odd phenomenon sick and playing better
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I have had a cold for the past nine days, and my rating has jumped more than 100 points. My rating is still only 1668. Not high, but I have regularly beaten people in the 1600’s and 1700’s and even beat the highest rated person ever, at least on chess.com. I have struggled to figure out why. Being sick zapped my energy to care about my rating. Maybe less emotion. I don’t have the energy to get upset about mistakes. Less emotion, better board vision. I don’t know.
@1
"Maybe less emotion." ++ Probably.
Dec 3, 2022
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#3
Huh, that is odd. When I’ve tried to play-while-sick, I’ve seen the opposite result: generally poor play, making obvious mistakes, and failing at tactics puzzles. Are you taking any specific meds?
Funny question. NyQuil DayQuil zinc tablets. Just the ordinary stuff.. have been getting lots of rest and have had fewer distractions.
There is an old saying, "Beware the sick golfer". I'm sure it applies to lots of things besides chess and golf, but I think the point is expectations are so low that often being sick is actually an advantage. In professional golf there are lots of examples of sick players playing extremely well. It could also be from focusing on being sick and completely ignoring any emotions or nervousness allowing a much more relaxed performance.
Dec 3, 2022
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#6
I would believe it!
Last weekend, I played in the US Masters. Here were my results:
Wednesday - Fully healthy - Loss
Thursday - Fully healthy - Loss Loss
Friday - Healthy Morning, starting to cough 2 hours into Round 5 - Win Draw
Saturday - Not feeling good, but not sick enough to quit - Draw Win
Sunday - 103 degree Fever and withdrew - did not play rounds 8 or 9.
Final score - 3 out of 7, more than half of it scored while sick!
Beware the sick golfer. A friend of mine and I both woke up with the flu on the day of a charity golf tourney. Not wanting to let the other down, we both showed up. We did not take a single practice shot. My first drive split the fairway. On the last hole, I played every shot and scored a birdie. Totally forgot about that.