfriend should curtail your chess activities. From my own chess club I'm aware that married men are only allowed to play chess once a week. Although getting married to cure chess addiction might be a bit drastic !
Oct 31, 2017
0
#44
You are honest about your problems and this is good. I am working on a rehab clinic in Switzerland since 19 years, and I am sure that the problems you are facing are basically the same as people addicted to hard drugs.
The first thing is that you stop right now playing bullet, actually you should not play any blitz anymore. Go for daily chess, let's say 50 simultaneous games, and agree with yourself that this will be from now on your only way to play chess online.
To be able to stop you should commit yourself to quit blitz. Do it here, with very clear words, telling us exactly the moment you played tour last blitz. Most of us will support your decision and help you as good as we can.
By playing daily chess you have to stipulate some rules. Don't start to play more and more games, because doing so you are trying to get the same feeling of playing blitz - I read about a guy playing more than 2k games simultaneously, and this smells like a sign of addiction. Don't try to jump from one addictive behaviours to the next one.
Play one round of games until the end, stop playing and use enough time to go through all your games. Not in bullet speed modus, but with time, making a list of mistakes, comparing your opening moves with your repertoire, checking endgames books to see if there was an improvement in the endgame, etc.
If you feel you are not able to quit blitz, you need a radical and drastic change: contact chess.com and tell them to block your account because you are not able to deal with e situation.
Not matter which strategy you will use, it is up to you to make things change. As I told already, the first step you did already by asking for help and showing you want to change the situation.
The first thing is that you stop right now playing bullet, actually you should not play any blitz anymore. Go for daily chess, let's say 50 simultaneous games, and agree with yourself that this will be from now on your only way to play chess online.
To be able to stop you should commit yourself to quit blitz. Do it here, with very clear words, telling us exactly the moment you played tour last blitz. Most of us will support your decision and help you as good as we can.
By playing daily chess you have to stipulate some rules. Don't start to play more and more games, because doing so you are trying to get the same feeling of playing blitz - I read about a guy playing more than 2k games simultaneously, and this smells like a sign of addiction. Don't try to jump from one addictive behaviours to the next one.
Play one round of games until the end, stop playing and use enough time to go through all your games. Not in bullet speed modus, but with time, making a list of mistakes, comparing your opening moves with your repertoire, checking endgames books to see if there was an improvement in the endgame, etc.
If you feel you are not able to quit blitz, you need a radical and drastic change: contact chess.com and tell them to block your account because you are not able to deal with e situation.
Not matter which strategy you will use, it is up to you to make things change. As I told already, the first step you did already by asking for help and showing you want to change the situation.
I play too much chess as well, and plan to quit entirely. Exercising the brain for long term benefits is the ONLY benefit to chess, but it also comes with a lot of aggravation. In some ways it’s pointless, because studies have shown that after you’ve played x number of games you really can’t improve anymore. Either you have it or you don’t. You’ll always be playing players who are better than you and you’ll regularly lose. It’s essentially a huge waste of time that could be spent doing something productive with your life.
There are websites you can use to block sites your addicted to for a short period of time
Feb 25, 2018
0
#48
pipxr wrote:
There are websites you can use to block sites your addicted to for a short period of time
This is interesting
May 24, 2018
0
#49
petegianakos wrote:
I play too much chess as well, and plan to quit entirely. Exercising the brain for long term benefits is the ONLY benefit to chess, but it also comes with a lot of aggravation. In some ways it’s pointless, because studies have shown that after you’ve played x number of games you really can’t improve anymore. Either you have it or you don’t. You’ll always be playing players who are better than you and you’ll regularly lose. It’s essentially a huge waste of time that could be spent doing something productive with your life.
Did you already try Daily Chess? Be very strict playing only two games simultaneously, perhaps three if one of the games is an easy win or lose. Five days time to think, and play and analyse only if you like and have the time.
You will also improve playing Daily Chess, as you have time to check opening and endgame.
It works for me.
I'm by no means an advanced level player, but I can relate to your predicament. I love chess, but would feel a huge disappointment when losing and a self gratification when winning. This is the wrong way to approach a chess game, having spent a long time trying to find a solution, i realised that I was being a power junkie, for me at least i began noticing a power balance when i would either drop a pawn without positional advantage, or eVn lose the queen. So i began granting the other player has the power, and continue the game with this accepted. Chess instantly became more fun, less addictive, and my game started developing no longer rigidly fixed against losing. Good luck and I'm sure you will find your joy for chess again.
May 28, 2018
0
#51
I think you have to hate losing to get rid of online addiction. Oops... I'm sorry for all the comments I skipped. This is an instant reply. I may sound irrelevant now.
May 28, 2018
0
#52
Oh, I sound relevant with the previous entry. Ah! Damned mobile app. Sometimes the page button is missing.
May 29, 2018
0
#53
graememack wrote:
I'm by no means an advanced level player, but I can relate to your predicament. I love chess, but would feel a huge disappointment when losing and a self gratification when winning. This is the wrong way to approach a chess game, having spent a long time trying to find a solution, i realised that I was being a power junkie, for me at least i began noticing a power balance when i would either drop a pawn without positional advantage, or eVn lose the queen. So i began granting the other player has the power, and continue the game with this accepted. Chess instantly became more fun, less addictive, and my game started developing no longer rigidly fixed against losing. Good luck and I'm sure you will find your joy for chess again.
Sounds good. I see the game as something two players "construct". A game is like an living being, or like a whole ecosystem. The players are interfering with this organism, trying to make it develop to a certain direction. Sometimes I lose a game or allow a weaker player to draw a position where I am a pawn up. I can sometimes nevertheless enjoy how the organism "evolved". I want to win all my games, but I try to appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the game.
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Sep 4, 2018
0
#56
It is known that videos, TV,, and just about any electronic device caused release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, which has been linked to obsessive or addictive behavior. Possibly, chess, like other reward-based activity causes the release of dopamine.
“We believe that these [addictive] disorders are linked by a common biological substrate, a ‘hard-wired’ system in the brain (consisting of cells and signaling molecules) that provides pleasure in the process of rewarding certain behavior… Although each substance of abuse appears to act on different parts of this circuit, the end result is the same: Dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens and the hippocampus (Koob and Bloom 1988). Dopamine appears to be the primary neurotransmitter of reward at these reinforcement sites.” -From “Reward Deficiency Syndrome” by Kenneth Blum, John G. Cull, Eric R. Braverman and David E. Comings, American Scientist,
Ziggy_Zugzwang wrote:
Getting a girlfriend should curtail your chess activities. From my own chess club I'm aware that married men are only allowed to play chess once a week. Although getting married to cure chess addiction might be a bit drastic !
It works to some extent, sometimes I just want to keep on playing for hours, but then, after a couple games, I have to leave it to help my gf with the housework
Sep 4, 2018
0
#58
I went back to old childhood interests that take me to the woods. Now, I spend as much time at the shooting range getting ready for hunting season as I do playing online blitz.
Sep 4, 2018
0
#59
Ziryab wrote:
I went back to old childhood interests that take me to the woods. Now, I spend as much time at the shooting range getting ready for hunting season as I do playing online blitz.
But don't you think it is crime to do animal hunting.
I can empathize with the Guy. I've been addicted to this website for quite some time now!