Psychological Improvement Problems

In the course of the Chicago Open I was working on one problem, making weakening moves, that can be described as a logical problem.  However I also noticed a psychological problem.  Whenever a plan went well, when I ended up a little better, or turned a losing position into a draw, I would relax.  Almost immediately after that I would make a blunder.  The blunder would really be a form of regression where I went back a stage or two in my development.  While the logical problems require awareness and a few times of reapting the mistakes, the psychological problem might require a different approach.  Because, when something good happens at the chess board there is naturally relief and a decrease in tension and stress.  Unfortunately these good feelings, while very pleasant, make me a worse player.  I think what I need to do whenever I feel good, is to get up and then refocus treating the new position as the beginning and trying to get back to the sense of urgency I had at the beginning of the game. 

Is this something affecting others as well? 

I think it affects a lot of us. Almost analogous to driving on the road with our full concentration through a hazardous patch vs. allowing us the luxury of "distractions/comfort" for our brain when we're purely relying on muscle memory in normal driving conditions.

Somebody posted a wonderful thread earlier on about "Confirmation" vs "Falsification" as a starting point for their thought processes. If I were allowed to paraphrase, it basically said that good chess players start every position out as a state of crisis and even when they isolate a candidate move, they become fantastic pessimists, constantly in a state of "mental anguish" as to why that move will FAIL.  This will continue until they prove that they can no longer figure out why that move is bad ....and then play it!

This is in contrast to the vast majority of us who tend to be relaxed/happy with most positions and then find a move to "keep" us in this relaxed state.  In other words, we tend to look for moves that "confirm" our unguarded optimism in the position.

The former "state of mind" seems to be the way to go for stronger play. The actual article can be found here:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.8670&rep=rep1&type=pdf

That is an interesting article, thanks.  It is amazing how important this thought process and psychology is in addition to raw knowledge and tactics.  While I still don;t do enough checking in the beginning of how my opponent will mess me up I am much more focused on this early, limit weaknesses, prevent counterplay, develop etc.  Then I start finding a weakness, make a plan, still very guarded.  Finally some success and bam!  Anxiety turns to relief and the game will be lost

How to combat this malady?

GREAT POST

The problem with the falsification mindset is that it's so unnatural. I suspect people like to brag that they think like that but are they being completely honest? It's one thing to make sure you have justified reasons to make a move but totally another when one robotically assumes a move is bad until all of the good variations are played. That may be a good way to play chess, but what human thinks like that? I mean let's face it, a lot of time the first move we look at IS pretty good (though certainly not always best), we just need to make sure of it, and if it's not, no big deal, just look at the next big candidate move.

But yeah otherwise I would agree with this method, so just think flexibly and objectively, not emotionally. Just because a position may look good may mean that you play good moves for yourself in analysis, BUT play unimaginative moves for the opponent, making your initiative increase, but in the real game the opponent will probably look for more dynamic, creative ways to improve his position if that's what he must do. This has happened to me a lot: a position that I figure should be good for me I don't consider my opponent's moves quite enough, and as a result don't realize what my opponent's chances in a game fully are. Partly because subconsiously I want to confirm my ideas and want to win so without knowing it I look at inferior moves for the opponent and perhaps miss more forceful, dynamic ones that could very well change the evaluation of a position.

My psychological advice would be to always be focused (no matter what position unless it's absolutely mindless win, if you're not focused you can often give subtle ways for the opponent to climb back into a game, even if you don't make a huge blunder), try to see the other guy's plans but also look for flaws in those plans. In one sense you want to look for clear wins when you're winning, BUT, that doesn't mean get afraid of any tactics in a position. Even if you're one or two pawns up with a huge edge you may need a tactical blow to finish off the position, so play for clear positions but don't go insane with it and vice versa. Moderation applies to everything in chess though lol. But if you look for efficient ways to win, it means overall less energy to finish, the win is that much more certain (when I have failed to follow this advice, I can tell you winning in much better positions was nowhere near certain, and that was a problem). It's amazing what can happen to a slowly decreasing advantage due to lazy play and then time pressure turning a clear win into a clear draw, or even worse, a big fat blunder causing a loss.

 I definitely agree but it's going to take some concious effort to overcome the positive feelings of relief and accomplishment and head back into the more stressfull state that allows one to view the opponent as a threat.

Estragon,

You bring up a good point about no relaxing in chess.

The incredible Jack Nicklaus wrote in his book that since a round of golf took
four hours he would try to go through a series of "mental highs and lows" as
he played because it was literally impossible to stay at peak performance for
4 hours.  So he would go into Yoda-like concentration before his shot, then
train himself to relax after the shot since once it's done it's done(he was famous
for his ability to shake off a bad bogey and have a good birdie the next hole)
only to gradually build uo his concentration as the next shot approached.

The reason I tell this story is I wonder if a chess player could do something
similar?  Since it is not realistic to be at 100% concentration for a 4-hour
chess match could one train their brain to best "flow" with the game for
maximum results?

You've always got the opponent's time to not crunch variations.

You can always spend a minute or two of that deep breathing or whatever, collect yourself, place yourself in the right frame of mind.

Would this be what happens during the opponents turn?  After making a move once can be a little more relaxed and just study the position;  Identify threats, weaknesses, potential plans, try out combincations.  

Yes.  I don't play anymore other than two Chess960 games I am finishing but
my thought would be for one to relax IMMEDIATELY after making a move.  Really try to take some deep breaths and enjoy the fact that one is playing a game that
they enjoy instead of instantly calculating while it is the opponent's turn.

Of course one has to decide whether this minute or two of relaxation is worth
the lost time that could have been used to calculate.  It might be worth trying
in an OTB game over a 4-hour period to see what happens.

It is really an interesting phenomenon.  I really noticed it in one game where I was planning an attack.  I was temporarily going to trade my e and f pawns for his g pawn but then I'd soon get back the h pawn and his king would be very naked.  So I calculated the sequence carefully, finally I played f5 and got up.  Walking around I suddently noticed how tense, strssed, anxious I was.  I came back, we completed the sequence and everything worked out as I calculated.  A wave of relief and positive feeling swepy over me.  Right after that he offered a queen trade.  Had I been tense and logical I would'v retreated the queen, guarded his counterplay, activated a rook and knight and only then resumed tha attack.  But feeling all good I just thought I should be able to win this endgame and traded queens into a losing position. 

Bottom line, as soon as I am winning and feel good I need a way to reset my psyche to the beginning.  Relaxing on the opponents time a little should help in being able to sustain the concentration across 5 or 7 or more rounds.

It makes sense as one can't sustain 100% concentration over the course of
many 4-hour matches.

Bobby Fischer used to sip apple juice during his games.  Today nutritionists
know that apple juice is a "slow-release carbohydrate" which doesn't give one
that quick high and then low other sugars might.  He also practiced an exercise
technique called "Peaking" which I have mentioned in a couple of other posts.
He would exercise daily at exactly 5:00 P.M. and then he would schedule his
games for(you guessed it ) 5:00 P.M. thus he would be pumped and full of
positive energy.  He was ahead of his time in ways and it is quite tragic
how things ended for him.

To make another golf analogy an old legend Walter Hagen was a brilliant
match player (head-to-head as opposed to stroke play) and would often go
low and shoot many birdies in a row.  When asked why he was so good at this
by another pro a third pro remarked that Hagen makes a good shot and then he
gets on a streak and convinces himself he can do it again and again.  The rest
of us make a good shot or two and then talk ourself out of good shots.  We think
it has to end and we will soon do something wrong.