Playing worse than before

Hello everyone!

So, I'm a little pissed off! I'm pissed because i feel like i'm playing worse since I started to study the game and get some books (I read carefuylly Amateur's mind and looked at some online videos on youtube channel chesswebsite.com). It isn't the fault of the book, clearly.

But my chess partner told me that I'm not as good as before. He says that, at the time, I played my style better. And as much as it pains me, I think he's right. I had some basic positional knowledge and I was all about playing defensive for a while (i was really good at understanding his plans and moves) and then counter when there's seemed to be a hole or weakness. I had success as a poker player and at the time, it was all about understanding your opponent hand range, playing style and take advantage of that regardless of my hands. This chess playing style isn't advisable. But against him, it worked. At least, in our matches, he won like 60% of the games. Even though I didn't know about particularities of closed/open games, bishops vs knights dynamics and so far. 

But now, since i seem to play more by the book, i kind of lost my style and lose much more than before (more like 20/80) :(

Not sure what to do about that... Books are coming their way (I ordered Chess strategy by Seirawan, Understanging Openings by Emms and S. polgar's tactic book for champs). I take notes, play them on my chess boards etc... But it's very frustrating to be unable to make good use of this (very basic) knowledge without completly changing his playing style :(

Does anyone had this feeling once? Does anyone have some advice :)??

Cheers

Yeah, that happens. In the short term your play suffers, but in the long term you'll be better.

Before a game, it might help to get back to calculation mode. There are a lot of new strategic ideas that maybe you'll want to try out in your game, or at least look for... but during a game with limited time ideally you only play with the new ideas that come to you almost automatically. Your conscious thoughts should be more concerned with not losing material, and looking to see if you have any tactics that can win material. So before a game, maybe solve tactical puzzles for 30 minutes to get into that mindset.

Why do you trust your friend's opinion of your play? You're rated kinda low. If you're playing someone of equal skill level, I question his ability to accurately judge your "style" of play. Just look at the results.

 

But it's also pretty common for you to do worse after you've started studying. Here's a comment I stole from a Reddit post I read the other day,

"What is happening here is actually your background conceptual knowledge is increasing - but the foreground "information about YOUR position in front of you" is reduced in the short-term. What happens later is that eventually you should be able to use the concepts more "in context" of your games. But to aquire the concepts in the short-term is actually basically damaging your short-term results. I think this is simple a natural process of aquisition and later integration and application. But you need to have the process of aquisition.

The background aquisition of concepts is important for your longer term development and understanding. But you need to make these concepts and background information work with you as you play more effectively for the positions you are in."

 

Here's the link to the thread if you want to read the question or other responses: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/5bmjku/feeling_like_im_regressing_the_more_i_study_help/

i know someone who was great at chess and felt he had lost a lot of his style by reading chess books.

This happened to me. Use tactic trainer and force yourself to ignore the clock and take all the time you need to solve accurately. Treat every move in the game like that and always try to make the BEST move. Ignore your ingenius ideas and tactics. They were my downfall.

After 49 years of playing chess in a vacuum, for the first time this year I heard the term "Juicy Square" and it changed my chess life.

Please consider watching everything these guys have published on youtube:  Mato Jelic, John Bartholomew, GJChess. After you've watched all of them, watch again.

You can get better.

Like already said, it's common to take a dive in your playing a little after studying new things. Psychologically, you have new ideas in your noggin that you want to express over the board but when first learning those ideas it's difficult to apply them. Give yourself adequate time to absorb the material and your playing strength will increase. Every time you learn new things, you will have to take the time to properly digest the materials before you can successfully apply them to your game. Just give it a little time, your game will improve.

As for listening to someone around your level critique your play, that can be both good and bad. Bad because he/she isn't at the appropriate level to make such comments, but good in the sense that, if you two have played enough games, they will know some of the nuances of your play and will notice the difference. You don't have to have someone higher rated than you to practice/study with. Just as long as you both want to improve, that's enough in my eyes.

Easy. You were a good bad player and now you are a bad good player. 😉

Hi, what does it mean, getting back to calculation mode :D? I can only strongly agree with the fact i've to practice tactic puzzles.

TRextastic: I'm rated super low :) I don't enjoy that much playing online yet. Seeing my time beeing consumed stresses me. And my poker reflex is looking for "tells". When someone is thinking, i love to watch his eyes and try to see what he is looking for on the board. So i play more (and a little better) live. Why i listen to him? Well, that's a good question. I guess because he said something i had the feeling about. Not sure if he is low rated. Never played or asked him if he plays online but i know he plays quite a bit in bars (for a few years now) so he has the experience for him. Maybe even clubs? He's a mysterious dude. Thanks for the link, i'll read it for sure.

JiuJitsuShihTsy: And what did you think of his plays? Noticed some differences?

wishiwonthatone: I hope that Polgar's book about tactics will help me! Maybe i'll get a membership on chess.com for unlimited exercices. I just don't have a credit card or paypal at the moment :D

jhubchess: Yes this is the feeling I get. The more i learn, the more i confuse myself on the board. I know i should be carefull of his remarks. But i'm very competitive. We started having interest in poker 5 years ago and were about the same level. But I study so hard that i ended up making a living of it. Ego ego ego... (don't get me wrong, i'm not playing chess ONLY to beat him ;) )

 

Thank you all for the responses! They're reassuring and helpfull. On a other thread, someone is advising me to study the basics again (with weapon of chess from Pandolfini). It kind of felt like a drawback. but i guess that i might have jumped some stages of my learning cursus.

 

What do you automatically think of after your opponent moves? Are you thinking of good bishops? Outposts for knights? Backwards pawns? King safety, space, pawn majorities? These are probably subjects you read about in your strategy book.

If these are what come to mind first, then you'll only be distracted and probably play worse. You need to calculate forcing moves. What are the forcing moves I can play? (find all of your captures, checks, and threats). What are the forcing moves my opponent can play? (find all of the opponent's captures, checks, and threats).

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Of course strategic ideas are very important, and players think of them all the time. I'm just trying to help you fight against the new knoweldge making you temporarily play worse.

hi Fedec, yes I did notice quite a difference, it was quite sad :(

i only bought books that i found really interesting to me, books by Soltis, Fischer, Polugayevsky, Hartston and Nunn. My lesson in this was to be really clear on my style because it kept me on familiar ground and true to myself. Another person may prefer different authors.

I looked at a couple of your games from a few days ago. You're simply hanging pieces left and right, which is normal for beginners.  I'd suggest that the first thing to do is to read up on how to keep your pieces safe. That's typically done by playing "real" chess instead of "hope" chess, as defined by Heisman. I could give you a few links to some of his Novice Nook articles if you're interested.

Yes, I blunder a Ton! I'm very intersted by your articles. I hope that the books I listed above will help me getting better basis. I didn't know you guys have access to my games :D They're not the prettiest. But hey, I learning and not ashamed of it :) 

Like i said above, I'm pretty sure know that I have to solidify my basics on tactics and strategy. Even Amateur's mind by Silman was maybe a bit to advanced for me... Not for my understanding but for the good it really does to me at the moment.

your last game was very unfortunate.

against mainbai, you may not have been aware of the stalemate theme which was black's only hope of survival in such a "lost" position.

Elements of the game like this have nothing to do with style of play.

After 47 Qc4 you mate next move.

Also 19 Qg4+ ??? he could have taken your Queen but missed it!

Dan's archived web site:  https://web.archive.org/web/20150915232038/http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Main_Chess/chess.htm

 

Dan's archived Novice Nook (NN) page:  https://web.archive.org/web/20150915231959/http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm

 

Dan's archived NN page by subject:  https://web.archive.org/web/20151004234008/http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/subject.htm

 

A few NNs to get you started:

The Secrets to "Real" Chess:  https://web.archive.org/web/20140709054434/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/real.pdf

 

The Greatly Misunderstood and Potentially Challenging Tactic "Counting":  https://web.archive.org/web/20151005232455/http://www.chess.com/article/view/counting-vs-counting-material

 

A Counting Primer:  https://web.archive.org/web/20140627023735/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman15.pdf

 

The Most Important Tactic:  https://web.archive.org/web/20140627134039/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman35.pdf

 

Is it Safe?:  https://web.archive.org/web/20140627120740/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman65.pdf

 

Good luck!

Google Exeter Chess Club. Their page has a ton of info that you'd most likely find helpful

You see my friend, the problem.. is not that you got worse. Because you didn't. The problem is :  thinking you were playing good. Many 1000 rated players have the same illusion. Oh last month i was  " stable"1080 but now i am back at 1020. What is going on...

Chill out, smoke a cigarrete and accept the fact you, your friend too are pretty good patzers and everything will be fine again.

If you want to improve observer how strong players are playing and try to understand why, analyze with engine it will show you imidiately why a certain move is bad, solve tactics and play as much as you can.

I have to take lessons from guys like you teaching me how to express myself with few words :) . Great post.

i like it!

Thanks. If only my chess were as good as my rethoric... ☺️

That sounds about right :D